Jesse's keen mind had instinctively divined that the fellow had possessed some motive that he did not want to make known to them, and therefore, the desperado reasoned that this self-same information might prove useful to Jesse James.
"We 'lowed we'd stake out a claim thereabouts."
"String him up again boys," commanded the bandit chieftain. "He can't tell the truth any other way."
"I'll tell, I'll tell," cried Sam. "Kill me, for God's sake don't do that again."
"It was this way," began the captive hesitatingly. "They's been some big strikes in the mountains there and the bank we'd heard was keeping a lot of the dust and like, for a big shipment east in about a week."
"So, you were going to soar high--you were planning to rob a bank, eh?" sneered Jesse.
"It's in the half of the building where they has the postoffice. It's an easy job if a fellow's got the nerve to go in in the daytime when the safe is open--"
"So you got a gang of cutthroats together and were going to steal the horses to go down there and try it, hey?"
"That will do," warned the notorious outlaw. "How many banks are there in Silver City?"
"Two. But I reckon the other one don't amount to much. It's in the back of a store about two streets down."
"The Silver City National. It's run by a man named Kemp from the east. But they do say he's stole more money by giving the miners underweight, than the whole pack of 'em has got out of it. I reckon it wouldn't do no harm to trim up that kind of a skunk."
"No, one skunk is as bad as another," returned Jesse significantly. "How much money or how much gold did you figure old man Kemp would have in his money bags?"
"We figured there'd be close onto fifty thousand," was the startling reply.
The bandits pricked up their ears and evinced a sudden interest in the conversation, but Jesse continued with his examination as carelessly as if the matter were of no moment to him at all.
"How do you happen to know all about this, Sagebrush Sam?"
"And of course you blabbed your plans to your cronies. Oh, you make me sick."
"No, no, honest to God, I didn't. I never told a living soul except--except a fellow that helps around the post office. He was to meet us when we got there and tell us how the wind blew--"