“Can’t tell, sir. As it is, you’ve put him off his course. If he doesn’t make out on his robbery he’ll have trouble with the men. He promised them a lot of easy gold. They’re a hard crew and he’ll have trouble handling them unless they catch those miners and make them give up the secret of where they’ve hidden the gold. If they catch ’em, the captain will get the secret out of them, you can bet on that. Then they’ll come piling back here to get away as soon as possible to where they can blow their loot.”
“And then we’ll have to look out for ourselves, you mean?”
Wilson nodded.
“Well,” said he slowly, “things like this ain’t so bad for men, sir, but there’s the girl.”
The conversation ceased abruptly. We sat silent, each troubled by the same thought.
“Did he say when he would return?” I asked at last.
“No,” said Pierce.
“How much grub did they take?” asked Wilson.
Pierce gulped.
“Not much. I heard him say there was enough up there for months.”