“You won’t have to do anything like that to get the money, Pete. Save your cartridges for other people. There, I’ve let go of my gun. Come close and listen to what I have to say—-but only in your ear.”
There followed some moments of whisperings Try as he would, Reade could not make out a word of what was being said until at last Bad Pete muttered audibly, in a low, hoarse voice:
“You’re not doing that on your own account, Black?”
“No, Pete; I’m not.”
“Then you must really be working for the road that wants to steal the charter away—-the W.C. & A.?”
“Perhaps so, Pete. You don’t need to know that. All you have to know is what I want done. I’m a business man, Pete, and money is the soul of business. Here!”
Black peeled some banknotes from his roll.
“Ten twenties, Pete. That makes the two hundred I was talking to you about. Understand, man, that isn’t your pay. That’s simply your expense money, for you to spend while you’re hanging about. Stick to me, do things just as I want them done, and your pay will run several times as high as your expense money.”
“Do you know how long I’ve been looking for this sort o’ thing, pardner?” Pete inquired huskily.
“No; of course not,” rejoined ’Gene Black rather impatiently.