These words delighted Nick’s heart. He saw the lay of the land at once.
Benton had evidently given no alarm to these fellows when Pete had brought the news of Nick’s presence.
He had been confident that he could put the detective out of the way, and he had reasoned that if he did it without letting the thieves know, they would stay, and he could do a good stroke of business with them. On the other hand, if he let them know that a detective had got in, they would clear out at once.
If Benton had seen any signs of a police trap, he would not have tried this game, but he was shrewd enough to infer from the circumstances that Nick was not the forerunner of a squad of police.
All these thoughts passed through Nick’s brain in a flash as Reddy Miller spoke.
Counterfeiting Benton’s voice and manner exactly, Nick replied:
“Mystery? Well, why not? This isn’t the sort of business to be proclaimed from the housetops.”
“Rats!” replied Miller, in a tone of disgust; “you go through all these monkey tricks because you’re a cussed old crank. Now come down to business.”
“But we can’t come down to business yet,” said Nick. “Our friends are not all here.”
“What I want to know,” said Miller, “is whether you’re ready to make the big deal. Can you take all of the stuff off our hands?”