Not clever enough to understand that his guns had been spiked, the banker's son, considering it an unhoped-for opportunity, prattled on:
"I suppose it was associated with some of your early diggings."
Unwilling to commit himself, the bandit-chieftain made no comment, an omission, the youth decided, that showed his reluctance to speak about his mines and the more eagerly he determined to make him.
"I hear you have some very valuable mines," he continued, apparently ignoring "Howard's" silence.
"Who told you?" demanded Jesse.
"Oh, it's common talk. They say you're on your way to New York to raise funds to buy others. If you don't mind my saying so, I think you, or your—friends, ought to be more close mouthed. Still, for my part I'm glad you weren't. I've some money to invest and I want to talk about going in with you."
The ice broken, young Rozier no longer found difficulty in playing his part and rattled on glibly.
"I asked father about it and he said he would consider it if he could be convinced that they were good mines. You know there are so many swindling schemes," he added maliciously.
Had he been older or more accustomed to reading men, he would have understood from the expression in the bandit-chieftain's eyes that he had overshot his mark. But in the blind confidence of his youth, he rushed out the questions uppermost in his mind.