Finally the other opened his key and sounded the call for Viper, a
hamlet ten miles away, though in practical effect it was more distant
since the road between twisted painfully over ridge and through gorge.
It was on an infrequently used freight spur but it boasted
communication with the world by wire--and it was important now because
it was a town through which Alexander must pass on her way from Coal
City to the mouth of Shoulder-blade Creek.
The metallic voice of the telegraph key subsided, and shortly came the
response. Halloway still breathed heavily on--a sleeping giant whose
ears were very much awake. This was no official message paying toll,
but a private conversation between operators bent on whiling away dull
moments. Moreover it was evidently the continuation of talk previously
commenced so that to the eavesdropper it was like a continued story of
which he had missed the opening chapters.
"Upward of four thousand dollars," tapped out Wicks. "That's big
money, but the more men that split it the less each feller gets, so
they don't want too many from Viper.
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