“Swear that you'll keep it a secret,” he said feverishly, gripping Bill's arm in turn, “and I'll tell you.”
“Go on!”
“THE COACH WAS ROBBED BEFORE THAT!”
“Wot yer say?” ejaculated Bill.
“The treasure—a packet of greenbacks—had been taken from the box before the gang stopped us!”
“The h-ll, you say!”
“Listen! When you told me to hand down the box, I had an idea—a d——d fool one, perhaps—of taking that package out and jumping from the coach with it. I knew they would fire at me only; I might get away, but if they killed me, I'd have done only my duty, and nobody else would have got hurt. But when I got to the box I found that the lock had been forced and the money was gone. I managed to snap the lock again before I handed it down. I thought they might discover it at once and chase us, but they didn't.”
“And then thar war no greenbacks in the box that they took?” gasped Bill, with staring eyes.
“No!”
Bill raised his hand in the air as if in solemn adjuration, and then brought it down on his knee, doubling up in a fit of uncontrollable but perfectly noiseless laughter. “Oh, Lord!” he gasped, “hol' me afore I bust right open! Hush,” he went on, with a jerk of his fingers towards the next room, “not a word o' this to any one! It's too much to keep, I know; it's nearly killing me! but we must swaller it ourselves! Oh, Jerusalem the Golden! Oh, Brice! Think o' that face o' Snapshot Harry's ez he opened that treasure box afore his gang in the brush! And he allers so keen and so easy and so cock sure! Created snakes! I'd go through this every trip for one sight of him as he just riz up from that box and cussed!” He again shook with inward convulsions till his face grew purple, and even the red came back to the younger man's cheek.