There was no time to be wasted. I got in touch with one of my lieutenants, M——, and asked him to meet me in half an hour, and to come armed. Before leaving the office I sent for a couple of suits of overalls, one of which I donned, and when I met M——, I gave him the other.
I told him all that I knew, and he realized that it was serious. We parked our car about two blocks from the house designated by my informant, and approached it afoot. The neighborhood was questionable. The house to which I had been directed stood a few feet back from the street in a neglected tangle of shrubbery. There was a fence about the property, but no gate. It was a small frame shack with two rooms in front and a third forming an ell. We walked around it cautiously several times, and finally discovered a light in the ell. The blinds were all tightly closed, and it was but a faint glimmer through a crack that we saw. We crawled carefully to the gallery and each looked through the crack.
We could barely distinguish the forms of five men huddled over an oil stove in the middle of the room. Three were in overalls and had the appearance of laborers; one wore a shabby old suit of civilian clothes, and the fifth appeared to be in uniform. Their heads were close together and they seemed to be talking in low tones, but neither M—— nor I could distinguish a word that was said.
There was a door a few feet from where we were, and I noticed another one on the opposite side of the room. I told M—— to go around to the other door and I would remain where I was. If either of us was able to distinguish any suspicious words, or if we found any reason to suspect that the five men were actually plotting, a low whistle was to be the signal to the other, and simultaneously we were to break in the door and rush them.
While the whole thing had the appearance of a conspiracy, and I was inclined to take the bull by the horns and give M—— the agreed signal, I was also suspicious that someone might be playing a practical joke on me. While I hesitated, M—— suddenly sneezed!
I have lived in the Southwest the greater part of my life and have been in some pretty tight places, and always have prided myself on my ability to take care of myself in an emergency; but the next thing I knew after M——’s sneeze, he was bending over me trying to staunch the blood that was flowing from a wound over my right eye, at the same time reading the riot act to me in choice language.
“What happened?” I asked, feebly.
“Why, the whole darned shooting-match jumped your way, walked over you and beat it!” he explained in exasperation. “What I’ve been trying to find out is why in hell you didn’t shoot?”
I could not answer in words, but mutely I showed him that in my haste I carefully had put on the overalls over my clothes with my gun in the usual place in my hip pocket. It would have taken me five minutes to get it out.
“It’s a good thing you had it so well hid,” he remarked. “They might have taken it away from you!”