of luxurious wealth, which lay, bound in its neat wrappers, upon the
floor of the cave.

Not one of these men could be classed with professional criminals,
Moriarity, perhaps, had several times done some "fine work," but was
unknown in the strata of crime, and was never seen in the society of
"experts."

His attack upon Cummings could be called his debut, just as Cummings'
late success could be looked on as his first definite step within the
portals of outlawry and crime. Haight, as an accessory to the robbery,
had hardly taken his first plunge. Some time before this these same men,
with others, had planned an extensive robbery on the same line, but
Moriarity weakened at the last moment and the whole thing fell through.
It was this incident which caused Cummings to doubt his trustworthiness.
Still Moriarity had a certain amount of bull courage, of which Cummings
was aware, and if his palm was but crossed by the almighty dollar he
would be a valuable ally. For this reason Cummings had taken him again
into his confidence.

For some moments the three men sat silently puffing their pipes and
picturing the delight of spending their ill-gotten booty, when Cummings,
rising from his seat, placed the money on the table and cut the strings
which bound it together.

A hasty count revealed $53,000 in currency and about $40,000 in bonds,
mortgage deeds, and other unconvertible valuables.

He had evidently fully considered his plans, and without any previous
beating around the bush, proceeded to execute them.