“If you want to fill an early grave you get gay with me now!” Don said, backing off around the crowd. Mr Stapley interposed.
“Put up your pistol, Donald. We’ll take care of this matter now.”
“But, Mr. Stapley, Shultz will get away! He and Strang are old cronies. Many a jag Strang got in Shultz’s place when he had his saloon; everybody knows that.” This caused a general laugh.
“Let him alone, Strang. Perhaps these boys have done us a big service.”
“Well, if you think maybe we’ve got the wrong men, just get the watchman here,” Don reiterated.
“Davis went home and to bed,” announced a bystander.
“Well, we can wake him; we’ll wheel these fellows over there and let him see this one,” Don insisted.
Mr. Stapley issued several rapid orders; a big mill hand, grinning, brought up the wheelbarrow and began trundling it and its human freight down the street again. Two others, with a piece of stout twine, noosed Shultz’s hands behind him and had him helpless in a moment; then handed him over to Strang, who really would not have dared to be false to his trust. Don, beneath a lamp and before Strang, emptied the cartridges out of his revolver; then handed his weapon to Clem, who also unloaded his gun, and the boys quickly followed on to the watchman’s abode.
The ceremony there was as dramatic as could have been wished by the most excitement-loving onlooker. Davis was brought down to the door and he took a look at the two Germans under a bright light. He paused long enough to make his assertion emphatic, pointing his finger and appearing so sure that no one could have doubted him.
“I didn’t see Shultz an’ I would have knowed him, anyway; he ain’t no stranger to nary one in this here town. But I did see that man! He’s one o’ them that run from the office buildin’ acrosst the yard just before the bomb went off. That feller an’ another one—a long, thin cuss without any whiskers—they must ’a’ set their fuses too short an’ was scared, because they skinned out awful quick. Then the thing went off an’ the one near where I was a second later, an’ it fixed me so’s I didn’t know nothin’.”