nd I don't
think you want to pack gold or silver--"

"No, I didn't. I'd rather--"

Two men came in, one going over to the desk where he apparently wrote
a check, the other came straight to the window. Bud looked into the
heavily bearded face of a man who had the eyes of Lew Morris. He shifted
his position a little so that he faced the man's right side. The one at
the desk was glancing slyly over his shoulder at the bookkeeper, who had
just returned to his work.

"Can you change this twenty so I can get seven dollars and a quarter
out of it?" asked the man at he window. As he slid the bill through the
wicket he started to sneeze, and reached backward--for his handkerchief,
apparently.

"Here's one," said Bud. "Don't sneeze too hard, old-timer, or you're
liable to sneeze your whiskers all off. It's happened before."

Someone outside fired a shot in at Bud, clipping his hatband in front.
At the sound of the shot the whiskered one snatched his gun out, and the
cashier shot him. Bud had sent a shot through the outside window and hit
somebody--whom, he did not know, for he had no time to look. The young
fellow at the desk had whirled, and was pointing a gun shakily, first
at he cashier and then at Bud. Bud fired and knocked he gun out of his
hand, then stepped over the man he suspected was Lew and caught the
young fellow by the wrist.

"You're Ed Collier--by your eyes and your mouth," Bud said in a rapid
undertone. "I'm going to get you out of this, if you'll do what I say.
Will you?"

"He got me in here, honest," the young fellow quaked. He couldn't be
more than nineteen, Bud guessed swiftly.

"Let me through, Jimmy," Bud ordered hurriedly. "You got the man that
put up this job. I'll take the kid out the back way, if you don't mind."

Jimmy opened the steel-grilled door and let them through.

"Ed Collier," he said in a tone of recognition. "I heard he was
trailing--"

"Forget it, Jimmy. If the sheriff asks about him, say he got out. Now,
Ed, I'm going to take you over to Mrs. Hanson's. She'll keep an eye on
you for a while."

Eddie was looking at the dead man on the floor, and trembling so that he
did not attempt to reply; and by way of Jimmy's back fence and the widow
Hanson's barn and corral, Bud got Eddie safe into the kitchen just as
that determined lady was leaving home with a shotgun to help defend the
honor of the town.

Bud took her by the shoulder and told her what he wanted her to do.
"He's Marian