Dashiell Hammett

Name: Slippery Fingers
Author: Dashiell Hammett

Slippery Fingers (1923)

Summary

“Slippery Fingers”, published in 1923, is a work by Dashiell Hammett. It explores elements such as Clane, Grover and prints.

Quotes from Slippery Fingers (Dashiell Hammett)

Dashiell Hammett, Slippery Fingers (1923)

“ Clane had been blackmailing Grover—I didn’t have a single doubt of that—and I didn’t think he had been very far away when Grover was killed. That woman alibi of his sounded all wrong!
But the bloody finger-prints were not Clane’s—unless the police identification bureau had pulled an awful boner—and the man who had left the prints was the bird I was setting my cap for. Clane had let three days pass between the murder and his appearance at headquarters. The natural explanation for that would be that his partner, the actual murderer, had needed nearly that much time to put himself in the clear. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Dashiell Hammett, Slippery Fingers (1923)

“ He had met Henry Grover—he called him “Henny”—in 1894, in Ontario, where Grover was working a claim: the gold mine that had started the murdered man along the road to wealth. Clane had been employed by Grover as foreman, and the two men had become close friends. A man named Denis Waldeman had a claim adjoining Grover’s and a dispute had arisen over their boundaries. The dispute ran on for some time—the men coming to blows once or twice—but finally Grover seems to have triumphed, for Waldeman suddenly left the country. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Dashiell Hammett, Slippery Fingers (1923)

“ A burglar who had killed a man, and perhaps picked up $10,000 in the bargain, wouldn’t be likely to turn his hand to another job right away.
I looked at the paper-knife with which Grover had been killed, and at the photographs of the bloody prints, but they couldn’t help me much just now. There seemed to be nothing to do but get out and dig around until I turned up something somewhere.
Then the door opened, and Joseph Clane was ushered into the room where O’Hara, Dean and I were talking.
Clane was a hard-bitten citizen, for all his prosperous look ”

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Source: Wikisource

Dashiell Hammett, Slippery Fingers (1923)

“ I was out with a girl the night of the murder”—he leered suddenly, boastingly—“all night! And she’s a good girl, got a husband and a lot of folks; and it wouldn’t be right to drag her into this to prove that I wasn’t in Henny’s house when he was killed, in case you’d maybe think I killed him. So I thought I better come down here, tell you all about it, and get you to take my finger-prints, and have it all over with.”
We went up to the identification bureau and had Clane’s prints taken. They were not at all like the murderer’s. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Dashiell Hammett, Slippery Fingers (1923)

“ Then I want him shadowed until he shows up at police headquarters tomorrow. I want to know where he goes and who he talks to. And if he spends much time talking to any one person, or their conversation seems very important, I want one of you boys to trail the other man, to see who he is and what he does. If Clane tries to blow town, grab him and have him thrown in the can, but I don’t think he will.”
I gave Dick and Bob time enough to get themselves placed, and then went to the hotel. Clane was out, so I waited. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Dashiell Hammett, Slippery Fingers (1923)

“ Then we all sat down and had a nice talk.
“I told you about the trouble Henny had with that fellow Waldeman,” Clane began, after he and Farr had decided to come clean: there was nothing else they could do. “And how he won out in the argument because Waldeman disappeared. Well, Henny done for him—shot him one night and buried him—and I saw it. Grover was one bad actor in them days, a tough hombre to tangle with, so I didn’t try to make nothing out of what I knew.
“But after he got older and richer he got soft—a lot of men go like that—and must have begun worrying over it ”

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Source: Wikisource

Dashiell Hammett, Slippery Fingers (1923)

“ I caught a street-car and went back to town, called at Ned Root’s office, and headed him out toward Grover’s. Ned is a human adding machine with educated eyes, ears, and nose. He can spot a kink in a set of books farther than I can see the covers. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Dashiell Hammett, Slippery Fingers (1923)

“ The servants’ rooms are in the rear, and none of the servants seem to have heard anything during the night.
“At seven-thirty the following morning—Sunday—Barton found father lying on the floor, just to the right of where you are sitting, dead, stabbed in the throat with the brass paper-knife that was always kept on the table here. The front door was ajar.
“The police found bloody finger-prints on the knife, the table, and the front door; but so far they have not found the man who left the prints, which is why I am employing your agency. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Dashiell Hammett, Slippery Fingers (1923)

“ He forgot his injured feelings and bent to look at Clane’s hand.
“I’ll be—” he began, and then the two of us were busy for a few minutes taking Clane down and sitting on him, while O’Hara quieted Farr, who had also gone suddenly into action.
When things were peaceful again Phels examined Clane’s hands carefully, scratching the fingers with a finger-nail.
He jumped up, leaving me to hold Clane, and paying no attention to my, “What is it?” got a cloth and some liquid, and washed the fingers thoroughly. We took his prints again. They matched the bloody ones taken from Grover’s house! ”

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Source: Wikisource

Dashiell Hammett, Slippery Fingers (1923)

“ You’ll have the time of your life trying to solve this crime before you get to the end of the story. You’ll think some of the characters don’t act logically, but when you figure it out afterward you’ll decide they were all pretty wise. ”

Dashiell Hammett

Summary

Quotes from Slippery Fingers (Dashiell Hammett)

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