"What you goin' to do with him, Bill?"
"Croak him. I ain't goin' to take chances with him. It ain't my way to take chances I don't have to take."
"You better not do any croakin', Bill. I won't stand for that. I'm tough, and I've done plenty of tough things in my day, but I never croaked a little kid like him, and I won't stand for it."
"Don't you go and get soft now. 'Tain't any worse to croak a kid than a man. You'd croak a man if you had to, and this is a time when we've got to do it to save ourselves."
"Well, I won't stand for it while I'm sober, and I'm sober now even if I have had a drink or two." Hank reached for a firebrand with which to relight his pipe.
"Well, you've got to stand for this. I'm mixed up in it just as much as you be, and I'm goin' to have some say. I ain't goin' to take chances on him goin' back to his gang and givin' us away."
"How you goin' to do it?"
"Take him along in the boat and drop him overboard. That's the easiest way. There ain't much chance of anybody findin' him, and if they do they'll just think he got drowned some way hisself. Dead folks don't talk."
"That's somethin' I won't stand for! You can't go droppin' anybody overboard while I'm in the boat! Not if I know it!"
"What you goin' to do, play the sucker?" Bill turned angrily toward his companion. "Maybe you'll go and peach!"