wo men who were sitting on the ledge.

The younger man leaped to his feet and whirled; the older man struggled
partly upright and ground his knees on the ledge when he turned to
inspect the terrifying source of sound.

So far as Vaniman's recollection went, they were strangers. One was
short and dumpy, the other was tall and thin. They wore slouchy,
wrinkled, cheap suits. There was no hint of threat in their faces. On
the contrary, both of the men displayed expressions of mingled triumph
and mischief. Then, as if they had a mutual understanding in the matter
of procedure, they went through a sort of drill. They stuck their right
arms straight out; they crooked the arms at the elbows; they drove
their hands at their hip pockets and produced, each of them, a bulldog
revolver; they snapped their arms into position of quick aim.

Wagg threw up his hands and began to beg. Vaniman held himself under
better control.

But the men did not shoot. They returned the guns to their pockets and
saluted in military fashion, whacking their palms violently against
their thighs in finishing salute.

"Present!" they cried. Then the dumpy man grinned. Wagg had been
goggling, trying to resolve his wild incredulity into certainty. That
grin settled the thing for him. It was the same sort of a suggestive
grin that he had viewed on that day of days in the prison yard.

"Number Two-Eight-Two!" he quavered.

"Sure thing!" The dumpy man patted the tall man's arm. "Add one, and
you have Number Two-Eight-Three--a pal who drew the next number because
we're always in company."

"And we're here because we're here," stated the other.

The short man fixed his gaze on the ex-cashier. "You don't realize it
yet, but this is more of a reunion than it looks to be on the surface.
You two gents have seen how we're fixed in the gun line, and we hope the
understanding is going to make the party sociable."

"You may be thinking that this is only another case of it being proved
how small the world is, after all," remarked the tall man. "Not so! Not
so! We have followed you two because we have important business with
you. We have had a lot of trouble and effort in getting here. Bear that
in mind, please!"

The new arrivals were quite matter-of-fact and Wagg was helped
to recover some of his composure. "The two of you are three-year
men--robbery in the nighttime," he declared, out of his official
knowledge. "What in blue blazes are you doing outside the