“Damned if I know,” was the laconic response.
“Now, Jim, don’t be so uncommunicative; there may be something in this for you and me if we just put our heads together, ‘two heads are better than one,’ you know, so set your thinking machine to work and grind out some ideas.”
“Well,” said Maverick, slowly, “I dun’no what that Houston, damn him, would be runnin’ ’round after Jack for, unless he wanted to get some p’inters on the mines some way.”
“That’s it, go ahead!” said Haight.
“Houston,” continued Maverick, with an oath and applying a vile epithet, “is too all-fired smart to notice anybody, and Jack’s another, so they’d be likely to hitch.”
“That’s right,” said Haight, “now what object would he be likely to have in getting information from Jack?”
“I dun’no,” said the other, “unless mebbe he’s paid by somebody on the outside.”
“Well,” said Haight, “I guess we’ve got about the same idea of it; it’s my opinion he is paid by somebody, and that somebody is Van Dorn, or whoever’s backing him. I don’t put much stock in this machinery business of his; he don’t act like a fellow that needs to go peddling machines about the country, and I notice he don’t seem in any great rush about putting it up, now he’s got here; he ain’t one of the kind that has to rustle for a living, like you and me. I think he’s just out here getting pointers on the mines for that old fellow that was here a while ago, and he’s probably paying Houston a good, round sum for helping him along, and now they’ve got Jack roped in on the deal.”
“Well,” said Maverick savagely, “if that’s their game, I guess ’twill be dead easy stoppin’ it any time we’re a mind to; these ’ere mines is awfully unsafe places for a tenderfoot to be prowlin’ ’round in,” and he laughed a cruel laugh, very familiar to the listener at the window.
“That’s so,” assented Haight, “I think we’d better keep close watch of these fellows, and if they get too fresh, just have ’em laid out with a sandbag or two.”