Just then Curtin returned from hauling water from the brook below with the help of the burros. Looking at the tunnel, he found it strange that he did not hear any movement nor see a flicker of light from the lantern Dobbs was using. He knew then instantly that Dobbs was buried. He did not even take time to notify Howard, as he thought it might be too late then to bring Dobbs out alive. He went in, although the ceiling was hanging so that it might come down any second and bury the rescuer as well. He got Dobbs out and then called for the old man, for Dobbs was unconscious and had to be brought to and Howard knew what to do in such accidents.
After Dobbs had regained his senses he realized what Curtin had done for him and what risk he had taken to get him out.
“Thanks, you guys,” he said, grinning. “If you had waited only to spit on your hands, it would have been all over with me. Tell ye, I heard the harps playing sure enough.”
Then they went to work again.
That same night, sitting by the fire cooking their meals, Dobbs began to think. After they had eaten he looked at his partners Suspiciously.
“What you staring at, you mug?” Curtin asked.
“I was just thinking why the hell you fellers dragged me out of that hole? Your shares would have grown rather big if you’d left me where I was for five minutes longer.” Dobbs narrowed his eyes as he spoke.
“Guess you’re still hearing harps and seeing white robes.” Howard tried to ridicule him.
“You can’t catch me sleeping,” Dobbs answered. “Don’t you ever believe that. I’m not so dumb as you two guys think me. I’ve got ideas of my own and I stick to them. That’s what. Now shake your cock with that mixture handed you, dirty-minded crooks that you are and always will be.”
“Another crack like that from you and I’ll sponge your face, you devil.” Curtin spoke angrily.
“Who’ll sponge whose face?” Dobbs jumped to his feet.
“Now, peace here, babies. No use breaking your knuckles and shins; we need them, and badly, at that.” Howard’s fatherly tone quieted them. He had touched the right spot. Nothing was worth more to them than their working ability. To remind them of the fact was always the best balm the old man had in store for their quarrels.
“Of course, you great-grandfather, you’re too yellow to fight; you’re even afraid to see a fight. You might faint if you saw a bleeding nose.” Dobbs, still standing, forgot about Curtin and turned on the old man. “Playing godfather here to us. I wonder for what reason. Some day I’ll find out. It sure will be a costly day for both of you.”
Curtin had not moved when Dobbs had jumped to his feet. He had just looked about defensively. “Don’t mind him,” he now said to Howard, “don’t mind him at all, that’s what I say. Can’t you see he’s screwy?”
“Mebbe,” Dobbs growled. “Mebbe screwy. All right, but believe me I know why I’m screwy and who made me so. And I’m turning in, leaving you to discuss how to give me cold feet. But I warn you, it may turn out the other way round.”
When he had gone to the tent, Howard said to Curtin: “Nothing new ever happens under the stars, it seems. I’ve seen this kind of thing occur so often and so needlessly that now I ask myself why it hasn’t happened sooner in this outfit. You aren’t so free from this disease either, Curty, as you may think. There are few who are long immune from this infection. Well, I think I’ll turn in too.”
2
Each night the proceeds of the day’s work were carefully estimated in the presence of the three partners. This done, the shares were cut and each partner received his. This way of paying dividends was not very intelligent. Often the earnings of the day were so small that it would have taken an expert mathematician to tell exactly how to divide it justly.
It had come to be arranged this way quite accidentally almost the first day when there had been any earnings.
Curtin was the man who had suggested it one day during the second week after the gains had begun to accumulate.
“Okay with me,” Howard agreed without arguing. “Better for me. Then I won’t have to be the dragon to guard your pennies any longer. I haven’t liked it too much, acting as your safety box.”
Both his partners rose. “Who made you our banker? We never asked you yet to hold our well-earned money.”
“Which means, in other words, that you wouldn’t trust me?”
“That’s exactly what it means in plain English.” Dobbs left no doubt of how he judged his partner.
Howard smiled at them. “It’s right, you never asked me. Only I thought I might be the most trustworthy among us three.”
“You? How come?” Dobbs could at times be nasty.
