"Excellent. Which way did he come?" "Through th' front door." "Before that?" demanded the boss impatiently. "I don't know." "Why don't you?" blazed Kane. "Have I got to do _all_ th' thinking for this crowd of dumbheads?" "Why, why should I know?" Corwin asked in surprise. "If you don't know the answer to your own question it is only wasting my time to tell it to you. Now, listen: You are to send four men in to me--but not Mexicans, for the testimony of Mexicans in this country is not taken any too seriously by juries. The four are not all to come the same way nor at the same time. The dumbheads I have around me necessitate that each be instructed separate and apart from the others, else they wouldn't know, or keep separate their own part. Is this plain?" "Yes," answered the arm of the law. "Very well. Now you will go out and arrange to arrest and jail those two men. And after you have arranged it you will _do_ it. Not a shot is to be fired. When they are in jail report to me. That is all." Corwin departed and did not scratch his head until the door closed after him, and then he showed great signs of perplexity. As he went up the next corridor he caught sight of a friend leaning against the back of the partition, and just beyond was Bill Trask at his new post. He beckoned to them both. "Sandy, you are to report to th' boss, right away," ordered the sheriff. "He wants four white men, an' yo're near white. Trask, send in three more white men, one at a time, after Woods comes out. An' let me impress _this_ on yore mind: It is strict orders that you ain't to fire a shot tonight, when somethin' happens that's goin' to happen; you, nor nobody else. Got that good?" "What do you mean?" asked the sentry, grinning. "Good G--d!" snorted the sheriff. "Do I have to do _all_ th' thinkin' for this crowd of dumbheads?" "Yo're a parrot," retorted Trask. "I know that by heart. You _don't_ have to. You don't even do yore _own_. You may go!" Corwin grunted and joined the crowd in the big room and when Bill Long wandered in and settled down to watch a game the sheriff in due time found a seat at his side. His conversation was natural, not too steady and not too friendly and neither did he tarry too long, for when he thought that he had remained long enough he wandered up to the bar, joked with the chief dispenser, and mixed with the crowd. After awhile he went out and strolled over to the jail, where a dozen men were waiting for him. His lecture to them was painfully simple, in the simplest words of his simple vocabulary, and when he at last returned to the gambling-hall he was certain that his pupils were letter-perfect. Meanwhile Kane had been busy and when the first of the four appeared the clear-thinking boss drove straight to his point. He looked intently at the caller and asked: "Where were you on the night of the storm, at the time the bank was robbed?" "Upstairs playin' cards with Harry."