The two shook hands as though they were overjoyed to meet each other once more, and then Kelly settled down and pulled Claude’s face over toward him.
“How did the old man pan out?” said he in a lower tone. “Did you make anything out of him?”
“No,” said Claude in disgust. “He was the meanest man I ever saw; but he has paid for it all. He is dead.”
“But he left you something in his will?” said Kelly.
“No, he didn’t; not a thing. But I know where there are twenty thousand dollars that one could have for himself if he only had a little pluck. You used to be pretty good at such things; have you turned over a new leaf?”
“Waller has gone up for trying that very thing,” said Kelly, as if his heart was not in the matter.
“But there is no such danger in this,” answered Claude. “Now wait until I tell you how I have left things.”
With this introduction, Claude went on and told Kelly everything that had happened to him while coming down with his cousin—how they went to the bank and drew out twenty thousand dollars which Thompson stowed away in his shirt, and that they were going back on the Talisman, the same boat that had brought them down from Fort Scully.
“I don’t believe Thompson will keep the money around him all the while,” said Claude in conclusion. “When they get back to their boat they are going to put it in their valise. If they do that, you can easily get it. Twenty thousand dollars! That will be a little over six thousand dollars apiece, and you can go to California on that.”
“How will I know them if I see them?” asked Kelly. The tone in which he spoke the words made Claude more than half inclined to believe that Kelly had a mind to try it.