“Then Number One throws me around and looks under the piller, and he don’t find a thing. I heerd somebody swear good and hearty.
“‘Ask him what he’s done with it,’ says Number Two. ‘Blow his head off for him, if he don’t tell.’
“Somethin’ hard was poked ag’inst my head, and I allow it was the muzzle of a six-gun, although, o’ course, I ain’t able to see a thing.
“‘Where’s that note?’ says Number One, real cross. ‘Speak out, or I’ll start you for Kingdom Come.’
“‘You don’t get it,’ I says, pantin’ for air. ‘I put it in the bank.’
“They couldn’t tell, pard, that it wasn’t you talkin’, the blanket gagged me so, and my voice was low and husky. After that there was more piratical langwidge, then them fellers went at somethin’ else.
“‘Now’s our chance,’ says Number One, ‘to carry out the other scheme. If we can’t make good at this game we will at that one.’
“‘We got to have a car,’ says Number Two, ‘and we got to get it from this garage.’
“‘How’ll we work it?’ asked the juniper who stands clost to me.
“‘You go out to a telephone,’ says the other, ‘and call up this place. Pruitt’ll answer. Tell him you got to have a car for a night trip some’r’s and that you’ll furnish your own driver. Say it’s Job Arnold, or Colonel Chiswick, or any o’ them big bugs, talkin’. Pruitt’ll bite. As soon as he leaves, I’ll steal a car and pick you up on First Av’noo, cornder Hackberry. That’s clost, and you can get there easy.’