astonishing news brought a gasp from every member of the band. Evidently Moon had talked about that accumulation of wealth enough to have filled the fancies of his wild followers.
“Are you sure of that?” asked a number of voices.
“I’m sure he’s got the plan.”
“And if we don’t find the stuff?”
“Then Dawn dies. That’s easy, ain’t it? We give him our word that if we get the gold, he goes scot-free. If we don’t get it, he dies. Are you with me, boys?”
“How much,” said another voice, “d’you figure that gold would come to?”
“Five millions at least, and maybe anything up to twenty. Hard to believe all the yarns they told about that gold. Sometimes they got so excited they multiplied everything by four. Sometimes they got so careless about gold, and so used to it, that they understated things. I dunno how the Cosslett treasure stands, but I figure on five millions as the least we’d get. Think it over, boys! You and me! altogether, make fourteen. Add three more shares for me, which is only my right, and that makes seventeen. Seventeen into five million —how much does that make? Close to three hundred thousand dollars apiece, lads. Close to three hundred thousand! Put that out at seven per cent. That gives you twenty thousand a year. Think it over! That’s the price that Hugh Dawn can offer for his life. The biggest haul that was ever made in the mountains. Twenty thousand dollars to every one of you every year of your lives. Is it worth his life to you, boys?”
There was a moment of bewildered silence, and then a mutter of astonishment. Those eyes were calculating, spending, already.
“Cut all that down by one third,” said Hugh Dawn suddenly. “I’ve just thought of something.”
Moon turned on him with a snarl of anger.
“Are you going to bargain with me about it?” he asked. “Ain’t you satisfied with having your ratty life?”
For the first time Hugh Dawn did not shrink. He met the eye of Jack Moon steadily.
“Tell you how it is,” he said. “I can buy you off with my share of the stuff, and Jerry’s share. But she and me ain’t the only ones. They’s another gent that has to be figured in. ‘Twasn’t for him we’d never be here. It was him that warned me you was coming, him that got us safely up here, and him that helped us work out the puzzle. Moon, you got nothin’ agin’ him, and he’s got to come in for a third of everything you get! Understand?”
The girl was amazed. Her heart had been sinking, her blood growing cold, in the feeling that her father had from first to last in this encounter played the part of a coward. This sudden defiance of Jack Moon bewildered her. Then she began to make out the reasons for it. It was not the actual danger that terrified her father; he was simply paralyzed by the name and the presence of Moon. The outlaw was as amazed as any one could have been by this resistance, and by the revelation of these secrets.
“The gent that warned you?” he echoed. “Warned you I was coming?”
“He heard everything. He was in the barn. He rode around you and got to me and fought his way into the house to tell me you was coming.”
“I got a lot to thank this gent for,” said the leader calmly. “Him and me ought to be able to come to an understanding. What’s his name?”
“Ronicky Doone, he called himself. And he’s sure a square shooter.”
“Ronicky Doone?” echoed the outlaw. “Well, I’ll pass the word to the boys that if a gent shows up pretty soon, they’re not to take a pot shot at him. They got a habit of using up ammunition plumb careless that way. Si!”
Treat strode through the door.
“You remember how Dawn plugged you through the leg? Now you stay here and watch him, Si, and see he don’t get loose from you. Understand?”
The teeth of Treat showed through the tangles of his black beard and mustache. Calmly he drew his revolver and sat down with the weapon balanced on his knee and pointing toward Hugh Dawn.
The leader left the shack and with a gesture gathered half a dozen of his men around him.
“Baldy, you take charge. Take these gents along with you. Post ‘em scattering out along the hillside so’s to cover every direction. You heard the name of the gent that’s up here along with Hugh?”
“Nope.”
“Ronicky Doone! Ever hear of him?”
“Seems like I have, sort of in patches, somewhere.”
“If you’d ever been down South you’d of heard a pile more than patches about him. He’s the most nacheral gun fighter that ever drilled a gent full of lead. Baldy, go out on the hill and watch. Don’t shoot till you get him close. And then don’t ask no questions. Just blaze away. I’m going back inside and tell ‘em that I’ve arranged for a nice quiet reception for Doone. When you’ve dropped him, I’ll go busting out and raise the devil, like I’d give you strict orders not to do any shooting. Understand?”
Baldy whispered an assent.
“If you want to have something to give you a grudge agin’ him, I can tell you that this is the gent that overheard us in the barn, and that rode ahead and warned Dawn we were coming. Now scatter out yonder, and mind you shoot low.”
XII. BARGAIN
“We’ll go on with the dicker,” explained Jack Moon, returning to the cabin, “as soon as this Doone comes along. We’ll settle down all nice and peaceable and get to an agreement like friends. Which there ain’t any reason why we shouldn’t be friends, Dawn; and so far as you’re concerned, I don’t see no reason why I couldn’t fix you up with one of my shares of the stuff before we’re through.”
Jerry studied the man with the most intense curiosity. Certainly he was a person of varying moods. Now, when he talked again, she noted that he paid more and more attention to her and less and less to her father, as though he recognized in her a force which had to be reckoned with. According to his explanation, everything would work out smoothly. As soon as Ronicky Doone approached, they would sit down and come to an understanding. He had already sent out his men, he said, to watch for the coming of Doone, and he would be brought in to share the discussion on equal terms. It might be difficult to induce his men, he said, to consent to so large a share as one third going to Doone. But no doubt they could compromise handsomely, and every one would be satisfied.
Yet, while he talked, she branded every one of his words as a lie. Not that she hated him. There was a mixture of respect with the fear with which she regarded him, and where respect enters in, there is never a complete detestation. But it was respect for his cool prowess rather than for his moral qualities. What gave her the chief doubt was that he, having so manifestly the upper hand, should be so carefully considerate of others as he was pretending to be of Dawn, herself, and the absent Ronicky Doone. How greatly would the whole problem of the division be simplified, for instance, if a bullet should strike down Ronicky Doone!
No sooner had the idea occurred to her than she
