“I did sprinkle a little kerosene over it, I think,” returned Stacy, “just to help things along.  But if you want to see her flaming, Barker, you just run back to that last corner on the road beyond the big red wood.  That’s the spot for a view.”

As Barker—­always devoted to a spectacle—­swiftly disappeared the two men faced each other.  “Well, what does it all mean?” said Demorest gravely.

“It means, old man,” said Stacy suddenly, “that if we hadn’t had nigger luck, the same blind luck that sent us that strike, you and I and that Barker over there would have been swirling in that smoke up to the sky about two hours ago!” He stopped and added in a lower, but earnest voice, “Look here, Phil!  When I went out to fetch water this morning I smelt something queer.  I went round to the back of the cabin and found a hole dug under the floor, and piled against the corner wall a lot of brush-wood and a can of kerosene.  Some of the kerosene had been already poured on the brush.  Everything was ready to light, and only my coming out an hour earlier had frightened the devils away.  The idea was to set the place on fire, suffocate us in the smoke of the kerosene poured into the hole, and then to rush in and grab the treasure.  It was a systematic plan!”

“No!” said Demorest quietly.

“No?” repeated Stacy.  “I told you I saw the whole thing and took away the kerosene, which I hid, and after you had gone used it to fire the cabin with, to see if the ones I suspected would gather to watch their work.”

“It was no part of their first plan"’ said Demorest, “which was only robbery.  Listen!” He hurriedly recounted his experience of the preceding night to the astonished Stacy.  “No, the fire was an afterthought and revenge,” he added sternly.

“But you say you cut the robber in the hand; there would be no difficulty in identifying him by that.”

“I wounded only a hand,” said Demorest.  “But there was a head in that attempt that I never saw.”  He then revealed his own half-suspicions, but how they were apparently refuted by the bravado of Steptoe and Whiskey Dick.

“Then that was the reason they didn’t gather at the fire,” said Stacy quickly.

“Ah!” said Demorest, “then you too suspected them?”

Stacy hesitated, and then said abruptly, “Yes.”

Demorest was silent for a moment.

“Why didn’t you tell me this this morning?” he said gently.

Stacy pointed to the distant Barker.  “I didn’t want you to tell him.  I thought it better for one partner to keep a secret from two than for the two to keep it from one.  Why didn’t you tell me of your experience last night?”

“I am afraid it was for the same reason,” said Demorest, with a faint smile.  “And it sometimes seems to me, Jim, that we ought to imitate Barker’s frankness.  In our dread of tainting him with our own knowledge of evil we are sending him out into the world very poorly equipped, for all his three hundred thousand dollars.”