rderers were now on their
way to San Francisco. He took the train going East according to
schedule, and found Darcy playing poker in the smoking car. Collins
betook himself to his pipe at the other end of the car, glad that night
had come, and that he would soon bid farewell to the Sierras. He felt
the train swing round the horse-shoe curve through Blue Canon, and
shortly afterward he noticed that they had entered the snow sheds, which
for forty-five miles tunnel the snow drifts of winter, and which in
summer lie like a huge serpent across the summit of the mountains. Once
out of the sheds they would speed down the valley from Truckee into
Nevada.

The fugitives were well over the line before they took any notice of
each other. Except for themselves the smoker was now empty, and they had
prepared to spend the night there like honest miners who were down on
their luck.

Collins remarked in an undertone:

"Darcy, we have given them the royal sneak."

"Know what I've been thinking?" replied Darcy. "I've been thinking of
that wise remark of Ben Franklin's when he signed the Declaration of
Independence."

"What was that?"

"We've got to hang together or we'll hang separately."

"That's no joke."

"You bet your soul it's no joke. And you'd better shut up and go to
sleep."

Silence for ten minutes. Then Collins said,

"You're a tough nut to talk about sleep when you've killed the best man
in Nevada County."

"Where would you be, J. C. P. Collins, if I hadn't killed him? You'd be
in hell this minute."

"Thanks, awfully. But I wish the man wasn't dead."

"What did the fool put up a fight for? He could see we had him."

"That's what I say. He was a fool to risk his life. He could see there
was no help coming from those sports."

"Well, Collins, there was one of them that made me feel nervous--that
Chinaman. But the rest of them had him corralled. Mat Bailey couldn't do
nothing up there in the air. Cummins was a fool, that's all."

"Must have wanted his gold pretty bad. And I wish to God he had it right
now."

"Here, take a nip of brandy. Your health's getting delicate."

"Well, partner, no harm meant. But I must say I sympathize with Cummins.
He and I have made the same choice to-day."

"How's that?"

"The girl or the gold--and we both chose the gold. And I'll be hanged if
I don't think we were both right."

CHAPTER IV

A Council of War

Six days had elapsed. It was evening, and in the lar