The innocent must suffer with the guilty. Mr. Crow, shall
we proceed with the search?"
"Yes, sir; go right ahead, and be quick," replied Anderson Crow.
"Very well, then, in the name of the law, my men will begin the search.
They will pass among you, ladies and gentlemen, and any effort to retard
their progress will be met with instant--well, you know."
Before the petrified audience could fully realise what was taking place,
three of the detectives were swiftly passing from person to person,
stripping the women of their jewels, the men of their money and their
watches. A half-hearted protest went up to Anderson Crow, but it was
checked summarily by the "searching party." It was well for the poor
marshal that he never knew what the audience thought of him at that
ghastly moment.
It was all over in five minutes. The detectives had searched every
prosperous-looking person in the audience, under the very nose and guns
of Marshal Crow, and they were sardonically bidding the assemblage a
fond good-bye from the flapping doorway in the side wall. Andrew Gregory
addressed the crowd, smiling broadly.
"We found a good many more robbers in the crowd than we could
conveniently handle, ladies and gentlemen. In fact, I never came across
such a rare collection of hold-up men outside of Wall Street. The only
perfectly honest man in Tinkletown to-night is Anderson Crow, your
esteemed marshal.
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