The Wolf laughed mirthlessly.
“It pulled Pideau quick. He went out in a hurry. When he came back he talked ‘rats in the crackers.’ And I ate it at a gulp.”
“It was Annette—listening to your talk?”
“Sure. But I didn’t know. I guess Pideau did, though. Maybe it was that showed him the way to the things that seemed good to him. Anyway, I quit him that night with our plans all fixed fer next night at eight o’clock.”
“Just how were the plans?”
“He’d to have two teams to the bluff. I was to make the cache an’ tote the kegs across to him.”
“You think he figgered Annette was listening to carry the plans to Sinclair? He must have been quick?”
“Oh, Pideau was quick. He’d a nose filled with suspicion. He was the brightest proposition in locatin’ the other feller’s play you’d find in a year. But I take it he saw more to this thing than he’d hoped for. I’d quit on killin’ Sinclair. He hadn’t. Then there was that score on me.”
“He calculated Sinclair meant to ambush you—being single-handed?”
“Yes.”