"You didn't let on you wuz the one that wanted the place?" questioned Jim, who was evidently able to appreciate this joke. "You wuz just the lawyer, and so nowise interested except jest in the fee?"
"Righto!" chuckled the other. "And a good-sized fee it will be if once I can get my hands on it."
"Which you ain't--yet," the other reminded him. "Get busy, Pete, and tell us your scheme. I don't want to be standin' around here all night." He gave an uneasy glance over his shoulder, and Allen and Rawlinson shrank still further into the shadows. They were not yet ready to make their presence known.
"All right," said Peter Levine, speaking hurriedly. "If you'll agree to my suggestion, you're in for easy money, Jim. All you have to do is to approach this Mrs. Nelson and make her an offer for the ranch--for yourself, you understand. She doesn't know you, and she may have become tired of mooning around here by now, and there's just a chance that she'll take you--that is, if you handle the cards right. No eagerness, you understand--just sort of offhand and careless, as if you didn't care much whether she took you or not."
"Huh!" said the other, with his noncommittal grunt. "Sounds easy, don't it? But what do I get out of it, ef I pull this deal off, eh?"
"Half of all the gold we find, Jim," said the other, waving his hand largely. "You'll never regret it if you put this thing through. You'll be a rich man."
"Then I guess it's about time we got back," returned Peter Levine, and the two men moved as if to leave that vicinity.
"We don't want them to get away," Allen whispered excitedly to Rawlinson. "I want to get hold of that paper if possible."
"I reckon that will be easy, Washburn," returned the head cowboy. "I'm armed, you know, and I'll take my chances against those two rascals any time. Just follow me."
Without waiting for Allen to reply to this, Andy Rawlinson ran forward swiftly and silently, and in a few seconds had confronted the rascally pair. He had drawn his pistol, but he did not raise the weapon.
"Halt, both of you!" he cried, sharply. "Hands up there!"
"Hi! what's the meaning of this?" cried Levine, in astonishment. "Who are you?"
"It's Rawlinson, the head man here," muttered the man called Jim.