t and the civilized conventions, leaped alive. There
was a fierce grapple in the interior of the darkened carriage--fierce
but silent--and the blood sang in my veins when I found that I was more
than a match for the scar-faced deputy. With fingers to throat I
choked him into submission, and when I had taken his pistol and
hand-cuffed him with his own manacles, the step that made me a criminal
in fact had been overpassed.

"One yip out of you, and you get a bullet out of your own gun!" I
warned him; and then I got speech with the driver, a squat, thickset
Irishman, whose face and brogue were both strange to me.

"Drive to the Farmers' Bank--side door--and be quick about it!" I
called to him over the lowered window-sash.

"I'm hired to go to the train. Who's payin' me for the side-trip?" he
queried impatiently.

"I am," I snapped; adding: "There's money in it for you if you put the
whip on."

He obeyed the order with what might have seemed suspicious readiness,
if I had been cool enough to consider it, and a minute or two later the
hack ground its wheels against the curb at the side door of the bank
building. With the pistol at his ribs I pushed the deputy out ahead of
me. My keys were still in my pocket--Runnels hadn't searched me for
anything--and I opened the door and entered, driving Simmons a step in
advance.

The bank was untenanted, as I knew it would be if Geddis should not be
there, since we had never employed a night watchman. At that time of
night there was nothing stirring in the town, and in the midnight
silence the ticking of the clock on the wall over Abel Geddis's desk
crashed into the stillness like the blows of a hammer. I made the
deputy sit down under the vault light while I worked the combination.
The lock had not been changed, and the door opened at the first trial.

Again pushing Simmons ahead of me, I entered the vault. It was a
fairly modern structure; Geddis had had it rebuilt within the year; and
it was electric-lighted and large enough to serve the double purpose of
a bank strong-room and a safety deposit. Shoving the deputy into a
corner I opened the cash-box and took out the exact amount of my
savings, neither more nor less. Simmons stretched his neck and leered
at me with an evil grin.

"You're the fine little crook, all right enough," he remarked. "They
was sayin' over at Jefferson that you was a Sunday-school
sup'rintendent, or somethin' o' that sort. Them kind is alw