“So am I,” said the latter. “Your man must be a regular blockhead to take me for Walter Gaylord. He looks about as much like me as I look like you.”
“Oh, that’s the way you came here, is it?” said Frank to himself. “These fellows wanted to catch Walter because he carries the key of the safe, but made a blunder and captured you in his place. This makes twice that Walter has escaped trouble in that way.”
“Mistakes will happen,” said Waters. “I told Bob here to collar a fellow dressed in black, and wearing a Panama hat; and as you answered that description exactly, he took you in. No matter; we can get along without the key. Some of these days, when we feel in the humor, we’ll set Bob at work on the safe with a hammer and cold chisel. He knows how to do such things, and that’s why he’s here in Tasmania; eh, Bob?”
The man with the revolver grinned his appreciation of the compliment, and Archie said:
“How much do you expect to find when you get into the safe?”
“Oh, enough to make us all rich men in America.”
“And how much will you get, Fowler, for your share in this business?”
“Nothing at all,” said Waters, before the consul’s clerk had time to speak. “He isn’t here because he wants to be. We made him come.”
“What use will he be to you?”
“Oh, we can use him easy enough. Seeing that the paymaster ain’t here, he’ll have to act in his place, and get the bills of credit cashed; that is, if we find any.”