As Snags entered, Roake said:
“I suppose everything worked all right—didn’t it?”
Instead of replying, Snags said, cautiously:
“I suppose the ‘Boss’ isn’t around, is he?”
“No, of course not. Why?”
“Nothing, only I’m afraid he wouldn’t be over and above pleased with what I’ve had to do to-night.”
“What have you had to do?” said the other, sharply.
“Well, you see,” said Snags, drawing a long breath, “I got up to the grove about twelve o’clock, and went to the window mentioned. There was a light in the room, and there sat the colonel, writing. I could just see this through a corner of the curtain, which was turned up a little. He wrote more’n an hour, and I out there waiting for him to get through. But he didn’t get through, and I was revolving in my mind a change of tactics, when he got up.
“He went to the other side of the room, where I couldn’t see him, and was gone quite a few minutes. Then he came back to the table and sat down, and I’m blamed if he didn’t go to writing again. Says I to myself, Snags, this ain’t a going to do. It’ll be daylight before you do your work, and if you’re seen in Dalton things may work wrong. I thought, too, that he might be writing on the very document that was wanted. So I made up my mind to crawl in behind him and see what I could see. I moved along to the other window, so as to be directly behind him, and pulled open the wooden shutters. The sash was raised, and so was the curtain, part way, so that all I had to do was to crawl in pretty quiet.
“Well, I got inside, and stood up and looked over his shoulder. Good Lord! you can’t guess what I saw on the table. A jolly old heap of gold coin, and there it is, too!”