They did keep it up.
It was the voice of Checkers that rose high.
"I tell you I'll have half or I'll split on you, if I go to the 'stir' for the rest of my life."
"If you do split, you won't go to the 'stir.' The boys will kill you before you get the chance."
"Well, what's your proposition?"
"I'll give you five thousand. That's enough for putting me next to the train. What do you want? The earth? Didn't I do the dirty work? If I'd been caught, who'd have been soaked? You? I guess not. It would have been me who would have been killed, for I'm like the other fellows—I'd have fought until they killed me. You're not entitled to more than five thousand, and that's all you'll get."
"I won't take it. Half or I squeal."
"Squeal, then."
There was a sudden trampling of feet in the other room, the crash of an overturning table, followed by a yell of death agony, and the thud of a falling body.
"Great Scott, one of them is dead," said Ted, with a shudder.