“Oh, a man from the Dead Hope is coming back for it—he just took another one out. This is the last. We’re going to lock it up with the rest of the mine’s nuggets and dust, in that old shack, tonight. In the morning we’ll all escort it to the city. We can’t do anything more here.”
“What did you come here for?”
“Oh, just to look up some papers Margery says father gave her and she hid in the old shack.”
They all saw the cunning light in Henry’s eyes. “But you ain’t found no papers!”
Tom laughed. “No,” he said. “The stove has been moved since Margery hid our papers under the boards beneath it—she thinks it used to be in the far corner—by the window. We haven’t looked there, though. I don’t think she remembers after all these years.”
Henry made an excuse and hurried away. Tom looked at his sister and his chums and then, of a sudden, they all smiled.
“Well,” said Tom, “I’ve baited a trap—hope we get two rats!”
CHAPTER XXIX
THE RATS COME
Tom took a firm grip of Cliff, on one side, and of Nick, on the other; to the latter he whispered: “Here they come! If you make a false move I’ll make mince-meat of you!”
“I won’t,” agreed Nicky.