“I’m laughing to think how lucky you are for a rank beginner an’ botcher!” said Rathburn as they began to eat. “You must have took a course in outlawing from some correspondence school,” he continued.
“Maybe you could have done better,” hinted the other.
“Quite likely I could,” admitted Rathburn. “In 47 the first place I’d have shut that back door after I came in so nobody could pot shot me from behind. Yes, I reckon I’d have done that.”
Percy glared at him thoughtfully.
“Then I wouldn’t have let myself get in line with the front and side windows,” Rathburn taunted. “Lots of men are shot through windows. Ever hear of such a thing?”
His listener didn’t answer.
“An’ now that I think of it,” Rathburn droned on, “I’d have lined those men up against the wall with their faces turned away from me. That puts ’em at more of a disadvantage, an’ they can’t see what’s going on.”
Percy now was regarding him keenly.
“Let’s see,” said Rathburn, with tantalizing slowness. “Oh, yes, Percy. I wouldn’t have taken anything from the cash drawers but the bills. I don’t like to take the time to monkey around with a lot of silver; besides, it sort of weights one down.”
He paused long enough to let that sink in, then continued: “The thing I’d have paid most of my attention to––excepting for keeping a watchful eye on the men against the wall an’ the windows an’ doors––would have been the safe. The big money’s usually in the safe, an’ the bartender can be induced to open the safe just as easy as he can be persuaded into opening the cash drawers. An’ say, Percy, I’d never let a bartender get as close to me as you let that fellow get to you. He might start something, then you’d have to begin shootin’ an’ that would alarm the town an’ ball up the program.”