Leroy Scott

“ Five minutes later the car came to a halt in lower Broadway before a barred, fortress-like structure. The time was ten minutes to nine.
"The Empire Security Bank!" exclaimed Joe Russell.
Clifford did not heed him. He opened the door of the cab, himself stepped forth, and thrust into one of young Jerrold's hands the tennis racket and into the other the suit-case.
"This is where you get out, Jerrold," he said, trying to speak calmly. "Walk into the bank as though you'd really just returned from a week-end in the country, get that money back into the vault, and get busy on your job." ”

“ Devoted mother--model son of the old-fashioned pattern, who might become an honored member of society in a small way if untoward influences did not come into conflict with his none-too-definite will. Over this neat flat and these nice, commonplace people, Clifford infallibly sensed danger, vague but great, and menacingly close at hand. Russell's plan in regard to young Jerrold--what was it? Clifford guessed at many; but there was never any foretelling what the subtle, fertile-minded Joe Russell would do.
And Clifford tried to think out what might be the part of Mary Regan. ”

“ Russell's tone was cordial. "One minute, and I'll be out."
Mary Regan, making no sign, permitted Clifford to go down the hall. An open door gave him a glimpse into a bedroom--her bedroom, he instantly surmised--and at the foot of the bed was a woven straw traveling bag and across a chair was a woman's traveling coat of pongee silk.
He had a moment alone in the sitting-room, for Mary Regan did not deign to follow him in to give him company. He gave a swift glance around, then stooped over wires that ran along the base-board, and snip! snip! he went with a pair of thin-jawed, powerful clippers. ”

“ But the next moment she was at him, standing furiously above him.
"What you say isn't worth that!" her words rushed out, and she snapped her fingers.
"And it's worth all the less coming from you! Honesty! Every person is out to get his. Every person! And out to get it the easiest and safest way they can. that's what the whole world is doing, whatever else they may pretend. Honesty! There isn't any such thing. It's just a word that hypocritical thieves use to intimidate fools into leaving alone what they've stolen."
She paused to catch her breath. Clifford blinked at her, bewildered. ”

“ But as for the young man with whom she danced, he pendulated between no such uncertainties. Clifford had him sized up. In a general way, he knew him. The young man was patently one of those under-brained sons of Western wealth, whom a large allowance, or parental death, sets loose on Broadway every so often; another "thousand-dollar-a-day sport," another "millionaire kid." Joe Russell, and the lieutenants who had discovered this last "good thing" and deftly steered him into Russell's company, would certainly not waste their wits on any lesser game. ”

“ Mary Regan held the automatic point blank at Clifford while Russell moved to the window and peered down. Her face was tense with wonderment, but the dark eyes were unflinchingly hard.
Russell returned from the window, took the pistol and resumed his seat. He did not speak.
"None of you can leave this apartment to telephone from another room, for if you try, I show a handkerchief at the window, or blow my whistle, and up Dempsey comes. And besides, Joe," Clifford continued, "you know that I know that you would not shoot anyhow. You may bluff, but you have never shot in your life--not at a man. ”

“ Clifford managed in his amazement to articulate.
"Then it's because you see more in it for you by pretending to be honorable!" she rushed on. "Oh, don't you think I see what it means to you? A far bigger thing than it can ever mean to any of us. Oh"--with a flash of inspiration--"I see now why you are not arresting us at once! Since Mr. Bradley has been fooled and put off, you think you can hold us here several days--until the bank finds out. Then the papers will be full of it. And the bank will offer a big reward, and increase it--perhaps to $50,000. ”

“ Bradley, but I at least didn't believe a word you said. Your trial and discharge showed you up for what you are. You detectives are the lowest crooks on earth. You make the crooks who have the brains or the courage to get out and do something, men who really take risks, you make them split with you. And when you arrest them, it's to gain promotion with higher pay, or it's to make the crooks more afraid of you so that they'll give you a larger share. And in this affair," pointing toward the suit-case, Dempsey had returned, "there's more in it for you than for us. ”

“ Mary Regan whirled about.
"I shall not tell!"
"Yes, you will. It's the only decent thing there's left that you can do for the boy. You and he are about to part, and he must not be allowed to go on thinking that you love him; he's got to be cured of that." It gave Clifford a hurting pleasure to be thus giving pain for pain. "And besides, while I'm making you no promises, there are some things I can do to make this a bit easier for you--and if you want these from me for yourself or your uncle, you've got to tell Jerrold." ”

“ At Columbus Avenue he caught a surface car, and, first surprise for Clifford, it was a northbound car and not a car headed southward toward the region of reckless spending. At One Hundred and Sixteenth Street he got off, walked one block, then let himself into an apartment with a latch-key.
Clifford dismissed his taxi, and from the opposite side of the street gazed at the house. He was momentarily puzzled. The house, as did the block, showed its character by its front: a house where decent careful people of limited means could get four rooms for something like twenty-five dollars a month. ”

“ Mary Regan moved away from the telephone. Joe Russell's eyes blazed over the automatic at Clifford.
"So," he breathed," you think you have cut us off from outside communication!"
"I think I have, Joe," and Clifford again thrust his clippers toward the suit-case.
"Touch that lock and I shoot!"
Clifford looked up." You ought to know, Russell," he said, "that I would not have come in here without having made my plans. Billy Dempsey is on guard outside. The fire-escape is at the front of the house. The servants' entrance is in front directly beneath the main entrance. Every exit is in plain view. ”

