“I’ll be. It’s a man,” Falcon said.
The man’s hair hung down to his waist and he had a full beard. He was wearing clothes made of wolf skin and his fingernails were long and curled.
“Of course, I’m a man! What did you think I would be?” the man replied in a gravelly voice. “Turn me loose!”
“So you can try to kill us again?” Falcon asked.
“I wasn’t tryin’ to kill you. I was tryin’ to scare you away.”
“Like the three men you killed?”
“I only kilt two.”
“There were three, Elmer Gleason, Lonnie Post, and Sam Hodges.”
“Is that what their names was? They never told me.”
“Why did you kill them?”
“I kilt ’em ’cause they tried to kill me. They wanted me to show ’em where the gold was, and when I wouldn’t do it, they pointed a gun at me and said they was goin’ to shoot me. I got away from ’em, and when they come after me, I kilt ’em. Then I dragged their bodies outside as a warnin’ to anyone else as might come around.”
“What about Elmer Gleason? Did he try to kill you, too?”
The man laughed, a high-pitched, insane cackling laugh. Then he stopped laughing and stared at Duff and Falcon, his eyes gleaming in the light of the lantern. “What are you doin’ here?” he asked. “You got no right in here. This is my home.”
“Sure’n you aren’t for sayin’ you live here, in this mine, are you?” Duff asked.
“Yes, I am a-sayin’ that. Now I want you to turn me a’ loose and get out of here.”
“How do you live? What do you eat? What do you drink?” Falcon asked.
“Bugs, rabbits when I can catch ’em, such wild plants as can be et. And they’s a pool of water back a- ways.”
“What is your name?” Duff asked.
The man laughed again, the same, high-pitched insane laugh as before. “You already know my name. You done said it.”
“What do you mean we’ve already said it?”
“I’m the feller I didn’t kill.”
“Mister, you’ve been in this mine too long,” Falcon said. “You aren’t making any sense at all. What do you mean, you are the man you didn’t kill?”
“Wait a minute,” Duff said. “I think I know what he means. Are you trying to tell us that you are Elmer Gleason?”
“I ain’t tryin’ to tell you nothin’, sonny,” he said. He laughed again. “I’m a’ doin’ it. I am Elmer Gleason.”
Chapter Twenty-four
“I think it would be ill advised of us to arrive at the bank simultaneously,” Malcolm said.
“What?” Asa Moran asked.
“He means don’t all of us show up at the same time,” Carter Hill said.
“Why not?” Pettigrew asked.
“Because if all of us ride up to the bank together, then dismount and enter the bank simultaneously, it cannot help but arouse suspicions,” Malcolm explained.
“I think he’s right,” McKenna said.
“All right. So how are we going to do it?” Pettigrew asked.
“We won’t ride up to the bank at all. Shaw, Pogue, McKenna, and Johnny Hill will be with me. We will come up Central from the south, then dismount about four buildings away and walk to the bank. Pettigrew, you, Moran, Carter Hill, and Garcia, will come down Central from the north, and you will also stop about four buildings away from the bank.
“Pettigrew, you and I will go into the bank first, but since we will be approaching from different directions, it will not appear that we are together. I will go to the table and start filling out a slip as if I am about to make a deposit. Pogue, you, Shaw, and McKenna will come together from the south; Moran, and Garcia will come down from the north. That will give us seven men inside the bank at the same time, certainly enough to take care of business. Johnny Hill will hold the horses from the south group; Carter will hold the horses from the north group. When you two see the last one of us enter the bank, both of you come riding toward the bank and stop out front, holding the horses. After we get the money we will make our exit from the bank as rapidly as possible, mount our horses, and ride away.”
“That sounds like a real good plan,” Moran said.
“I would add something to it,” Shaw said.
“What would you add to it?” Malcolm asked.
“I think as we ride out of town we ought to be shooting.”
