"Oh, by the way," said Dicky suddenly, before a suitable reply had come
to me; "how about the scads--spondulicks--you know? Yesterday was pay-
day, but you didn't show up."
I don't know whether my jaw dropped or not. My spirits certainly did.
"By Jove, Dicky!" I exclaimed, catching my breath. "It slipped my mind,
clean. I haven't got at our--ahem--banker, either."
I saw now what that mysterious money was for--or a part of it, at all
events. What I did not see was how I was to get it, and how to pay it
to my men.
"That's rough," said Dicky sympathetically. "I'm dead broke."
It would appear then that Dicky looked to me for pay, whether or not he
felt bound to me in service.
"There's one thing I'd like explained before a settlement," said I
grimly, as I straightened out the carpet; "and that is the little
performance for my benefit the other night."
Dicky cocked his head on one side, and gave me an uneasy glance.
"Explanation?" he said in affected surprise.
"Yes," said I sternly. "It looked like a plant. I was within one of
getting a knife in me."
"What became of you?" inquired Dicky. "We looked around for you for an
hour, and were afraid you had been carried off."
"That's all right, Dicky," I said. "I know how I got out. What I want
to know is how I got in--taken in."
"I don't know," said Dicky anxiously. "I was regularly fooled, myself.
I thought they were fishermen, all right enough, and I never thought
that Terrill had the nerve to come in there.
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