“But how can we go about it?” Leach asked Morley when they were alone. “We can’t approach Doctor Shonto after ducking our nuts the way we did. Confound that Shirttail Henry!” “There’s enough in it,” said Morley, “to make a trial worth while. We need the money, and it’s no time to let our pride stand in the way. Just sneak back and confess we’re crooked, and put it up to Shonto what Gus wants. Tell him there’ll be a big fee, and-- Oh, we’ll get by some way! Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof. I can talk better on the spur of the moment than I can after a careful rehearsal.” “Will Shonto come?” “That’s a question. He’s got piles of money. He’s stuck on Mrs. Reemy. Chances are he won’t.” Leach grew thoughtful. “D’ye suppose they’re still out there on the desert? What would they be doing, Smith? By now Shirttail Henry has spilled the beans about the opal claims. Chances are they’re on their way back to Diamond H right now to get their cars.” “Doubt it. That girl was crazy to find the undiscovered valley, and if they pump Henry he’ll tell ’em which way to go to find it. She’s game, that kid--be just like her to strike out this late in the season to find it. And the two men would go with her--one to watch the other. They’re both in love.” “If that’s the case, it’ll be harder than ever to find ’em. And harder than ever to get Shonto to come. But if we can find ’em, and can get Shonto off alone, there’s a way to get him.” “Of course,” Morley agreed pleasantly. “But it’ll cost Gus several times what he’s offered. And it might be possible to bring Doctor Shonto here by night, or blindfolded, and take him away the same, so he won’t know afterward where he was. That’ll clear Gus and us, too. And we can arrange to make a getaway by leaving Shonto somewhere on the desert without a horse, so we can ride off and be on our way to Frisco before he gets in touch with anybody.” “Of course,” said Leach. “Let’s put it up to Gus how difficult the job will be for us,” suggested Morley. “Confound him, he ought to pay us a thousand apiece and never miss it! And say--if we can get Shonto the way we said, we’ll get out of crawling back to those folks and making monkeys out of ourselves. That’s the best way to pull it off, anyway--and there’ll be more in it. If we can only locate the party and get Shonto off by himself. How soon d’ye think they’ll be trailing back, Omar, provided they make a try at locating the undiscovered valley?” “They won’t be giving up yet,” thought Leach. “But they will before long, I guess. Let’s see what Gus’ll do for us, then get a couple of horses and a couple of canaries and get back into that country. We can fool ’round and pretend to be prospecting close to the trail to Shirttail Bend. They’ll likely come out that way. We can plan the rest of it when we strike ’em. “Fine business! Let’s get to work on Gus and see how much we can separate him from.”