Part 55 (2/2)
Perhaps a year before this moral angularity would not have affected him; it would not have appealed to him as being either clever or objectionable; he would simply not have noticed it at all. But Allis Porter had originated a revolution in his manner of thought. He even fought against the softer awakening; it was like destroying the lifelong habits of a man. His callousness had been a s.h.i.+eld that had saved him troublous misgivings; behind this s.h.i.+eld, even in rapacity, he had experienced peace of mind, absence of remorse. If he could have put away from him his love for the girl he would have done so willingly. Why should he battle and strive for an unattainable something as intangible as a dream? It was so paradoxical that Allis's love for Mortimer seemed hopeless because of the latter's defeat, while his, Crane's love, was equally hopeless in his hour of victory.
Farrell's voice drew him from this psychological muddle in tones that sounded harsh as the cawing of homing ravens at eventime.
”Will it be a court case?” he queried.
”What?” asked Crane, from his tangled elysium.
”That high roller in the bank.”
”Oh! I can't say yet what it will lead to.” Crane's caution always a.s.serted itself first.
”Well, I've been thinking it over. That's the guy, right enough, but when it comes to swearing to a man's ident.i.ty in court, it's just a bit ticklish.”
Crane frowned. He disliked men who hedged. He always planned first, then plunged; evidently his companion had plunged first, and was now verifying his plans.
Farrell continued, ”You see what I mean?”
”I don't,” answered Crane, shortly.
”You will if you wait,” advised Farrell, a tinge of asperity in his tone. ”I'm makin' a book, say. All the blazin' idiots in Christendom is climbin' over me wantin' to know what I'll lay this and what I'll lay that. They're like a lot of blasted mosquitos. A rounder comes up an'
makes a bet; if it's small p'r'aps I don't twig his mug at all, just grabs the dough an' calls his number. He may be Rockefeller, or a tough from the Bowery, it don't make no difference to me; all I want is his goods an' his number, see? But a bettor of the right sort slips in an'
taps me for odds to a thousand. Nat'rally I'm interested, because he parts with the thousand as though it was his heart's blood. I size him up. There ain't no time fer the writin' down of earmarks, though most like I could point him out in a crowd, an' say, 'That's the rooster.'
But sposin' a judge stood up another man that looked pretty much like him, an' asked me to swear one of the guys into ten years in Sing Sing, pr'aps I'd weaken. Mistaken ident.i.ty is like grabbin' up two kings an' a jack, an' playin' 'em fer threes.”
”Which means, if I understand it, that you're guessing at the man--that I've given you all this trouble for nothing.”
Crane wished that Farrell had kept his doubts to himself; the case had been made strong by his first decision, and now the devil of uncertainty would destroy the value of identification.
”Not by a jugful!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Farrell. ”I'm just tellin' you this to show you that we've got to make it complete--we've got to get collateral to back up my pickin'.”
”You mean some one else to identify him also?”
”No, not just that; but that's not a bad thought. My clerk, Ned Hagen, must have noticed him too. I mean that the bettor's badge number will be in line with that bet, an' you can probably find out the number of the badge this rooster wore.”
An inspiration came with Farrell's words--came to Crane. Why had he not thought of that before? Still it didn't matter. The badge number, Mortimer's number, would be in Faust's book where had been entered the hundred dollars Mortimer put on Lauzanne. He could compare this with the number in Farrell's book; no doubt they would agree; then, indeed, the chain would be completed to the last link. No man on earth could question that evidence.
”It's a good idea, Farrell,” he said.
”Bet yer life, it's clear Pinkerton. You'd better come round to my place to-morrow about ten, an' we'll look it up.”
”I will,” Crane answered.
XLIII.
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