“That’s what you say to all my suggestions,” Mendosa snarled.
“How’s this for sense, then?” asked Mendosa. “Suppose we disappear in that flying machine as soon as it gets dark.”
“Can you run it?” asked Phillips, scornfully.
“Of course not!” was the answer. “I can run a faro lay-out, but I can’t run an aeroplane.”
“Then where is the sense in the suggestion?”
“Will he?” repeated Mendoza. “Let me get a knife next to his ribs and he’ll do anything I tell him to do!”
“But will the machine carry us two and the boys?”
“The boys?” scorned Mendoza. “We don’t have to take both boys with us! We can cut the kid’s throat and leave him in the bushes!”
“I wouldn’t like to do that,” Phillips said, hesitatingly.
“You wouldn’t, eh?” demanded Mendoza. “Who struck the watchman?”
“Yes, you did!” sneered the other. “Now, I’ll tell you what we’ll do,” he went on. “Just as soon as it becomes dark, we’ll settle the kid’s case and mount the machine with the other one. There are only two seats, but I’ll hold him in my lap, so I can embroider his back with my knife if he don’t do exactly as I tell him to. After he gets us out of the country, way down into lower California, we’ll drop the machine, boy and all into the ocean.”
“I’m a burglar but not a murderer!” insisted Phillips.
“Unless we do something,” Mendoza exclaimed, “you won’t be either a burglar or a murderer. You’ll be a corpse. For my part, I have no inclinations toward New York and the electric chair.”
“It may not be necessary for us to injure the boy,” Phillips suggested.
“May not be necessary?” repeated Mendoza. “If we go away and leave the kid here, he’ll chase over the hills until he finds some one to tell what we’ve done and which way we’ve gone. If we leave this boy, Jimmie, flying about in his machine, he’ll never rest until he tells the officers where he left us, and all about us. In order to protect ourselves, we’ve got to keep them quiet. Are you going to weaken now?”
“I’ll do whatever is necessary when the time comes,” replied Phillips.
Mendoza seemed satisfied with this, and the two men walked back to the fire and, notwithstanding the treachery in their hearts, engaged in friendly conversation with the boys.
Between that time and dark they brought out their bear steak again and clumsily broiled great slices over the fire. They also cut large quantities of bread into slices and made sandwiches. They even made large quantities of coffee and bottled it up in milk jars with patent tops in which the boys had brought a supply of the lacteal fluid.