“I’ll tell a maverick you are!” Roy exclaimed. “As you said some time back, Silent, there are some things more important than finding gold! Now let’s see.”
Roy, having made the decision, immediately made plans for carrying it out. Although the others, with the exception of Teddy, were older than Roy, somehow it did not seem strange that they looked to him as leader.
“How about this,” Roy went on, speaking quickly. “Some of us have got to stay here. At least one. Bug Eye—”
“I thought so,” Bug Eye broke in, grinning ruefully. “All right, Roy, you’re the boss. Anyhow, that’s the best plan. I’ll do a little mining while you guys are away. Me an’ Gus, we’ll hold the fort here.”
“You got the idea, Bug Eye,” Roy replied. “Come on, Silent, let’s round up those broncs. Then we’ll get back to the tent.”
The horses were easily caught. Bug Eye decided to ride back to camp with them, and see if he could in any way aid their preparations.
One thing they counted on, and that was that Allen would not ride out of that locality. He would join his friends, and the boys had a notion that “Greyhound” was encamped some place near Nugget Camp. It seemed logical to imagine him lying in wait for miners who had made a strike and were carrying the dust or nuggets to a safer place. Thus it was, or so Roy thought, that he had shot down Jerry Decker.
There were several crimes to be laid at the door of this same Greyhound. First, the robbery and slaying of Silent’s brother and father. That in itself was a cold-blooded deed. Why they hadn’t killed Silent as well while he was lying ill on his bed, the Manley boys could only guess, but probably it was that they knew he was in no condition to follow them.
Then the shooting of Jerry Decker. There was little doubt in Roy’s mind, or in Teddy’s either, that the same hand had directed both, if not actually committed the two deeds. Both were equally vicious, done with an entire disregard for human life.
Finally, Allen’s attempt to frame Nick and get from him ten thousand dollars. True, this was markedly different from the other crimes. Allen was not Greyhound. He was, as Roy and Teddy suspected, a member of the gang, and a weak member at that. A swindler rather than a robber. But his use of the German Mauser branded him as being a comrade of Greyhound.