“Possibly,” admitted Wix, then suddenly he chuckled so that his big shoulders heaved. “To tell you the truth,” he stated, “I didn’t know Gilman could put up so big a prize as all that nice money, or he wouldn’t have had it loose to offer you by now. As soon as I get over the shock I’ll know what to do about it. Just now, all I know is that he’s not going into this real silky little joke of yours. I don’t want to see the money go out of town.”
“I saw it first,” Daw reminded him. “I don’t care where he gets it, you know, just so I get it.”
“Wherever he gets it,” said Wix impressively, “it will be secured in a perfectly legitimate manner. I want you to understand that much.”
“Oh, yes, I understood that, anyhow,” acknowledged Daw, and the two young men looked quite steadily into each other’s eyes, each knowing what the other thought, but refusing to admit it.
It was Daw who first broke the ensuing silence.
“Suppose I can’t decide to wing my onward way?” he suggested.
“Then I’ll have you looking out on court-house square through the big grill.”
“On what charge?”
“General principles,” chuckled Wix.