"Jink took the check and went over to the bank to get the money. The cashier turned the check down on the ground that he had just shipped most of the bank's money to St. Louis. We knew that there was going to be trouble and a whole lot of it when Jink got back from the bank with that word, and I don't think any of us expected to last much longer. Jink came a-loping back from the bank, and when he came into the room and tore up the check with appropriate remarks his gang all lined up together, and we figured it that the shooting was going to begin right then. When the whole situation looked so squally that I had my eye on the nearest window to drop out of, Arthur Pendleton popped into the room.
"'What's all this?' he yelled, for there was a lot of clicking going on in the room. Jink and his gang thought they saw a final chance of getting their money. So, smoldering, they told the story to Pendleton. Pendleton was a shrewd man, a forceful talker, and a diplomat from away back.
"'All the money I've got, or that there is in the roll just now,' he said, 'is $600,' pulling the roll out of his pocket. 'You are perfectly welcome to that. When Gately comes back, or when you get him, as I wish you would, you can have the rest that's coming to you out of the roll he pinched.'
"Well, the $600 looked like better than no bread to Jink and his bunch, and they took it and went out after Gately. It was getting along toward twilight. Reeves and Pendleton figured it that Gately, in pulling down the roll, had been acting in the interest of the house. They hadn't the slightest notion that Gately had eloped with the $5200. They thought he'd plant the money, keep out of sight for a few days until the Jink McAtee push could be compromised with, and then come back.
"McAtee's gang beat up every shack in town thoroughly, but there was no Gately. They whipped the prairie for miles around, but they didn't spring Gately. Gately had gone. The gang came back to the Reeves-Pendleton layout, all of 'em pretty ugly. Pendleton got them bunched, made a speech to them to the effect that if Gately wasn't corralled within a week he'd make good the whole amount coming to them out of his own pocket, and soft-soaped them into accepting those terms. They dispersed.
"When Gately didn't come back the next day, or give any indication to his employers where he was, they got worried.
"'I think Gately has drilled,' Pendleton said to me that day. 'He's an Iowan, and there's going to be a big conclave and tournament of firemen in Council Bluffs next week. I'll bet Gately has made for Council Bluffs. I'm going after him. Come along with me.'
"I told Pendleton that I hadn't anything to do with the game, but I wasn't overlooking business propositions, and when he offered me 50 per cent. of all the money we might reclaim from Gately, I went with him. We got onto Gately's trail in Council Bluffs, as Pendleton had shrewdly guessed we might, but he had been tipped off that we were after him, and he chased over to Omaha. We were right after him, and he jumped for a town in Southwestern Iowa called Red Oak. We were hot on his trail, and we met up with him squarely next day in Red Oak.
"'Let's have the money, Gately,' said Pendleton.
"'I'll pass you back the house bunch, $2600,' said Gately, 'but the rest of it I keep,' and he looked as if he meant it, good and hard, at that.