Leroy Scott

“ Slant-Face, very likely you'll live and die a crook. But at least you are, in your own way, a clean crook. But, Slant-Face--I'm talking now as your friend--the bunch you're trailing with, they're rats! Biff Farrell, and Gipsy Joe, and Red Mick, they're the lowest things that ever got into human shape. Keep tied to them, and they'll get you in some dirty mess that'll make you sick and ashamed for life. And if they don't do that, then some time when they get in a tight place, to save themselves they'll squeal on you. ”

“ Heavy, sick, Clifford went down the little dark hallway and unfastened the chain-bolt. "Grab him!" Bradley ordered his men, not recognizing Clifford, but knowing him not to be the fugitive he sought, and brushed by him and entered the sitting-room. Clifford, his arms seized, was pushed in after his former chief. Mary Regan and Slant-Face were seated behind a table. They did not rise. The square, dark face of Bradley, with its brilliant little eyes, fixed upon Slant-Face in grim gloating. ”

“ They sat down facing each other in a deeply upholstered booth across from the bar.
"When I've got something on you, Slant-Face," Clifford said, taking up the pickpocket's first remark, "I'm going to get you. And if I don't get you, some one else will. For every man in the department knows what you are and has his orders to lay for you." ”

“ Despite her control Mary Regan had paled. "You don't mean--my brother--"
"No. Your brother is the exception to the law. In him there is a streak of his own kind of honor. But you have got to understand the code, the point of view, and perverted psychology, of these pickpockets. With them it is the accepted order of things for one to have a girl working for him. That is convention. What would be strange to him would be not to have a girl. Slant-Face did not have a girl. That at first puzzled his three pals. ”

“ Biff Farrell dropped into the chair he had left to answer the door.
"Good God, Slant-Face," he breathed, "whaddu mean by comin' back? Don't you know the cops are hot after you?"
"I suppose they are," said Slant-Face.
"And that there's a reward of ten thousand out for you?" put in Red Mick.
"I didn't know about the reward," said Slant-Face. "Ten thousand. that's very complimentary. Who put it up? Not the police department?"
"The old man of the young guy you shot," answered Farrell. "And every cop in New York is out to grab you and that bank-roll, and Chief Bradley hottest of 'em all. ”

“ It's human nature to want to make the other fellow believe and behave like the rest of his kind--even in religion; so the three talked the matter over and decided, since argument wouldn't work, they'd try to trick Slant-Face into conformity. They found a girl, pretty, young, and new to that sort of life--Jennie Malone is her name--and arranged matters so that the two met seemingly by accident. ”

“ So I've studied him, his life, his friends--and so have the men who used to be under me--almost with a microscope. That's how I know. Thus far he has managed to avoid detection. And for a time he'll continue to escape, for he's the cleverest pickpocket working in. New York. But in the end he'll take too long chances, or overlook some detail, and will be caught. They always are."
"Most of that I already knew," said Mary Regan.
"That is only the best," said Clifford. "The worst thing about him is the three pals he is now working with. God knows what made him tie himself up with such a bunch ”

“ A bravo with the others, in the presence of Slant-Face, Biff was hesitant and cringing.
"Us ginks has been talkin' about you, Slant-Face," he said, after having edged slowly toward his subject. "We don't mean to butt in--it's your own business--but us guys don't make you out. About you and Jennie. Why, Jennie is a peacherino; any guy 'd fall for Jennie. You don't seem to know what you got in her. She could easy put the hooks into some rich boob--get him to keep her steady and give her plenty o' dough--and she'd slip the coin along to you. Hell, Slant-Face!" ”

“ Here in Original Joe's, indignant conventionality was making the same stand that it has made the world over since time began: resentfully, it was determined that the other person should not be different.
"Biff, you hand Slant-Face that line o' talk we was talkin' about," said Gipsy Joe, "and if that don't do no good, then we'll pull the college boy stunt with Jennie." ”

“ Well, I says to her Slant-Face didn't seem to care much about that show she's got tickets for, and he seems to have something new on for to-night--another girl, I guess. You get me? that'll make Jennie sore. And then I says to her I know a swell guy that's dyin' to meet her, and take her out to dinner and a show. Oh, I know how to handle her. I'll put it up to her in the way to make her fall for it, all right. And then I brings in that young nut that's broke loose from college and is burnin' up Broadway, and who's been askin' me to steer him up against a piece o' real life. ”

“ Beneath this glittering surface there is a sordidness and vileness you may never have dreamed of. Now a pickpocket almost invariably is also a cadet. He has a girl, or several, on whose earnings he depends for a steady income. ”

“ And now whaddu think o' his sayin' last night that him and Jennie was going' to get married some day!"
"Aw, hell!" commented Red Mick.
"The boob!" spat Biff Farrell. "What for's a guy want to marry a girl he's already livin' with unless there's a big stake in it? Ain't he the limit! Jennie ain't askin' it. Marryin' when you don't have to, it's throwin' your chances away. You may want to get married again some time, when there's somethin' in it for you, and if you do-- bing!--first thing you know you may be in the cooler." He spat again. "Slant-Face, the damned boob!" ”

“ He backed away, covering Clifford with his pistol. "You're not going to get me, and no other man--while I'm alive, anyhow."
Mary Regan stepped between the two.
"You're all wrong, Jim!" she cried rapidly. "Mr. Clifford has tried to be your friend. didn't he advise you, before anything happened, to cut loose from those three men? And that night in Original Joe's café, when I wanted to speak to you, it was to tell you something Mr. Clifford had told me--that those three had some crooked game working against you and Jennie, and that you should look out. ”

“ And Slant-Face comes and spots 'em. See? You know what he'll think. Slant-Face don't ask questions; he acts. Seein' Jennie at it, he'll say to himself she might as well be doin' it for him--and he'll put her right out on the street. And that'll finish his superior airs, the-- -- --!"
Biff Farrell nodded with a very superior air of his own. "It's pie, fellows. Easy as eatin' is for a two-handed hungry man."
"Great stuff!" acclaimed Red Mick.
"You sure got a great little head, Biff," admired Gipsy Joe. "Have another." ”

“ Clifford shook his head.
Regan's manner relaxed. "Then have another drink?"
"Thanks. No."
"Well, I've got to meet the bunch." He raised his glass and drained the last of his buttermilk, then rose. "So-long." ”

“ But skeptic and cynic though she might be, he would give her the chance.
"Your uncle has been what he is for over thirty years and may never be anything different," he began. "But that young teller who actually robbed the bank, he was not by nature a criminal. And I do not believe you are either. it's your training. ”