"'Anyhow, we need not bother about that, as Muller has squared the three men-servants. He has promised them an equal share in the plunder; and it is a good thing that it was arranged so, because we shall be able to carry out the affair, I hope, without a gun being fired. We are to be there at nine o'clock, and they have arranged to seize Chambers and tie him up; or, if he resists, to knock him on the head directly they hear our whistle. Besides, there is no doubt the gold is stored in some secret vault. We might have a difficulty in finding it, and even if we do find it, we may have to use powder to blow it open.' "'Why get twenty?' another asked, 'when we four and Muller would be enough. The fewer the better. "'No, Driscoll; we had better take a good force. I would rather take forty than twenty. A quarter of a million weighs a tremendous lot, I make it out roughly about two tons and a half. A man could not carry off more than fifty pounds weight--that is, he could not hide more than fifty pounds weight about him--so that it would take a hundred men to carry off that lot.' "'Well, then, we must get some carts. There is John Blake, he has a cart, and picks up fares in the town, we could rely upon him; and Pat Maloney, he lets his cart out. Between them they could bring in two tons easily enough; and then we could get two others--all boys we could trust. Then, if there were twenty of us, we could take fifty pounds apiece, as you say.' "'Yes,' the other said doubtfully, 'but there would be a big row over it. It would be guessed that the job had been done to get at gold, and Kruger's people would consider that they had been robbed of their rights, and there would be a big search.' "'They can only guess,' the Irishman replied; 'you may be sure we shall leave no one in the house to blab about it.' "They talked for some time and went through a lot of names, and then agreed that they would only take a dozen altogether, as they were not sure that they could trust any of the others they had named. And they were of opinion that each of them could carry a hundredweight, and perhaps even a hundredweight and a half. 'A man can carry a mighty lot of gold,' one of them said, 'and it takes up such a little space that it would not make much of a lump.' It was agreed that on leaving the house they should separate, all going different ways, each choosing such hiding-place as he liked for his gold. Then they would meet at the houses of the two men who were to take the carts, and bury the gold they had carried off in the yards.