"Oh!" said Farrell, insolently, "are you talking, too? Well, you don’t come in at all. There you are! That’s something for you to consider!" Donoghue broke out in a roar of laughter. "Oh," he said, "the lad is nothing to us. You can do what you like with him." Apache Kid turned upon him with a glance as of astonishment, and then again to Farrell he said: "I ’ll give you the offer we came up with, and you and your two mates can consider it." "Three mates, you mean," snapped Farrell. "Na! Na!" cried Donoghue. "When I look along a rifle I never err." "Oh, it was you did it?" cried Farrell. "Well, what’s your offer?" "This is our offer," said Apache Kid. "You can come along with us. We are three, and so are you, and we can split the Lost Cabin between us." Farrell turned to his two companions and looked a question at them. "I guess you ’d better take that," said the man Dan, "for I reckon even if we did suggest killing this kid, it would n’t bring the facts out of ’em." "And anyhow," said the other, him they called Pete, speaking low, but yet I caught the drift of his words, "we can easy enough fix them all when we get there." "Come on!" said Apache Kid. "How does our offer strike you? Are you aware that every hour we delay there may be others getting closer to the Lost Cabin Mine?" "Take the offer, man. Take the offer," said Pete and Dan. "All right," cried Farrell. "But mind, we’re bad men, and this will have to be run on the square." Donoghue laughed, and for a moment, as I looked at him, I saw an evil glitter in his eye. "Oh, yes!" he ejaculated, "we ’re all bad men here." My three captors made no delay; but as for their fallen friend, they paid no heed to him. Only Farrell took the cartridges from his belt and ran his hands through the pockets, which contained a knife, a specimen of ore, two five-dollar bills, and a fifty-cent piece. For my part, I had the utmost difficulty in getting to my legs, and still more in descending the face of the precipice. I noticed, too, that Farrell kept close by my side, as though he thought still that it was as well to have me between Apache Kid and himself. Just as we came down the rise, there was Mr. Pinkerton leading the horses along toward us. "Say!" cried Farrell. "What about him?" And he pointed to Pinkerton. "O!" said Apache Kid. "He wants nothing to do with this expedition whatever." Then suddenly Farrell’s face lighted with a new thought. "And he goes down to the camps and blabs the whole thing, eh?" "I believe he won’t say a word about it,—neither he nor the half-breed here." Farrell seemed scarcely convinced, and we went down in silence a little way. Then suddenly he said: "I think you ’ve got some game on. Say! do you swear you are on the square with us?"