"So, you were going to soar high--you were planning to rob a bank, eh?" sneered Jesse. Sam nodded wearily. "Where is this bank?" "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?" "I could do it as well as Jesse James--" "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." "What is the name of the first one?" "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?" "I wuz over there last week--" "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--" "And he was to get--how much?" "We 'lowed we'd give him ten per cent of the rake off." "H'm," mused Jesse. "What is the fellow's name?" "Jake Fowler." "Well, what next?" "There ain't no next. I've told you all there is." "I'll tend to you in a minute. Where's that rancher?" "Here," answered Texas, leading in a very much bedraggled and sullen individual. The notorious desperado related to him what Sam had just told them in so far as it concerned the rancher himself and asked the man if it were true. The latter said that it was. "Then you haven't got any particular love for Sam here, eh?" chortled the desperado. His men knew that their leader had some scheme in mind, but what it was they could not imagine. The rancher's face suddenly filled with murderous hate. "I'd like the chance to show you--and him," replied the other, turning a malignant look on their prisoner. "Mebby we'll give you the chance. But first I want to make a little bargain with you. We want some horses. We're prospecting through here, and the Indians attacked us on the other side of the gulch, stampeding our ponies, and we barely got away with our lives." The rancher nodded. "I hearn them tell there was doings across the gulch."