“We have to wait and watch our chance,” said Vince. “Maybe a chance will never come, but if it does, we’ll make the most of it. We have to try not to antagonize Robinson, but we must stand upon our dignity. We must not let him believe for a moment we are afraid of him or afraid of what he might do to us. We have told our story and we are going to stick to it. We explored and we found lead. No matter if he takes tons of gold out of the place, it will always be lead to us.”
Vernon grinned. The course suggested by his brother struck a chord of grim humour in him.
Vince seated himself on the bed and threw an arm over Vernon’s shoulder. “It’s a tough break, kid,” he said. “We are in the hands of the system’s worst outlaw. We…..”
He stopped, groping for words.
“Yes, I know,” said Vernon and the two of them sat, staring straight at the grey wall in front of them. Vince broke the silence. “No use kidding ourselves,” he said.
“None at all,” agreed Vernon and his voice matched his brother’s in tenseness.
“But we must always remember, kid,” went on Vince, “that this isn’t the first time a Drake has been in a tight spot. Some of them have gotten out of it and some of them haven’t. But they always were Drakes. Not a sniveling coward among them. Not a single whimper for mercy. They’ve never forgotten their savoir faire. We’ve got something that Robinson never had and never can have and maybe we can beat him yet. He’ll get small satisfaction out of this deal, no matter what happens.”
They sat in silence again.
“Let’s get some sleep,” suggested Vernon, and Vince nodded.
“Good idea,” he said and almost crunched the bones in his brother’s shoulder with the grip of an understanding hand.