“Now come here, sweet oldy,” Curtin broke in. “You really shouldn’t show your second infancy at this time. It isn’t good taste. How would you do it, anyhow? Just try. Don’t misjudge our legs, old man. Want to know what we’d do in such a case?”
“You don’t have to tell me. I know both of you so damn well that I’m sure I’d make no mistake in guessing what fate would be in store for me.”
“Mebbe we are worse than you think.” This came from Dobbs. “We would wait until you were packed up, so as to be sure you had your dust wrapped up. Then we’d get hold of you and tie you to a tree. With that well done, we’d go our smooth road back home, where money still counts, no matter where it comes from and how you got it. Kill? Kill you? No, it would be very nasty to do such a dirty thing to a good pal like you. You, of course, with your dirty thinking, believe we might murder you in cold blood. Nope, we aren’t that bad.”
“I get you, Dobby, my fine boy.” Howard grinned sardonically at the two. “To tell you the truth, I had thought, really and seriously thought, that you might murder me just to get rid of me and have my dough thrown in into the bargain. But I’d never figured on anything like being left behind in the wilderness, tied to a tree, exposed to mosquitoes, scorpions, rattlers, wolves, coyotes, ants, and other pretty creatures handed us by the Lord to make life miserable. You wouldn’t burden your good conscience with a merciful quick shot into my chest to deliver me from pain. Oh no, you are too goodnatured for that. All right, you win. I shall stay and have my fate delivered into your soft hands.”
Followed a long silence. The youngsters avoided the old man’s searching face. They became restless. Dobbs surely had not meant to do such a thing; neither had Curtin. He had, or so at least Howard figured, used only the best weapon he could think of to keep him on the field, for without him they would have been lost.
Curtin couldn’t stand the awkward silence any longer. “Hell, that’s all bosh. Nothing back of it. We’re all cracked in our heads Somehow, that’s what’s the matter with us.”
“Exactly what I was thinking myself. Don’t believe a word of what I’ve spouted here, Howy. Cross my heart, this is all nonsense. Well, I’m shaky, sort of shaky all over. I don’t know myself what I’m saying. Forget it, oldy. Let’s get to work and lift a quarter of an ounce.”
Howard laughed. “Now, that’s the way to talk. You’re just kiddies. One day, perhaps thirty years hence, both of you will be standing in the same shoes I am in now. Then you’ll know better. I didn’t take you seriously, anyhow. Well, Curty, get the burros going; we haven’t got water enough.”
3
It had done them a great deal of good to clean their chests. After the argument they seemed to get along better for quite a while, and the work progressed more rapidly.
The last quarrel, however, had an unexpected effect. The word had been dropped that one might pack up and leave. This suggestion began to take root in their minds. Howard had said that he was satisfied with what he had made so far. He knew the value in cash of the dust they had accumulated. The boys had never sold pay-dirt, so they didn’t know how much money they would have after it had been properly assayed.
Therefore it was quite natural for Curtin to bring up this question one evening: “How much do you think, Howy, we may collect on what we have so far?”
The old man was silent for a while, making calculations in his mind. Then: “I can’t say in dollars and cents, but I should be very much mistaken if each of us had much less than fifteen thousand dollars. It may be fourteen, it may be sixteen. That’s my figure, and I feel satisfied that I’m not very far wrong.”
The partners had not expected so much. It came as a surprise to them.
“If it’s that much,” Dobbs said, “I move we stay here about six weeks more, work like devils, and then return to town.”
Curtin assented. “Suits me perfectly.”
“I’ve been thinking of making this proposition to you,” Howard began. “Yes, that’s what I was going to do. Because as far as I can figure, there will hardly be anything left after six weeks. It looks to me as if the field is getting suspiciously thin. If we should come upon a new rich layer, which I don’t think will happen, then it would pay to stay on. As it is, it looks as though after six weeks there will no longer be a good day’s wages in our work. So what would be the use of staying here?”
It was agreed, therefore, to put in another six or eight weeks and not one day more. Eight weeks would be the limit.
4
This decision, more than anything else, brought peace to the partners.
They fixed the day of departure from the wilderness of the Sierra Madre, and having done so, their mood underwent a great change overnight. No longer could they understand how it had been possible to fight each other as they had lately. For the first time they became confident of one another. They were on the way to becoming even real pals.
