Had Rale revealed all the details of their plan to me, I wondered.

It seemed comprehensive enough, and yet it hardly appeared possible that they would thoughtlessly place in the hands of any stranger such an advantage.

It would only be natural for them to withhold something--merely trusting me with what I actually had to know.

Yet crime was forever making just such mistakes; these men had to place confidence in someone, and, after all, it was not so strange that the saloon keeper had selected me.

I had come to him a penniless river bum, representing a class he had dealt with all his life.