How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
'It would be as good as murder, Mr. Staines. He's got a score to settle. He wants me dead.'
'I can keep a secret,' said Staines. 'I won't tell anyone' (VI.3.17-18).
After getting a dose of Staines's honesty, Crosbie now asks him for loyalty—and silence—in dealing with Carver. That is, he wants Staines to keep his whereabouts secret, because otherwise Carver would find him. Staines promises. Of course, he has just blabbed Frank Carver's secret, but given his recent statements about how the importance of honesty and loyalty shift depending on the situation, we're pretty sure he's going to keep Crosbie's secret.
Quote #11
'There's only one true crime upon a goldfield,' said Mannering to Staines as they stamped through the undergrowth toward the southern edge of the Aurora claim. 'Don't bother your head about murder, or theft, or treason. No: it's fraud that's the crime of crimes' (VIII.4.1).
And Mannering should know, since he's the one who was salting a duffer claim with his own gold so he could sell it off. Of course, this is what he's in the process of telling Staines, which presumably gives them the idea that Staines should buy it to trick Frank Carver out of the 50 percent shares that Staines was supposed to pay him out of his first claim.