Part 4 (1/2)
When it was opened the tall man, now without a beard, and wearing a pair of green spectacles, came quickly into the room, locking the door carefully behind him.
”I see you've got the cub,” he said, bending over Jet to make certain of his ident.i.ty.
”Yes, had him here an hour.”
”Have any trouble?”
”Not a particle. He was the first to answer my call, and I took that as a sign we should get away without leaving a trail.”
”We can't lug him around the country with us.”
”You're right but we can drop him after he's where it'll trouble him to get back.”
”There's a safer way.”
”I know what you mean, Joe, but I don't like to do any more of that business than's necessary. The last one couldn't have been avoided, but this can.”
”It's a big risk to carry him up the river, and he'd better be dropped.”
”We'll talk about that later. Have you heard anything new?”
”Not much. After this cub came from headquarters a detective was sent down to the Bowery, and by this time it is known pretty well what we looked like. The afternoon papers say the police are following a good clew, but you know what such talk means, Bob.”
”Is the stuff salted away?”
”All except what we need for a couple of months. The boys can send us more if we conclude to leave the quiet little place we're bound for.”
Then the two men had recourse to the flask, and after taking a hearty drink the one who had been called Bob proposed to go outside for a moment.
”You must be a fool to think of such a thing,” Joe said angrily. ”You are not done up so well but that some body would be able to recognize you. We are lucky in getting under cover without trouble, and here we stop till morning.”
”It's going to be mighty dull work staying in this coop all that time.”
”Not half so bad as a cell in the Tombs.”
The two men relapsed into silence for a time and Jet lay watching them as he tried to devise some way out of a position which was fraught with danger. It seemed impossible that he could aid himself, bound as he was, and exceedingly improbable any one would come to his a.s.sistance.
Study as he might Jet could think of no way to extricate himself and he said mentally after racking his brain in vain:
”I don't see any way out, but there's no use in giving up hope till a fellow is obliged to.”
The men alternately drank and smoked during the remainder of the afternoon, but said very little more regarding their flight.
When the steamer started Jet expected to hear them decide what was to be done with him, but in this he was mistaken.
As the hours wore on he fell into an uneasy slumber, despite the painfulness of his position, and during this time of unconsciousness the matter must have been settled.
It was yet dark when the steamer arrived at Albany, and, very much to the prisoner's surprise, the two men left the room, fastening the door behind them. Then Jet heard a noise as if something was being done to the lock, after which a deep silence reigned.
”They're going to leave me here, and have put something into the lock so the door can't be opened in a hurry,” he said to himself, and during the next ten minutes he struggled desperately to free himself.