“A week ago.”
“Well, gents, I tell you what we’ll do. You date that duplicate paper back, then we’ll just go down to the creek and tell those chaps we bought the property first. Of course there’ll be a kick. Then we’ll sail in and clean ’em out. If somebody gets hurt, it mustn’t be us.”
“Do you mean to kill the four of them?” asked Plunkett, not exactly relishing the scheme.
“It won’t do to take any half measures, gents, for in that case the Vigilance Committee in the Gulch here would be bound to hear about the affair, and things would be made kind of unpleasant for us if the investigation went against us.”
Neither Clymer nor Plunkett were in favor of such a radical move, especially, in view of the probable consequences.
“Well, gents, if you’ve got a better plan to propose I’ll listen to you,” said the saloonkeeper.
The conference ended, however, without any definite plan being adopted by the trio of rascals.
At the creek the next morning the disappearance of Meen Fun was generally regarded as a suspicious circumstance.
Prawle did not immediately miss his jacket, and a close examination of their portable property failed to show that the Mongolian had carried off anything belonging to them.
When they began work again in the mine, Jack and Charlie took turns wheeling the loads of ore outside.