own danger when Slippery in a decidedly unfriendly
manner, roughly commanded him to stand guard in front of the store, and
after he had placed the lad so he could scan the different roads, he did
something that has made more blood thirsty desperadoes out of harmless
boys than any other trick, he pressed a cocked, large calibered revolver
into the unsuspecting boy's hand and curtly ordered him, under pain of
losing his own life if he failed to obey this order, to blaze away at
any approaching human being. Then he disappeared towards the rear of the
building.

For a moment Joe's brain worked overtime, especially when he looked at
the murder tool the other fellow had placed into his trembling hand and
he promptly decided to cast the pistol into the middle of the roadway
and run for his life to escape not only the clutches of these fellows,
whom he now realized were desperate robbers, but to escape a possibly
far worse fate. Just as he started to follow out this idea, Slippery
stepped around the corner, and after he once more warned the lad not to
falter in shooting to kill, he gave Joe a spool of fine copper wire to
hold and when the surprised boy wished to know the reason, he showed Joe
where he had the other end of the same wire twisted about his wrist,
and cautioned him to hold it taut and that every time he gave the wire a
sharp pull the boy should answer with the same signal, and that if he
saw anyone approaching several sharp pulls should be the danger signal.
Then he again left the lad, and whenever he tugged on the wire Joe
answered with the agreed signal, and by this simple means Slippery had
not only forced a harmless boy to do dangerous outpost duty, and was
assured that he was always on guard, but what was most important, he had
a noiseless danger signal that, even should the boy fail to kill
somebody, he would thus notify the robbers that all was not well and
give them plenty of time and a far better chance to make their getaway
than the boy himself had, especially if he "shot to kill", as he had
been commanded to do, which would have meant a long term behind the
prison bars if not a trip by the route of the hangman's rope.

While Joe had thus been forced to become their involuntary accomplice,
the two yeggs pried open the rear entrance of the store, and then
Slippery worked at his profession of safe blowing. When all had been
made ready to explode the charge, they carried the satchels with their
tools out of