“If I had a fish horn,” said Rodney, laughing, “I should be tempted to come up in the night and give it a blast before your door.”
“That might wake me up,” said Mr. Pettigrew. “I wouldn’t advise you to try it or the other boarders might get up an indignation meeting.”
The same evening Jefferson Pettigrew took out a bag of gold and carelessly displayed it.
“Are you not afraid of being robbed, Mr. Pettigrew?” asked Rodney.
“Oh no. I never was robbed in my life.”
“How much money have you there?”
“I don’t know exactly. Perhaps six hundred dollars,” said Pettigrew in an indifferent tone.
Among those who listened to this conversation with interest was Louis Wheeler. Rodney did not fail to see the covetous gleam of his eyes when the gold was displayed.
The fact was, that Wheeler was getting short of cash and at the time he took John O’Donnell’s money—for he was the thief—he had but about twenty dollars left, and of this he contributed five to the relief of the man he had robbed.
His theft realized him two hundred dollars, but this would not last him long, as the expenses of living at the Miners’ Rest were considerable. He was getting tired of Oreville, but wanted to secure some additional money before he left it. The problem was whom to make his second victim.