Black Jack

That scent of smoke was a clear proof that there was an open way through the loft to the room of the bank below them.  But would the opening be large enough to admit the body of a man?  Only exploring could show that.  He sat back on the roof and put on the mask with which the all-thoughtful Denver had provided him.  A door banged somewhere far down the street, loudly.  Someone might be making a hurried and disgusted exit from Pedro’s.  He looked quietly around him.  After his immersion in the thick darkness of the house, the outer night seemed clear and the stars burned low through the thin mountain air.  Denver’s face was black under the shadow of his hat.

“How are you, kid—­shaky?” he whispered.

Shaky?  It surprised Terry to feel that he had forgotten about fear.  He had been wrapped in a happiness keener than anything he had known before.  Yet the scheme was far from accomplished.  The real danger was barely beginning.  Listening keenly, he could hear the sand crunch underfoot of the watcher who paced in front of the building; one of the cardplayers laughed from the room below—­a faint, distant sound.

“Don’t worry about me,” he told Denver, and, securing a strong fingerhold on the edge of the ledge, he dropped his full length into the darkness under the skylight.

His tiptoes grazed the floor beneath, and letting his fingers slide off their purchase, he lowered himself with painful care so that his heels might not jar on the flooring.  Then he held his breath—­but there was no creaking of the loft floor.

That made the adventure more possible.  An ill-laid floor would have set up a ruinous screeching as he moved, however carefully, across it.  Now he whispered up to Denver.  The latter instantly slid down and Terry caught the solid bulk of the man under the armpits and lowered him carefully.

“A rotten rathole,” snarled Denver to his companion in that inimitable, guarded whisper.  “How we ever coming back this way—­in a hurry?”

It thrilled Terry to hear that appeal—­an indirect surrendering of the leadership to him.  Again he led the way, stealing toward a ghost of light that issued upward from the center of the floor.  Presently he could look down through it.

It was an ample square, a full three feet across.  Below, and a little more than a pace to the side, was the table of the cardplayers.  As nearly as he could measure, through the misleading wisps and drifts of cigarette smoke, the distance to the floor was not more than ten feet—­an easy drop for a man hanging by his fingers.

Denver came to his side, silent as a snake.

“Listen,” whispered Terry, cupping a hand around his lips and leaning close to the ear of Denver so that the least thread of sound would be sufficient.  “I’m going to cover those two from this place.  When I have them covered, you slip through the opening and drop to the floor.  Don’t stand still, but softfoot it over to the wall.  Then cover them with your gun while I come down.  The idea is this.  Outside that window there’s a second guard walking up and down.  He can look through and see the table where they’re playing, but he can’t see the safe against the wall.  As long as he sees those two sitting there playing their cards, he’ll be sure that everything is all right.  Well, Denver, he’s going to keep on seeing them sitting at their game—­but in the meantime you’re going to make your preparations for blowing the safe.  Can you do it?  Is your nerve up to it?”

Even the indomitable Denver paused before answering.  The chances of success in this novel game were about one in ten.  Only shame to be outbraved by his younger companion and pupil made him nod and mutter his assent.

That mutter, strangely, was loud enough to reach to the room below.  Terry saw one of the men look up sharply, and at the same moment he pulled his gun and shoved it far enough through the gap for the light to catch on its barrel.

“Sit tight!” he ordered them in a cutting whisper.  “Not a move, my friends!”

There was a convulsive movement toward a gun on the part of the first man, but the gesture was frozen midway; the second man looked up, gaping, ludicrous in astonishment.  But Terry was in no mood to see the ridiculous.

“Look down again!” he ordered brusquely.  “Keep on with that game.  And the moment one of you goes for a gun—­the minute one of you makes a sign or a sound to reach the man in front of the house, I drill you both.  Is that clear?”

The neck of the man who was nearest to him swelled as though he were lifting a great weight with his head; no doubt he was battling with shrewd temptations to spring to one side and drive a bullet at the robbers above him.  But prudence conquered.  He began to deal, laying out the cards with mechanical, stiff motions.

“Now,” said Terry to Denver.

