"Hain't no mines around here, be there?"
"We hain't sayin'. But that there gold come from a mine, all
right--sometime."
"Calc'late you been robbin' a train or somethin'," said Scattergood,
mildly. "Now don't git het up. 'Tain't none of my business. Doin'
robbin' for a reg'lar livin'?" he asked, innocently.
"Hain't never done none before--" began one of the men, but his
companion directed him to "shut up and stay shut."
"No harm talkin' 's I kin see. We got these fellers here and here they
stay till we git clean off. Kind of like to tell somebody the joke."
"I'm doggone int'rested," said Scattergood.
The rough individual with the gun laughed loudly. "May's well tell you,"
he said, raucously. "Me and the boys was in town yestiddy, calc'latin'
to ship some ferns by express. Went into the office. Agent wa'n't there.
Safe was. Open. Ya-as, wide open. We seen three gold chunks inside, and
nobody around watchin'. Looked full better 'n ferns, so we jest took a
notion to carry 'em out to the wagin and drive off.... Now we got it,
I'm dummed if I know what to do with it. Hear tell it's wuth fifty
thousand dollars."
Mr.
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