“ No reward can be offered yet."
"We'll be going now," Clifford repeated.
Five minutes later they were leaving the apartment, their week-end over. Russell was as spruce as ever. The youth was pasty and shaking. Mary Regan was pale with a gray pallor, and had purple-ringed eyes. Her face was almost blank of expression, save that for Clifford it had its same hard edge of hostility. He was the one who was going to profit.
Clifford carried Jerrold's suit-case, into which the bank's money had been replaced, and also Jerrold's racket. ”

“ Clifford had not yet told them his purpose--chiefly because he had not definitely known it himself. Now, however, after two days of feverish thinking, he might have told them had not the forbidding hostility of Mary Regan stiffened his pride into silence--and also had it not been for the circumstance that at this moment he felt he could command no more than half a dozen words.
When the coffee was finished Clifford stood up. "We'll be going now," he said.
"I don't quite get you, Bob," said Russell. "I thought you were going to hold us here till a reward was offered. ”

“ And the next moment his ankles were securely bound.
"Sorry, Bob," panted Russell, "but we couldn't let you get away with it."
"Who is he?" interjected a high, excited voice, that Clifford knew must be Jerrold's.
"He used to be a friend, but at present he's a danger to us. It's all right now though, my boy. Mary, you and Philip make ready for our get- away."
"But Mr. Clifford's man below--that Mr. Dempsey?" put in Mary Regan.
"When we're ready to leave," said Russell, "we'll give Dempsey the signal to come up. A handkerchief held at the window; that was it, wasn't it, Clifford? ”

“ There was a long silence. Russell leaned back at his ease. It had become second nature with that poiseful gentleman to exert no energy of mind and body upon things he could not control. After a few minutes, he said: "While we're waiting, Bob, what do you say to a game of poker?"
"All right," said Clifford.
VI
The hours passed, and still Clifford, bewildered at himself, continued to put off arrest, though now and again the nervous fear rose in him that Chief Bradley might come back. ”

“ I thought I might for once save twenty-five or fifty thousand."
"I see--and Bradley suspected and had you watched!" cried Clifford, a sense of fresh mastery surging up in him: 'You're up against it, Joe! Bradley doesn't have to come from Headquarters. He is at the One Hundredth Street Station. I saw him go in as I rode up here. it's plain he's on the spot, to watch which way you jump. Sorry for you, Joe, but if you try to beat it this minute, Dempsey will grab you. And if you wait to pull that trick on Dempsey, Bradley will be right on top of you."
Neither Russell nor Mary Regan spoke. ”

“ Name, Mary Regan; American born; age, very early twenties; later education received in a religious school near Versailles; for last year suspected of playing part in the amazingly clever and successful operations of a group of American swindlers in Paris; no direct evidence against her; coming to America; look out.
That Paris group--Clifford was certain it must be a crack company in' Joe Russell's army of soldiers of fortune....
As he watched the pair, a lesser question perplexed him: Why had Commissioner Thorne given him the case of Mary Regan? ”

“ You have allowed your personal charm, your sex, to be used to lead an undeveloped boy on to his ruin. You have encouraged him to fall in love with you. Had he not been wildly infatuated, he could never have been induced to do what he has done. ”

“ And as for Jerrold--think of him having to handle stacks of money every day, helping to pile up the millions of profits for the big bankers--and for it all getting in the end perhaps thirty a week. that's not such a devilishly brilliant career to have saved the boy from."
Clifford did not attempt to reply to the element of twisted truth in Russell's words. He turned to Mary Regan, who was still standing stiffly upright, and who still held upon him the same hard, contemptuous gaze. She had treated him with scorn and insult, she had stung him whenever chance had offered. ”

“ Jerrold,"--it was an hour later and Clifford was in the uptown house; the young man's name he had secured from the bank porter--"pardon me, but as an investigator for the bonding company which gave bond to the Empire Security Bank for your son, it is my duty to make a few inquiries. Please understand that it's a mere matter of form; nothing at all for you to be disturbed about. But, of course, you appreciate that to safeguard our interests we must keep in touch with the persons whose integrity we have guaranteed with our money." ”

“ Clifford gave him a gentle push in the direction of the bank. Without looking behind him, half-running, half-staggering, the boy crossed the sidewalk and passed the big uniformed guard at the doorway.
"We'll wait here a few minutes; there's something we want to see," Clifford said to the pair in the cab, and closed the door, and took his stand a few yards away, his back toward them.
When his watch showed quarter past nine, and depositors had begun to enter the bank in number, Clifford opened the door of the cab. ”

“ She turned her back upon him in uttermost scorn and gazed out the window.
"I would n't worry, Mary," put in the equable voice of Russell. "He can't do quite all these things. Bob, you know I asked for that truce to get a chance to think. Well, I've thought. You know you haven't got a thing on us. The money is here, of course, but you can't prove that we had anything to do with getting it here."
"I'll have plenty on you when young Jerrold in the next room there tells his story to Thorne. ”