gave YOU a hint of what might have happened to you, if you were up to
any little game! You took it like a white man. Come, now! What is your
business?"

Thus challenged, Brice plunged with youthful hopefulness into his plan;
if, as he voiced it, it seemed to him a little extravagant, he was
buoyed up by the frankness of the highwayman, who also had treated
the double robbery with a levity that seemed almost as extravagant. He
suggested that they should work together to recover the money; that the
express company should know that the unprecedented stealthy introduction
of robbers in the guise of passengers was not Snapshot Harry's method,
and he repudiated it as unmanly and unsportsmanlike; and that, by using
his superior skill and knowledge of the locality to recover the money
and deliver the culprit into the company's hands, he would not only earn
the reward that they should offer, but that he would evoke a sentiment
that all Californians would understand and respect. The highwayman
listened with a tolerant smile, but, to Brice's surprise, this appeal
to his vanity touched him less than the prospective punishment of the
thief.

"It would serve the d----d hound right," he muttered, "if, instead of
being shot like a man, he was made to 'do time' in prison, like the
ordinary sneak thief that he is." When Brice had concluded, he said
briefly, "The only trouble with your plans, my young friend, is that
about twenty-five men have got to consider them, and have THEIR say
about it. Every man in my gang is a shareholder in these greenbacks, for
I work on the square; and it's for him to say whether he'll give them up
for a reward and the good opinion of the express company. Perhaps," he
went on, with a peculiar smile, "it's just as well that you tried it on
me first! However, I'll sound the boys, and see what comes of it, but