“It means to keep still! Do you want to blow the whole thing?”
“Might as well!” was the sullen answer. “I want my share. I don’t care what happens after that. I’m going to skip out. I s’pose you’re going to stay, Smelzer, until——”
“Never mind about me,” growled the man whose face Jerry could not see. “Pug and I have some plans of our own. They’ve been busted up some, but I guess we can carry ’em out somehow.”
“Well, I want my share,” went on the other, speaking to the one with the mis-shapen nose. “I need the coin, and I’m going to have it. I did my share of the work, and I want my share of the swag. When you got me in on the scheme, Freit——”
“What’d I tell you about names?” fiercely demanded the crooked-nosed man.
“Well, when you got me in on the scheme you said the Frenchman had a pot of money, and a lot of jewelry, too.”
“So he did have!” declared Crooked Nose. “I got part of it. I admitted that. But the biggest part is there yet. It may be in the ruins of the fire——”
“Yes, the fire I set to give you a chance to get the coin!” broke in the other. “Now I’m tired of fooling. Either I get half the money you got from the old Frenchman, or I’ll go back to Cresville and see what I can find in the fire ruins! I’m going to get something for the risk I took. Give me half the money you got from the old man the night of the fire, or I’ll squeal! That’s my last word!”