“Oh, just curiosity,” Teddy said evasively. “But if he’s trying to pull something funny, he won’t get far with Nick.”
“I’ll tell a maverick he won’t!” Roy arose. “Well, let’s get back to work. Snakes, suppose you hit pay dirt for twelve thousand dollars! Would you go into a stranger’s tent and ask for help to cart the stuff?”
“I would not,” Silent asserted. “The whole thing looks fishy.”
They wandered out of the tent into the open. Gus, who had finished his meal—he had refused to join them on the plea that there were some things he had to do in his own tent—was told of the stranger’s offer and Nick’s accompanying him to help load his gold.
“That waddie is goin’ to get hisself in trouble one of these days, bein’ so kindhearted,” Gus said. “Load the gold! Where to? What for?”
Teddy shrugged his shoulders.
“Can’t say. We’ll know more when Nick comes back. Come on, boys—we have work ahead of us.”
They mounted their ponies and started again for their claim. But as they rode they were thinking, not so much about gold, as about the tall stranger and his request for help.
CHAPTER XX
Buncoed
Nick and the stranger, who said his name was Jimmie Allen, walked toward Allen’s tent. It proved to be quite a distance from Nick’s shelter, and not directly on the street, but set back slightly from the others.