Page:J Allan Dunn--The Girl of Ghost Mountain.djvu/257

Rh I should have passed him out after I got his secret. He would have been better dead. Now he has jeopardized the lives of six of us. I fancy he is dead by now. Hsu Fu would see to that.

"Now they have scented the gold. I told you I had many enemies. The score was not always on their side. I almost wrecked one of their societies. Hsu Fu was its head—of the Chu Chi'en. I have no doubt he is outside. I may be able to deal with him—if you want to give up part of the gold. Hsu Fu won't be over anxious to kill white men. He knows he would have to pay toll, one way or another. He wants me, primarily."

"Offering to give yourself up?"

"With enough of the gold to satisfy them."

"That isn't the way we play the game," said Sheridan. "If we get out of here, we'll do it together. And take the gold with us. They've got us in check, herded, as Red says. It's our move."

Jackson came forward carrying five sticks of dynamite.

"We got this much left over," he said. "How about cuttin' them in ha'f, like this"—he worked as he spoke, trimming a short fuse and attaching it to the capped and primered ends and ruffling up the material.

"Ten li'l hand grenades, all in a row," he declared. "All-same we used to chuck across to in the trenches." He left nine of the improvised bombs on the floor of the cave and advanced with the tenth to the passage, stealing half way down it. Only the unvarying radiance of the headlights,