"If a man don't win first time is he agoin' to give up and never try again?" and Badger answered his own question by adding: "Not if he's got the right kind of stuff in him."
"But what are we to do next? You see, I must have this man out of the way. If he lives then I have no show to get the fortune."
"I thought it all depended on the boy's livin'."
"So it does, but you know our plan."
"I do that, and I'm goin' to stick to it. Don't lose patience; this yar world wasn't made in a day. Time is allers well-spent on a big job."
By this time they had come in their walk to the tent in which the prisoners were confined the night before.
The tent, as has been said, lay torn on the ground, but the knives of the mob and not the storm had made the rents.
Collins and Brill, both seemingly very angry, were talking to a lot of the miners when Badger pushed through the crowd and said:
"You two is purty guards."
"We didn't ask your opinion," said Brill, hotly.