Crash! The end of the swinging tongue took out one of the front windows of the bank, while the hearse lurched to a standstill with the front wheels against the front of the bank building.
Sleepy was thrown off the seat when the wheels struck the sidewalk and he landed on his hands and knees in the street. The sound of the wreck was audible for quite a distance, and in a few minutes the hearse was surrounded by a curious crowd. There was hardly enough light to see what had happened.
Sleepy staggered across the street and sat down on the sidewalk, feeling very foolish over the whole thing. A horseman rode past him and stopped at the hitch-rack. It was Lonnie Myers. Sleepy went over to him.
“That ⸺ thing headed into the bank,” he told Lonnie.
“My ⸺! It did? Whatcha know about that? Where’s the rest of the gang?”
“Let’s go over and have a look.”
No one in the crowd seemed to know who had done it. Kelsey was there, as was Jack Ralston.
“Somebody got pretty ⸺ smart, it seems to me,” growled Kelsey.
“Hey, Kelsey!” yelled a voice, “there’s a body inside the hearse.”
“My ⸺, it’s Cates!” whispered Lonnie. “Let’s get away from here before we all get arrested.”