Part 36 (1/2)
Here the chief's a.s.sistant came in. ”Got Beggs on the wire. Says he'll conduct you to the home if you'll promise him immunity for some other offenses.”
”Tell him he shall have immunity on the word of the chief. But also say that he must come to see me in person.”
”All right, sir.”
”I don't believe it would be wise for Beggs to see me here. I gave him a good send-off--Sing Sing--five years ago. He may recollect,” said Norton.
”Suit yourself about that. Only, keep in communication with me by telephone and I'll tip you off as to when the raid shall take place.
Lucky you came in. I should have honestly gone there and arrested innocent people, and they would have had a devil of a time explaining.
It would have taken them at least a week to clear themselves. That would leave the house empty all that time.”
Norton did not reply, but he put the blotter away carefully. There was no getting away from the fact, but the G.o.d of luck was with him.
”Do you know what's back of it all?”
”I can't tell you any more than I have,” said Norton.
”Then I pa.s.s. I know you well enough. If you've made up your mind not to talk a man couldn't get anything out of you with a can-opener. And that's why we trust you, my boy. Don't forget the telephone.”
”I shan't. So long.”
That same night Braine paid the Russian woman a brief visit.
”I think that here's where we go forward. The secret service will raid the house to-morrow and then for a few days we'll roam about as we bally please. I'm hanged if I don't have every plank torn up and the walls pulled down. More and more I'm convinced that the money is in that house.”
”Don't be too confident,” warned Olga. ”So many times we have been tripped up when everything seemed in our hands. The house should be guarded but not entered for a day or two; at least not till after the raid is cold. I'm beginning to see traps everywhere.”
”Nonsense! Leave it to me. We shan't stick our heads inside the Hargreave house till we are dead certain that it is absolutely empty.
Olga, you're a gem. I don't think Russia will bother us for a while.
Eh? Paroff will not dare tell how he was flimflammed. The least he can do to save his own skin is to say that we are fully capable of taking care of ourselves.”
Olga laughed. ”To think of his writing a note like that! Florence would have recognized--and no doubt did--a palpable attempt to play an old game twice.”
”How does she act toward you?”
”Cordial as ever; and yet...”
”Yet what?”
”I thought her an ordinary schoolgirl, and yet every once in a while she makes what you billiard players call a professional shot. What matter? So long as they do not shut the door in my face, I ask nothing more. But do you want my opinion? I feel it in my bones that something will go wrong to-morrow.”
”Good lord, are you losing your nerve?” cried Braine impatiently. ”The secret service has the warning; they find the green stuff, and Jones & Co. will mog off to the police station. And there'll be a week of red tape before they are turned loose again. They'll dig into Hargreave's finances and all that. We'll have all the security in the world to find out if the money is in the house or not. Why worry?”
”It's only the way I feel. There is something uncanny in the regularity of that girl's good luck.”
”Ah, but we're not after her this time; it's the whole family.”
”The servants too?”
”Everybody in the house will be under suspicion.”