“If it’s some one who has followed you here,” says Poppy, “you ought to be able to answer that a whole lot better than us.”
“Tommy,” the old man turned to his nephew, “kin you remember any one-armed men ’round Rimtown?”
“No,” the kid slowly shook his head.
“Um.... This cat killer, evidently, is a bad egg. An’ as they’s safety in numbers, I’m more convinced than ever that the four of us ought to be workin’ together. Besides, we prob’ly kin do quicker work if we put together what we know an’ what you know. Bein’ relations, me an’ Tommy, of course, has first claim on the gold. You kain’t git around that. An’ if you were to git it ahead of us we prob’ly could go to law an’ take it away from you. I’m not sayin’ that, however, to force you to j’ine us. You kin do whatever you think is best. But it would be an awful unlucky day fur both parties, I’m here to tell you, if we was to monkey along separately, each sort of buckin’ the other, an’ let the cat killer lift the treasure ahead of us. So, if you’ll j’ine us we’ll agree to go fifty-fifty with you, me an’ Tommy gittin’ half an’ you fellers the other half.”
“But we’ve already promised to share the treasure with Mrs. O’Mally,” says Poppy.
“The old lady in the stone house?”
“Yes.”
“Um.... After the scare we’ve given her with our ‘ghost’ noises she’s entitled to a share of the treasure, I guess. Anyway, she holds a deed to the land. That’s somethin’ in her favor. So, if you’re willin’, we’ll split the treasure five ways. Yes or no?”
Poppy looked at me.
“I’m willing, Jerry.”