to bring it off.'

'Then why haven't we seen anything of him? Buck MacGinnis seems to
be monopolizing the kidnapping industry in these parts.'

'Oh, Sam'll show up when he feels good and ready. You can take it
from me that Sam knows what he is doing. Sam's a special pet of
mine. I don't give a flip for Buck MacGinnis.'

'I wish I had your cheery disposition! To me Buck MacGinnis seems
a pretty important citizen. I wonder what he meant by "fix"?'

White, however, declined to leave the subject of Buck's more
gifted rival.

'Sam's a college man, you know. That gives him a pull. He has
brains, and can use them.'

'That was one of the points on which Buck MacGinnis reproached me.
He said it was not fair to use my superior education.'

He laughed.

'Buck's got no sense. That's why you find him carrying on like a
porch-climber. It's his only notion of how to behave when he wants
to do a job. And that's why there's only one man to keep your eye
on in this thing of the Little Nugget, and that's Sam. I wish you
could get to know Sam. You'd like him.'

'You seem to look on him as a personal friend. I certainly don't