“Yes, suh, I knows him all right.”
“Then you can find out from him how to find it. Will you take it?”
“Can’t take it to-night, boss, but I kin git ovah deah with it powerful early in the morning.”
“All right. Wait there a minute.”
Qualley scribbled quickly on a scrap of paper, “They have pinched me. Coming after you in the morning. Be sure to get them.” He folded the paper and slipped it through the bars to George. “That must be there by daylight, George. I’ll pay you when I get out. The jailer has all my money now.”
George hesitated. He usually did business on a cash basis. Moreover, he had known it to be a long time before some people had gotten out of that jail.
Qualley knew what was the matter. “Here, keep this watch till I can pay you,” and he thrust his gold watch through the bars.
George took the watch and Qualley settled down on the bed with a feeling of comfortable satisfaction when he heard the whistling start up again in the distance a few minutes later. It might not do him any good but he would have the satisfaction of knowing that somebody probably would be shot.
CHAPTER XXIV
Mr. Graham had the conductor stop the train a mile from the station and they dropped off into the woods. “Thought it would be just as well not to stir them up down there at the station,” he explained. “They may have some scouts on the lookout.”