“The fellers below had heerd us, an' they were comin' up to see w'at was goin' on. I shoved my gun into the face of the feller ahead, pulled, and then lit out.”
“You say you were listening to what they were saying?”
“Yes.”
“Did you hear anything?”
“Yes.”
“What ?”
“Nothin' much, 'cept that the yacht was a decoy anchored there on purpose to bait us fellers.”
“Ah!”
“Sometbody's lost a steel casket, an' ther hull scheme is ter git that back ag'in.”
“Why, when you had already shot four or five men did you not serve the three who headed you off in the same manner?”