"I have a notion," said Browning, "to try to work my way out on the
ladders."

"That will not work," replied Sedgwick; "I looked, and all the lower
ladders have been taken down."

Then a long silence followed, until at last Sedgwick spoke again. "I
have it, Jack," said he. Lighting his candle, he groped around in the
cross-cut, and found a splinter from a lagging. Fishing out a stump of
a pencil from the pocket of his pantaloons, he said, "Where is your
money, Browning?"

"In the California Bank," he replied.

"All right," was the response. Then on the splinter he wrote for a
moment, and then said, "How is this?" and in a whisper read: "California
Bank, Please pay to John W. Mackay whatever funds may be to our
respective credits."

"What is your idea, Jim?" asked Browning.

"I mean to lay for Mackay, and when he comes down ask him, quietly, to
read the writing when he gets up into daylight."

"But what will he think we want?" asked Browning.

"He will know mighty quick," said Sedgwick; "he knows where we work; he
will understand that we know what we see, and that while we do not intend
to give away the information, at the same time we do not want to 'get
left out in the cold' on this deal."