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They rose. He formed them into ranks. "March,'' he ordered.
He headed them into the controller's office, then into the office of the promotion manager. There he ordered a right face, and they went on into the office of John B. and Tracy Drake. Immensely pleased with himself as a drill master, he marched them back through all the offices to the room from which they had started. "To the rear, MARCH !"
"Texas" was even more pleased, so he had them repeat the maneuver. "To the rear, MARCH!" As they were getting back to their starting point for the second time, the last clerk in the line slammed the office door in his face. "Texas" blasphemed, tried the door, finally fired through it. But the clerks had scattered. Then he broke out through another door and made his way through the corridor to the clerk's office again. One of them was sitting inoffensively at a desk. "Texas" glared at him, then shot him dead.
Meanwhile three others of the five carousers had held up the cashier and swept $10,000 into a little black bag. They started to flee through the now deserted mezzanine. "Texas," however, stopped to call on the house detective. The detective stuck a revolver out of his office door and fired, hitting the Cherokee in the shoulder. Then Texas joined the others in flight. His falling blood incarnadined the marble steps as he ran down. The other cowboy lost his way, ran into the kitchen and, after a little miscellaneous gunplay, was knocked on the head.
In the street, the three Chicago youths entered their car. "Texas," following drunkenly, got into the wrong automobile by mistake. Two policemen dashed up. Dazed, he began to fire. One of them shot him through the heart. Three half-drunken robbers in a light green car sped east along Lake Shore Drive, turned south with the shoreline, then west to Michigan Avenue, then north again past the hotel with a burst of speed, having completely circled the scene of their crime. Lincoln Park policemen on the running boards of commandeered automobiles followed, volleying. Up the "Gold Coast," with pretentious residences on one side, a little strip of lawn and the broad lake on the other, the chase led, thence into Lincoln Park. The bandit car collided with another and was wrecked. Two of the men escaped. The third commandeered a taxi, trampled a woman occupant on the floor, and went wildly on firing at his pursuers until the taxi was wrecked. He then was cornered. And the champion revolver shot of the Park police force shot him dead.
It was a horrible incident, but a wonderful advertisement.