“Go ahead,” said Hayward.
The men arose to their feet and walked toward the cabin to make sure it was deserted, and then stole cautiously around it until they came to the place where the cowboys were sitting. Thompson was sitting a little nearer the bow than Carl, and him Hayward picked up as if he had been a bag of corn and threw him over the rail toward the water, while Kelly at the same time closed with Carl and bore him to the deck before he could arise from his chair.
We say that Thompson fell toward the water, but he did not go into it. He comprehended the nature of the assault in a moment, and the first thing he did was to clutch at the railing with all his force. One hand caught it, while the other was slipped inside his coat.
“You villain!” said he.
Hayward knew that in a second more Thompson would begin to shoot, and he was equally determined to prevent it, if he could. He struck the cowboy a blow full in the face, and then turned his attention to unclasping his fingers. Thompson could not stand all that, and he released his hold and went down. Hayward had got rid of his share, and when he turned to see how Kelly was getting along, he saw Carl motionless on his back, and his shirt torn completely off him. A sand-bag attached to Kelly’s right wrist explained it all.
“I’ve got one,” said he in a hoarse whisper, passing a bundle wrapped in a newspaper up to Hayward, “and here’s the other. Now skip!”
But there was something that both of the men wanted to do before they went away, and that was to get rid of Carl. He knew too much, and might make them some trouble with the police. Without saying a word they picked him up, one at the head and the other at his heels, and tossed him into the river. They waited a moment to listen to the splash, and then walked swiftly away. Without appearing to be in any haste they moved over the wharf-boat and up the levee, but the farther they went the more they increased their pace. They kept a constant watch behind them, but they saw nothing to indicate that they were pursued.
“That’s a little the easiest job I ever had,” said Hayward, feeling the bundle on the inside of his coat. “That fellow was such an awful man to shoot! If all the cowboys are like him the Indians will eat them up, sure.”
“Where do you suppose they are now,” said Kelly, who could not resist a thrill of horror at the thought of throwing the men into the river.
“They have gone to Davy Jones’s locker, where they ought to be,” said Hayward. “We shall never see them again. Now where shall we go first?”