Stanton pulled up a chair and sat down, and Lanterby poured libations for two from the black bottle. The promoter, ordinarily as abstemious as a Trappist, drained his portion at a gulp. "Well?" he snapped, pushing the bottle aside. "What did you find out?" "I reckon it can be done, if it has to be," was the low-toned reply. "Done and well covered up?" "Yep. It'll be charged up to the high water--maybe." "Is the river still rising?" "A little bit higher every night now. That's the way it comes up. The snow on the mountain melts in the day and the run-off comes in the night." "You can handle it by yourself, can't you?" "Me and Boogerfield can." "All right. Get everything ready and wait for the word from me. You didn't let Pegleg in on it, did you?" "I had to. We'd have to work from his joint." "That was a bad move. Simms would sell you out if anybody wanted to buy. He'd sell his best friend," frowned Stanton. Lanterby showed the whites of his eyes and a set of broken teeth in a wolfish grin. "Pete can't run fast enough to sell me out," he boasted. "I'll have somethin' in my clothes that'll run faster than he can, with that wooden leg o' his." Stanton nodded and poured himself another drink--a larger one than the first; and then thought better of it and spilled the liquor on the floor. "That will do for the dynamite part of it. It's a last resort, of course. We don't want to have to rebuild the dam, and I have one more string that I want to pull first. This man Smith: I've got a pointer on him, at last. Is Boogerfield still feeling sore about the man-handling Smith gave him?" "You bet your life he is." "Good. Keep him stirred up along that line." Stanton got up and looked thirstily at the bottle, but let it alone. "That's all for to-night. Stay out of sight as much as you can, and go easy on the whiskey. I may not come here again. If I don't, I'll send you one of two words. 'Williams' will mean that you're to strike for the dam. 'Jake' will mean that you are to get Boogerfield fighting drunk and send him after Smith. Whichever way it comes out, you'll find the money where I've said it will be, and you and Boogerfield had better fade away--and take Pegleg with you, if you can." The hired car was still waiting when Stanton went out through the bar-room and gave the driver his return orders. And, because the night was dark, neither of the two at the car saw the man in the soft Stetson straighten himself up from his crouching place under the back-room window and vanish silently in the gloom. XVII A Night of Fiascos Smith had seen nothing of Miss Richlander during the day of the Stanton plottings, partly because there was a forenoon meeting of the High Line stockholders called for the purpose of electing him secretary and treasurer in fact of the company, and partly because the major portion of the afternoon was spent in conference with Williams at the dam.