tracin' the stolen money?'
'I didn't have much until to-day, but I think now there's a chance,' Rapson replied.
He spoke louder and much of his nervousness seerned to have vanished. Hearing footsteps, Severn turned and saw that the sheriff, with his two deputies, had entered the bank. Behind them, framed in the doorway, were several citizens, and others were arriving every moment. He scented trouble. All three officials had their hands in close proximity to their guns, and the expressionofmalignant triumph on the sheriff's features was as plain as print. Twisting half round, so that he faced them, the foreman leaned against the counter, thumbs resting in his belt, and grinned genially.
'Step right up, sheriff, my business is about through,' he said.
The officer eyed him malevolently. 'Yore business ain't begun,' he snarled. 'Where'd yu git them notes yu just cashed?'
'Well, I dunno as it's any concern o' yores, but I got 'em here,' Severn drawled. 'Them notes are part o' the sum I drew out o' the bank the mornin' it was raided. Ain't that so, Rapson?'
The banker shook his head. 'Those four notes you handed me just now were part of the stolen money,' he stated.
Severn stared at the man in blank amazement; then his eyes chilled, and in a low, even tone, he said :
'I'm supposin' yu've made a mistake, seh.'
The banker sensed the menace, but, though his face was deathly white and his lips trembled, he answered without hesitation.
'There can be no mistake. Here is a list of the numbers of the larger notes taken and I gave the sheriff a copyofit after the robbery. You can see for yourself.'
He held out the list and the notes. Severn compared them and nodded; the numbers of the notes he had cashed were undoubtedly there. The banker flapped open a book, took a slip of paper and wrote rapidly. When he had finished he passed over the slip.
'There are the numbers of the notes I paid you,' he said.
The foreman studied the list and knitted his brows in an effort to solve the mystery. How it had come about was more than he could fathom, but he recognised that the evidence was conclusive and that he was in a very tight corner. Slipping the list into his vest pocket he laughed and looked at Tyler.
'Well, I dunno how yu did it, sheriff, but it shore looks a neat frame-up,' Severn said. 'I s'pose yo're goin' to charge me with helpin' to loot the bank?'
'Yu betcha--'mong other things. The shootin' o' Rapson for one,' snapped the officer.
Severn's features expressed concern. 'My gracious, did I shoot yu, Rapson? I'm right sorry.'
'An' the murder o' Philip Masters,' the sheriff added crushingly.
But the accused declined to be crushed; he only laughed. 'Yore memory ain't what it oughta be, Tyler,' he quizzed. 'Yu've forgotten to put in the assassination o' President Lincoln.'
Furious with rage at the laugh which this raised, Tyler started to pull his gun, remembered that this man had easily beaten Bart to the draw, and thought betterofit. But his movement did not pass unnoticed.
'If yo're wantin' a pack o' cards I'll get 'em, Hen,' came a sarcastic voice from behind.
The badgered officer darted an angry glance in the directionofthe speaker. 'I can do without a pack o' fools anyway,' he snorted, and, turning to his two men, he added, 'Take his gunsNeither of the deputies betrayed any great eagerness for the task and the puncher smiled.
'Better go slow, sheriff,' he warned. 'I'm a peaceable man up to a point, an' I got every respect for the law--for the law, I said, sheriff, not for the pin-eyed parasites who sometimes misrepresent it--but I don't like bein' rushed.'
'Huh! if I say the word, we can blow yu apart,' the officer blustered.
Severn did not seem to change his lolling attitude, yet with a motion that baffled the sight his guns were out levelled from the hips.
'Give yore orders, Tyler--to the undertaker,' he mocked.
The blood fled from the sheriff's face and the crowd surged back towards the door, as eager to get out as it had been to enter; the bank had not been built for gun-fights. The man with the drop watched with saturnine amusement.
'No need for panic, gents,' he said. 'The sheriff an' his deppities will elevate their paws an' hear what I've to say.' The command was obeyed without hesitation.
'Yo're resistin' arrest--that constitutes another charge,' Tyler protested.
'Well, yu can't hang me but once, which is a consolation when yu come to thinkofit,' the puncher grinned. 'An' I ain't resistin' anyways, but T gotta little matter to arrange before I accept yore kind invite, sheriff. Yu see, there's no one in charge at the Lazy M an' the boys are liable to paint for war when they hear about this. I want someone to take 'em word from me that they ain't to sit in, an' Judge Embley, at Desert Edge, has to be told; he'll know what to do.'
There was a movement near the door and Snap Lunt pushed his way unceremoniously through the onlookers. His face betrayed no recognitionofthe Lazy M foreman.
'I'll take them messages, Mister,' he offered. 'I was agoin' to Desert Edge anyhow.'
'I'm certainly obliged to yu,' Severn said gravely.
'Here, I reckon I got a word to say 'bout this,' the sheriff interposed.
Lunt looked at him with narrowed eyes. 'Yu claimin' to interfere with my movements?' he asked acidly.
Tyler had nothing to say to this challenge and with a gesture of contempt the little gunman headed for the door. He had almost reached it when a foot scraped. Instantly Snap was facing the sheriff, with both guns out and venom in his slitted eyes. A few seconds of blood-chilling silence and then Snap realised that no sinister move was intended; his leathery features wrinkled into a hard grin.
'Sorry folks,' he apologised. 'My nerves ain't just right these days.'
After he had backed through the door and vanished thesheriff gave vent to an audible sighofrelief. Oneofthe deputies expressed the general feeling.
'He oughta get them nerves seen to,' he said.
'He'll find thisyer town too hot if he comes any more o' them capers,' Tyler growled, his courage returning when the danger was over. 'Now, Severn, what's the word?'
The cow-puncher unbuckled his gun-belt and held it out. 'Havin' made my arrangements I'm entirely at yore service, sheriff,' he mocked. 'Yu got the wrong man, but a trifle like that won't worry yu, I'm shore.'
The officer did not reply to the insult; this tame surrenderofa man he regarded as desperate and dangerous made him uneasy.
Chapter XIX
HOPE AGAIN not being sufficiently civilised to boast of a regular gaol, offenders against the law had to be content with a cell, specially constructed for the purpose at the backofthe sheriff's quarters. The walls wereof'dobe, two feet thick with a coreofstout logs, light and ventilation being provided by an unglazed opening a foot square defended by a strong iron bar. This last must have been added for effect, since only a small child could have passed through the aperture. The door was massive, and secured by a heavy lock. A round hole in the upper part enabled the inmateofthe cell to be spied upon. A pallet bed and a bench comprised the furniture.
Severn, having noted these details, rolled a cigarette as well as his bound wrists permitted, lighted it, and gave himself up to meditation.
'I'll begin to believe I did rob the durn bank presently,' he muttered.
Painstakingly he turned the matter over in his mind, seeking for some clue that might provide an explanation, and suddenly it came to him. When the bandits had raided the Lazy M and stolen the girl, the money had not been taken, though it was in a place where the most casual search must have unearthed it. At the time it had struck him as curious that such men should forego an opportunity for plunder.
'They rung the changes on me,' he soliloquised. 'Took my notes an' left stolen ones in their place. But why? Shadwell might a'done it outa spite, but he warn't the sort o' man to passup mostoftwo thousand plunks, an' it wouldn't be his way o' evenin' up.'