Denver was through the opening in a flash and dropped to the floor below with a thud.  Then he leaped away toward the wall out of sight of Terry.  Suddenly a loud, nasal voice spoke through one of the front windows: 

“What was that, boys?”

Terry caught his breath.  He dared not whisper advice to those men at the table for fear his voice might carry to the guard who was apparently leaning at the window outside.  But the dealer jerked his head for an instant toward the direction in which Denver had disappeared.  Evidently the yegg was silently communicating imperious instructions, for presently the dealer said, in a voice natural enough:  “Nothing happened, Lewison.  I just moved my chair; that was all, I figure.”

“I dunno,” growled Lewison.  “I been waiting for something to happen for so long that I begin to hear things and suspect things where they ain’t nothing at all.”

And, still mumbling, his voice passed away.

Terry followed Denver’s example, dropping through the opening; but, more cautious, he relaxed his leg muscles, so that he landed in a bunched heap, without sound, and instantly joined Denver on the farther side of the room.  Lewison’s gaunt outline swept past the window at the same moment.

He found that he had estimated viewpoints accurately enough.  From only the right-hand window could Lewison see into the interior of the room and make out his two guards at the table.  And it was only by actually leaning through the window that he would be able to see the safe beside which Terry and Denver stood.

“Start!” said Terry, and Denver deftly laid out a little kit and two small packages.  With incredible speed he began to make his molding of soft soap around the crack of the safe door.  Terry turned his back on his companion and gave his undivided attention to the two at the table.

Their faces were odd studies in suppressed shame and rage.  The muscles were taut; their hands shook with the cards.

“You seem kind of glum, boys!” broke in the voice of Lewison at the window.

Terry flattened himself against the wall and jerked up his gun—­a warning flash which seemed to be reflected by the glint in the eyes of the red-headed man facing him.  The latter turned slowly to the window.

“Oh, we’re all right,” he drawled.  “Kind of getting wearying, this watch.”

“Mind you,” crackled the uncertain voice of Lewison, “five dollars if you keep on the job till morning.  No, six dollars, boys!”

He brought out the last words in the ringing voice of one making a generous sacrifice, and Terry smiled behind his mask.  Lewison passed on again.  Forcing all his nerve power into the faculty of listening, Terry could tell by the crunching of the sand how the owner of the safe went far from the window and turned again toward it.

“Start talking,” he commanded softly of the men at the table.

“About what?” answered the red-haired man through his teeth.  “About what, damn you!”

“Tell a joke,” ordered Terry.

The other scowled down at his hand of cards—­and then obeyed.

“Ever hear about how Rooney—­”

The voice was hard at the beginning; then, in spite of the levelled gun which covered him, the red-haired man became absorbed in the interest of the tale.  He began to labor to win a smile from his companion.  That would be something worthwhile—­something to tell about afterward; how he made Pat laugh while a pair of bandits stood in a corner with guns on them!

In his heart Terry admired that red-haired man’s nerve.  The next time Lewison passed the window, he darted out and swiftly went the rounds of the table, relieving each man of his weapon.  He returned to his place.  Pat had broken into hearty laughter.

“That’s it!” cried Lewison, passing the window again.  “Laughin’ keeps a gent awake.  That’s the stuff, Red!” A time of silence came, with only the faint noises of Denver at his rapid work.

“Suppose they was to rush the bank, even?” said Lewison on his next trip past the window.

“Who’s they?” asked Red, and looked steadily into the mouth of Terry’s gun.

“Why, them that wants my money.  Money that I slaved and worked for all my life!  Oh, I know they’s a lot of crooked thieves that would like to lay hands on it.  But I’m going to fool ’em, Red.  Never lost a cent of money in all my born days, and I ain’t going to form the habit this late in life.  I got too much to live for!”

And he went on his way muttering.

“Ready!” said Denver.

“Red,” whispered Terry, “how’s the money put into the safe?”

The big, red-haired fellow fought him silently with his eyes.

“I dunno!”

“Red,” said Terry swiftly, “you and your friend are a dead weight on us just now.  And there’s one quick, convenient way of getting rid of you.  Talk out, my friend.  Tell us how that money is stowed.”

Red flushed, the veins in the center of his forehead swelling under a rush of blood to the head.  He was silent.

