It must have been a full half hour after they had gone before I again lifted the phone to my ear. What I heard this time was another man's voice, alert, eager, a little high-pitched with excitement. "I tell you, Chuck," this thin eager voice was declaring, "the thing's a pipe! I got it worked out like a game o' checkers. But Redney 'nd me can't do a thing unless you stake us to a boat and a batch o' tools!" "What kind o' tools?" asked a deep and cavernous bass voice. In that voice I could feel caution and stolidity, even an overtone of autocratic indifference. "Ten bones'd get the whole outfit," was the other's answer. "But what kind o' tools?" insisted the unperturbed bass voice. There was a second or two of silence. "That's spielin' the whole song," demurred the other. "Well, the whole song's what I want to know," was the calm and cavernous answer. "You'll recall that three weeks ago I staked you boys for that expresswagon job--and I ain't seen nothing from it yet!" "Aw, that was a frame-up," protested the first speaker. "Some squealer was layin' for us!" It was a new voice that spoke next, a husky and quavering voice, as though it came from an alkaline throat not infrequently irrigated with fusel-oil whisky. "Tony, we got to let Chuck in on this. We got to!" "Why've we got to?" "Two men can't work it alone," complained the latest speaker. "You know that. We can't take chances--and Gawd knows there's enough for three in this haul!" Again there was a brief silence. "You make me sick!" suddenly exploded the treble-voiced youth who had first spoken. "You'd think it was _me_ who's been singin' about keepin' this thing so quiet!" "What're you boys beefin' about, anyway?" interposed the placid bass voice. "I ain't beefin' about you. I ain't kickin' against lettin' you in. But what I want to know is how're we goin' to split when you _are_ in? Who follied this thing up from the first? Who did the dirty work on it? Who nosed round that pier and measured her off, and got a bead on the whole lay-out?" "Then what'd you take _me_ in for?" demanded the worthy called Redney. "Why didn't you go ahead and hog the whole thing, without havin' me trailin' round?" "Cut that out. You know I've got to have help," was the treble-noted retort. "You know it's too big for one guy to handle." "And it's so big you've got to have a boat and outfit," suggested the bass-voiced man. "And I'll bet you and Redney can't raise two bits between you." "But _you_ get me a tub with a kicker in, and two or three tools, and then you've got the nerve to hold me up for a third rakeoff!" "I don't see as I'm holdin' anybody up," retorted the deep-voiced man. "You came to me, and I told you I was ready to talk business. You said you wanted help. Well, if you want help you've got to pay for it, same as I pay for those cigars." "I'm willin' to pay for it," answered the high-voiced youth, with a quietness not altogether divorced from sulkiness.