"That," remarked Anthony, "is an example I think I shall follow."

"Eh?" said Lawlor, somewhat blankly. "Well, we rode up on the blind side
of the house--from the north, see, got off, and sneaked around to the
east end of the shack. The windows was covered with cloths on the
inside, which didn't make me none too sure about Shaw havin' no dealin's
with crooks. It ain't ordinary for a feller to be so savin' on light.
Pretty soon we found a tear in one of the cloths, and lookin' through
that we seen old Piotto sittin' beside Tom Shaw with his daughter on the
other side.

"We went back to the north side of the house and figured out different
ways of tacklin' the job. There was only the two of us, see, and the
fellers inside that house was all cut out for man-killers. How would you
have gone after 'em, son?"

"Opened the door, I suppose, and started shooting," said Bard, "if I had
the courage."

The other stared at him.

"You heard this story before?"

"Not this part."

"Well, that was jest what we done. First off, it sounds like a fool way
of tacklin' them; but when you think twice it was the best of all. They
never was expectin' anybody fool enough to walk right into that room and
start fightin'. We went back and had a look at the door.

"It wasn't none too husky. John Bard, he tried the latch, soft, but the
thing was locked, and when he pulled there was a snap.

"'Who's there?' hollers someone inside.

"We froze ag'in' the side of the house, lookin' at each other pretty
sick.

"'Nobody's there,' sings out the voice of old Piotto. 'We can trust Tom
Shaw, jest because he knows that if he double-crossed us he'd be the
first man to die.'

"And we heard Tom say, sort of quaverin': 'God's sake, boys, what d'you
think I am?'

"'Now,' says Bard, and we put our shoulders to the door, and takes our
guns in our hands--we each had two.

"The door went down like nothin', because we was both husky fellers in
them days, and as she smashed in the fall upset two of the boys sittin'
closest and gave 'em no chance on a quick draw. The rest of 'em was too
paralyzed at first, except old Piotto. He pulled his gun, but what he
shot was Tom Shaw, who jest leaned forward in his chair and crumpled up
dead.

"We went at 'em, pumpin' lead. It wasn't no fight at first and half of
'em was down before they had their guns workin'. But when the real hell
started it wasn't no fireside story, I'll tell a man. We had the jump on
'em,