"I've got it," said Carr. "But Pete, aren't you taking too long a chance?
Why can't I--or both of us--just slip down there quietly and do enough
work on your mine to hold it? They're liable to beat you to it."

"I've been tryin' to make myself believe that a long time," said Pete
earnestly; "but I am far too intelligent. These people are capable of any
rudeness. And they are strictly on the lookout. I do not count myself
timid, but I don't want to tackle it. That mine ain't worth over six or
eight millions at best."

"But they won't be watching me," said Carr.

"Maybe not. I hope not. For one thing, you'll have a good excuse to pull
out from Cobre. You won't get any freighting here. Old Zurich has got it
all grabbed and contracted for. All you could get would be a subcontract,
giving you a chance to do the work and let Zurich take the profit.

"Now, to come back to this mine: No one knows where it is. It's pretty
safe till I go after it; and I'm pretty safe till I go after it. Once
we get to it, it's going to be a case of armed pickets and Who goes
there?--night and day, till we get legal title. And it's going to take
slews of money and men and horses to get water and supplies to those
miners and warriors. Listen: One or the other of two things--two--is
going to happen. Count 'em off on your fingers. Either no one will find
that mine before me and my friends meet up with you and your water, or
else some one will find it before then. If no one finds it first, we've
lost nothing. That's plain. But if my Cobre friends--the push that
railroaded Stan to jail--if they should find that place while I'm back in
New York, and little Jackson Carr working on it--Good-bye, Jackson Carr!
They'd kill you without a word. That's another thing I'm going back to