Then he put the bag on the desk and began jumping round all of a sudden, whispering that there was a row in the saloon and he’d have to go out and see what it was. There must have been a row if noise went for anything, but I’ve no doubt it was a put up job.
He ran to the door, and I pretended to follow him, but all the same I had my eye peeled for the bag, and saw it disappear through a panel in the back of the desk just as I had expected, and another just like it come in its place.
“It’s all right; only two fellers fighting,” he says, popping in next minute. “Now, then, everything is all straight, and you’d better light out as soon as you can, for that fight may draw the cops in.”
He picked up the bag and handed it to me.
“You’d better go out this way,” he says, pointing to the door.
Where was Sam? It had been arranged that he should follow me and be ready to help in case I needed him, but I hadn’t seen nothing of him when I looked out.
Clancy seemed surprised when he found the door unlocked.
“Slide right out,” he whispered. “I hear some one coming.”
“All right,” says I, “but you’ll come, too,” and I grabbed him by the collar, and, before he knew what was coming, was dragging him up the steps.
I’d dropped the bag and had yanked out my revolver, but I never got the chance to use it--oh, no!
Quick as a wink he out with a knife and tried to get at me.
I saw the flash of the blade and managed to knock up his arm.
Then I went down right in the alley and he on top of me.
I tell you I was scared. Things began to dance before my eyes, and I thought I was a goner when all at once two men jumped out from behind a lot of ash barrels and pulled him over on his back.
“Old King Brady!” I heard him gasp, and there it ended as far as he was concerned.
“Hold him, Dave!” hollered Old King Brady, diving through the door.
Me and the other fellow held on like grim death, you bet. Let’s see, I forgot to say that the other fellow was Sam.
That was about the end of it altogether, for Old King Brady scooped in his pal at the point of the revolver just as he was coming through the door to find out what the row was all about.
It was a mighty lucky thing for me, too, that they happened to come along just as they did, for if they hadn’t I honestly believe I’d been a dead man in about one minute’s time.