AFTER leaving the boys that afternoon in the capable hands of Butch, Gallagher had gone back to Nevada to talk over certain plans in connection with Hegarty’s expected attack. And he had been so engaged when Marzonij had been shown up. He had left the room wondering just what it was Marzonij had brought in the way of news and he had more than a hunch that it concerned himself. He waited patiently with Dago while the interview took place, and was doing some fast thinking by the time Cowboy sent him to the supply room. Cowboy had told him to check the small arms supplies. They’d already been checked twice by Dago, so Cowboy could only be stalling him for time!
He went to the supply room and walked about it trying to remember every detail of Marzonij’s remarks while he was getting Cowboy to agree to a private interview, trying to guess Cowboy’s thoughts after that interview by the look of Nevada’s face, estimating his chances of having been exposed as a law-man! But he could not arrive at any certainty in his conclusions. He must go on bluffing till he learned his bluff had been called! It was his duty! And if Cowboy suspected that the truth trapped him and elected to shoot him down in cold blood, he’d take it like a man, remembering that the F. B. I. expects the courage of a soldier in its men!
It was getting dark outside by now, Mr. Sandborn knew, and he knew that by this time two nights hence Hegarty would try conclusions with the notorious Nevada!
The first intimation that things had reached a climax already was the flinging open of the store-room door as some one entered from the cabin tunnel. At the same time a man came into the supply room from a side aisle. Both men were tense and spoke in sharp, nervous voices.
“Hegarty’s here, Gallagher!” cried one.
“We’re in for some hot typewriting to-night, Gallagher,” said the other.
And at that moment, Dago himself appeared in the doorway from the cabin. He was purple of face as seen in the electric lights of the store-room. He was gripping a submachine gun in his paws.
“Grab him, men!” cried Dago. “He’s a Fed!”
But the two men, who now stood, quite by accident between Dago and Mr. Sandborn, were too startled by what Dago yelled to do anything for a full second. For all they knew it might be a big joke on Dago’s part, though why Dago should be kidding when Hegarty’s men were in full attack, was beyond them!
By that time Mr. Sandborn, his own thinking conditioned by training and habit, had darted like a shadow down a side aisle and was streaking it for the tunnel entrance near the aquarium before Dago could get into real pursuit! Then came the whine of steel as Mr. Sandborn covered the last forty yards to the entrance! The slugs bit and rang on the woodwork and metal of the entrance, but the G-man was through and in the open in a flash now!