It was Pat who weakened, shuddering.

“Stowed in canvas sacks, boys.  And some paper money.”

The news of the greenbacks was welcome, for a large sum of gold would be an elephant’s burden to them in their flight.

“Wait,” Terry directed Denver.  The latter kneeled by his fuse until Lewison passed far down the end of his beat.  Terry stepped to the door and dropped the bolt.

“Now!” he commanded.

He had planned his work carefully.  The loose strips of cords which Denver had put into his pocket—­“nothing so handy as strong twine,” he had said—­were already drawn out.  And the minute he had given the signal, he sprang for the men at the table, backed them into a corner, and tied their hands behind their backs.

The fuse was sputtering.

“Put out the light!” whispered Denver.  It was done—­a leap and a puff of breath, and then Terry had joined the huddled group of men at the farther end of the room.

“Hey!” called Lewison.  “What’s happened to the light?  What the hell—­”

His voice boomed out loudly at them as he thrust his head through the window into the darkness.  He caught sight of the red, flickering end of the fuse.

His voice, grown shrill and sharp, was chopped off by the explosion.  It was a noise such as Terry had never heard before—­like a tremendously condensed and powerful puff of wind.  There was not a sharp jar, but he felt an invisible pressure against his body, taking his breath.  The sound of the explosion was dull, muffled, thick.  The door of the safe crushed into the flooring.

Terry had nerved himself for two points of attack—­Lewison from the front of the building, and the guard at the rear.  But Lewison did not yell for help.  He had been dangerously close to the explosion and the shock to his nerves, perhaps some dislodged missile, had flung him senseless on the sand outside the bank.

But from the rear of the building came a dull shout; then the door beside which Terry stood was dragged open—­he struck with all his weight, driving his fist fairly into the face of the man, and feeling the knuckles cut through flesh and lodge against the cheekbone.  The guard went down in the middle of a cry and did not stir.  Terry leaned to shake his arm—­the man was thoroughly stunned.  He paused only to scoop up the fallen revolver which the fellow had been carrying, and fling it into the night.  Then he turned back into the dark bank, with Red and Pat cursing in frightened unison as they cowered against the wall behind him.

The air was thick with an ill-smelling smoke, like that of a partially snuffed candle.  Then he saw a circle of light spring out from the electric lantern of Denver and fall on the partially wrecked safe.  And it glinted on yellow.  One of the sacks had been slit and the contents were running out onto the floor like golden water.

Over it stooped the shadow of Denver, and Terry was instantly beside him.  They were limp little sacks, marvellously ponderous, and the chill of the metal struck through the canvas to the hand.  The searchlight flickered here and there—­it found the little drawer which was wrenched open and Denver’s stubby hand came out, choked with greenbacks.

“Now away!” snarled Denver.  And his voice shook and quaked; it reminded Terry of the whine of a dog half-starved and come upon meat—­a savage, subdued sound.

There was another sound from the street where old Lewison was coming to his senses—­a gasping, sound, and then a choked cry:  “Help!”

His senses and his voice seemed to return to him with a rush.  His shriek split through the darkness of the room like a ray of light probing to find the guilty:  “Thieves!  Help!”

The yell gave strength to Terry.  He caught some of the burden that was staggering Denver into his own arms and floundered through the rear door into the blessed openness of the night.  His left arm carried the crushing burden of the canvas sacks—­in his right hand was the gun—­but no form showed behind him.

But there were voices beginning.  The yells of Lewison had struck out echoes up and down the street.  Terry could hear shouts begin inside houses in answer, and bark out with sudden clearness as a door or a window was opened.

They reached the horses, dumped the precious burdens into the saddlebags, and mounted.

“Which way?” gasped Denver.

A light flickered in the bank; half a dozen men spilled out of the back door, cursing and shouting.

“Walk your horse,” said Terry.  “Walk it—­you fool!”

Denver had let his horse break into a trot.  He drew it back to a walk at this hushed command.

“They won’t see us unless we start at a hard gallop,” continued Terry.  “They won’t watch for slowly moving objects now.  Besides, it’ll be ten minutes before the sheriff has a posse organized.  And that’s the only thing we have to fear.”