“First, I want to know if you found anything,” Bug Eye declared, rolling a cigarette. “Me an’ my flivver—which, by the way, lies yonder in the cornfield or some place—has come to you a-thirst for knowledge. Tell me, pretty maiden, hast found any gold?”
“Roy picked up a nugget worth five hundred,” Nick declared. “Five or six hundred.”
“Or even two,” Silent corrected, with a chuckle. “But he did find one.”
“Baby! Then there is gold? An’ I was afraid it was a fairy tale! Hot potato, here’s where I locate! Gold, hey? Well, split my esophagus!” He blew on his hands eagerly. “Gold!”
“How are things at the 8 X 8?” Roy demanded. “How’s Jerry Decker?”
“Better. Your sister is stayin’ there a while, Roy. Me, I think she’s hipped on the doc. Yea, Jerry’s better. He said if you heard of or seen a buck-skin bag with the initials G. D. burned in it, to grab it, because that’s what he had his nuggets in when they were stolen.”
“Any trace of the thieves?” Teddy asked.
“Nary trace. I don’t suppose you boys—”
“Have anything to eat? We have! A buck-skin bag, with his initials in it?” Roy rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Well, that’s something. We’ll be on the lookout.”
He did not tell Bug Eye of their adventure on the way to camp, since to do so would be to involve Silent. Simply he described, as best he could, the two men who had been seen riding away from the figure on the ground, who later proved to be Decker. The description was strengthened by the quick view he had had of the two horsemen the night of the storm.