“Same here, arrah, by the token!” Andy ventured.
“There, Jack,” spoke up Buster, exultantly, “everybody is of the same mind, that we just ought to do something or other right away, so’s to get that stuff in our possession. It wouldn’t matter so much if the thieves did get away, if only we could go sailing up to Lawrence, call the broken-hearted directors of the looted bank together, and then say: ‘Here, gentlemen, are your lost securities. Rest in peace! E pluribus unum!’ Now Jack, don’t say a word against it, but think up some way that we can get hold of that box.”
“Oh! I’ve got all that figured out already, Buster,” remarked the other, coolly.
“Then tell us who’s going to creep up and dig for that box while the two robbers are sitting beside the fire, playing cards, because that’s what they started to do when they went back.”
“And ‘Old Maid’ it was, as sure as you live,” remarked George, as if astonished. “Did you ever hear of two ferocious pirates playing such a harmless game as that before? I never did, for a fact, boys. They keep me guessing right along. That boy looks too green to be the rascal they say he is; but I guess he puts it all on to fool respectable folks. It helps him in gaining their confidence.”
George could figure things out in fine style once he got going. The others, however, were not in any mood just then to try and decide what sort of a fellow that rather innocent young chap might turn out to be. They were more deeply interested in finding out what could be done about securing that hidden package in the box.
Already, no doubt, Buster, for instance, was seeing pictures of all manner of treasure snugly reposing in the box; and he could also imagine how his manly chest would swell with importance when, with his mates, of course, he entered the stricken town of Lawrence, and astonished the directors of the bank by returning their lost securities and money.
And the others were possibly in the same boat, for they had active imaginations, one and all.
Jack had said the matter was already arranged in his mind; and if he would only hurry up and take them into his confidence, they would feel greatly obliged.