We don't want our plan to leak out, and it will be best to let Kirby and Carver think that everything is all right; that nothing is going to be done." I waited while several of them gently picked up the body, and bore it forward into the shadows.

Others busied themselves in straightening the overturned furniture, and gathered into a small pile those few scattered coins which had fallen to the deck, and been overlooked by the two gamblers in their eagerness to escape.

No one attempted to appropriate any of these.

McAfee apparently knew most of the fellows intimately, calling them by name, and seemed to be recognized as a leader among them.

This fact was encouraging, as to all appearance they were a rough set, unaccustomed to law of any kind, and to be controlled only by physical strength, and some one of their own sort.
In spite of my position and rank, I was far too young in appearance to exercise much weight of authority over such border men, but fortunately I possessed sufficient good sense to rely now in this emergency upon the black-bearded McAfee, who served well.