Max shrugged his shoulders. "Mebbe. I been aroun'. You look familiar to me, too."
"Maybe it'll come to me tomorrow night."
He started to walk down the alley. Max watched him until he turned into the street.
He turned slowly to Charlie.
"There's somethin' about that man. I got the feelin' I should know who he is."
Charlie laughed.
"Let's go. Mike'll be wonderin' what happened to us."
"Set yourself!" Ed whispered hoarsely. "They're comin'!"
Max pressed tightly against the wall near the door. On the other side of the doorway, Ed and Charlie were waiting.
He could hear the sound of two men's voices as they approached the door inside the bank. They all moved at once as the door opened, pushing it inward with sudden force.
"What the hell's goin'- " a voice said from the darkness inside.
It was followed by a thud, then the sound of a body falling.
"You keep your mouth shet, mister, if you want to keep livin'!"
There was a frightened gasp, then silence. "Git them into the back room." Ed's voice came harshly.
Max bent swiftly and pulled the fallen man along the floor toward the back.
There was the sound of a match behind him and then a lamp cast a tiny glow in the back room. He pulled the man into the room. He slumped and lay still when Max let him go.
"Check the front door!" Ed hissed.
Max ran back to the door and peeped out.
The street was quiet and deserted.
"No one out there," he said.
"Good," Ed said. "Let's get to work." He turned to the other of the two men. "Open the safe."
The man was in his late fifties. He was staring at the man on the floor with a horror-stricken look.
"I- I can't," he said. "Only Mr. Gordon can.
He's the president, the only one who knows the combination."
Ed turned to Max. "Wake him up."
Max knelt beside the man. He turned his face. The head looked peculiar, the jaw hung slack.
Max looked up at Ed.
"Ain't nothin' goin' to wake him up. You caved his head in."
"My God!" the other man said.
He seemed almost ready to faint.
Ed stepped around to front of him.
"I reckon you're goin' to have to open the safe, after all."
"B- but I can't," the bank clerk said. "I don't know the combination."
Ed hit him viciously across the face. The man fell against a desk.
"Well, learn it, then!"
"Honest, mister," he sobbed. "I don't know it.
Mr. Gordon was the only one. He was- "
Ed hit him again.
"Open that safe!"
"Look, mister," the man begged. "There's over four thousand dollars in that desk there! Take it and don't hit me any more, please.
I don't know the combination- "
Ed moved around the desk and opened the center drawer.
He took out a package of bills and stuffed it into his jacket.
He walked around the desk and stood to front of the kneeling bank clerk.
"Now, open the safe!" he said, hitting the man again.
The man sprawled out on the floor.
"I don't know, mister, I don't know!"
When Ed drew his foot back to kick him, Max touched his shoulder.
"Maybe he's tellin' the truth." Ed stared at him for a moment, then lowered his foot.
"Maybe. I know how we can find out fast."