“It was jus’ on the tip o’ my tongue to tell him about my discovery, when somethin’ makes me change my mind. There’d be nothin’ in it fer me if I tells what I knew, an’ besides I figgered I ought to be paid fer all the trouble I’d been put to. So I says to him:
“‘O’Connell, what’ll yuh give me if I take that stuff through fer yuh?’
“He didn’t answer right away, ’cause he thought I was jokin’. He winked at Wandley an’ laughed.
“‘Yuh wouldn’t get very far,’ he tells me.
“‘Mebbe not,’ I says to him, ‘but I’m willin’ to take the chance. Jus’ name your price.’
“‘If yuh really mean it,’ O’Connell gasps, ‘yuh can have the whole blamed contract an’ good luck to yuh. The summer rains have made the trails so bad that I won’t be able to get through fer another month.’
“We talked an’ figgered fer a while an’ finally I gets the contract. I’m to get nine hundred dollars an’ keep seven hundred fer myself. I could tell by the way he acted that he thought he’d beat me pretty bad in the deal. So did everybody else. They was all laughin’ up their sleeves, thinkin’ about what a fool I had made o’ myself. Wandley calls me to one side.
“‘Murky,’ he says, ‘yuh jus’ made a hasty contract. Yuh better change your mind before it’s too late. You’ll lose all the money yuh made up in the hills this summer an’ mebbe a lot more besides. O’Connell knows he can’t make a cent on that west coast shipment, an’ you’re playin’ right in his hands. Yuh better see him now before he leaves an’ tell him you’ve changed your mind.’
“‘What would you like to bet I can’t make it?’ I asks him.
“‘You may be able to make it, but you’ll lose money. Don’t try it, Murky. Yuh ain’t no packer to begin with. It stands to reason that if O’Connell is afraid o’ it, it’s no good.’