And that was the astonishing sight the hobo yeggman saw, as he turned his head upon hearing the noise made by the boys in gaining their feet.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE SHERIFF GETS HIS SHOCK, TOO.
“Throw up yer hands thar, Charlie Bunch!” Eli had said in a stern voice; and from the fact of his mentioning another name besides that of Barnes, Giraffe realized the old Maine guide must have recognized the yegg bank burglar as one he had known in long days gone by.
The big fellow looked ugly for a few seconds, and Giraffe felt a shiver run up and down his spine, as he wondered whether he were about to witness a real desperate battle. But then Charlie, for all his fierce looks, had a grain of common sense besides. Doubtless he also knew what kind of man he had to deal with in old Eli Crookes. And then, it must have been somewhat discouraging for even the most daring and reckless of souls to see that grim array of seven guns, all covering his person, even if five of the lot were held by boys.
So Charlie gave a sort of make-believe careless laugh, and obeyed the order of the guide. He even thrust his hands up higher than there was any real necessity for doing, as though he believed in going to the limit.
“Caught at last, and with the goods on, too!” he remarked, in his booming bass voice. “How are you, Eli? So, arter all I’m goin’ to owe my bein’ passed over to a feller I used to chum with. But we never did git on together, did we, Eli? Say, Kimball, show yourself here. Come out an’ jine in the dance. Thet’s the way it allers goes; when you think things are breaking your way, kerflop she goes into the soup. Tie me up, Eli, so I can’t do any damage when my mad comes on, like it will when I gets to thinkin’ o’ how near I was to bein’ fixed for life.”
A face was seen in the doorway just then, a frightened face too. Thad swung his gun around, and covered Kimball, who immediately showed new signs of alarm.
“Don’t fire, there!” he called out; “I’m all shot up as ’tis, an’ losin’ pints of blood at a two-forty rate. I surrender, all right! If Charlie, he gives in, there ain’t no show for a wounded man like me holding out.”
“Keep him covered, all the same, Thad, until we get this other one tied up,” advised Allan, who possibly knew more about the type of rascal they were dealing with than any other among the scouts.
Eli did the job himself. And that he knew how to go about it in the right way Charlie himself testified in no uncertain tones.