“Wait awhile,” urged the gambler. “You're seeing what the plan of the enemy is. They're circling about, but they're further out from the gully than we are. The cars will go on cutting larger and larger circle, and all the time getting farther away from us. In half an hour the cars and the men will be so far away that we need give no thought to them. Then we can attend to Reade and Hazelton.”
“What are you going to do with them?” demanded Ashby in a whisper, his cunning eyes lighting with a fire of added eagerness.
“We'll get 'em awake, first of all,” nodded Jim Duff. “Then we'll attend to them.”
“Remember, they ruined my business!” whispered the hotel man.
“Well, didn't they ruin my business, too?” snarled Duff. “Didn't they cant like a pair of hypocrites, and turn hundreds of their workmen against coming in to play in my place? Didn't these young hounds keep me from winning thousands of dollars of railroad money? Ash, I tell you, these young fellows have hit me hard! First, they broke up my games. Next, they talked their men out of going into Paloma and spending money for drink. Why, Ash, next thing you know, they would have brought missionaries to Paloma to convert men and to build churches!”
As Ashby glared at the unconscious boys from under his black brows he looked as though he believed them capable of all the wickedness that Jim Duff's imagination had charged against them.
“I can't wait!” groaned the hotel man. “Just one barrel of shot apiece into each of 'em!”
“No, no, no, Ash! Haven't I always been your good friend?”
“You surely have, Jim Duff,” admitted the mad hotel man. “You're the one man alive to-night that I'd trust.”
“Then trust me a little further,” coaxed the gambler virtuously. “Trust to my brains tonight, George, and you'll feast on revenge!”
“But you keep me waiting so long for it!” complained the lunatic.
“Then trust me a little longer. Be quiet, and be patient.”
“Sh!” warned Duff suddenly, throwing himself flat on the ground. “Down with you, Ash!”
“What is it?” whispered the hotel man in the gambler's ear as he too sank to the ground.
“Sh!” once more warned the gambler. “Use your eyes, George. Look out over the sand in the darkness. Do you see two men prowling this way?”