Octavus Roy Cohen

“ Her voice came crisply now in response to the warm friendliness of the detective's tone. “Any man who will do what Noah Lathrop did is the dirtiest kind of a crook. He's poison mean and low-down and rotten. You never knew a first class crook who would welch like that, did you?”
“No-o. Not no decent crook.”
“Neither did I. And I figured out if Lathrop was that crooked—it wasn’t the first time. He's a prominent man and he's proud. He must have slipped before. It's a certainty that some time in his life he's done something just as rotten as the trick he pulled on Tim. ”

“ But a few minutes since he had seen Mary Lannigan flustered for the first time in the several years of their acquaintanceship. That discomfiture bespoke guilt. Hanvey’s fat fingers groped for the gold toothpick so lately admired by Pauline Lathrop. That golden horror was of inestimable assistance to Hanvey in moments of mental stress. Mary working as a nursegirl. Hmph! There was something behind that—bound to be. Jim Hanvey was reputed to know intimately every worthwhile crook in the country and he counted Tim and Mary Lannigan as among his very best friends. ”

“ The silence proved somewhat embarrassing to Jim. It was entirely too impersonal for his friendly nature. “What's your name?”
“Pauline.”
“Pauline what?”
“Pauline Lathrop.”
“That's a pretty name, Pauline. Where do you live?”
A touch of imitative snobbishness displayed itself in the answer of the little girl. “Riverside Drive. My father is a very rich man and we have three automobiles.”
“Wonderful. Astounding. And what is your father’s name?”
“Mr. Noah Lathrop. He's an emporter.”
“An emporter, eh?” Remembrance came to the detective. “Sure. Sure enough he is. A joolry importer, isn't he?” ”

“ I wouldn’t be kicking if he’d come clean with Tim in the first place and told him it was stolen stuff. It was the double-crossing and then the welching that hurt. And the fact that Tim is innocent. A crook has a hard enough life serving time for what he really does, let alone what he don’t do.
“That's why I worked around and got this job as nursegirl in Lathrop's home. I’ve got a room on the place, and I’m watching, Jim—I’m watching close. I’m learning a heap about that bird. He's rotten all the way through—a cheap, piking, safety-first crook. ”

“ He fidgeted in embarrassment. “It is kinder funny—a detective workin’ for a crook. But it's something I’ve always wanted to do. Of course, I mightn't be of any help——”
“You will, Jim. You will. Oh! it's wonderful. I’ve been so alone——”
“Aw! dry up, Sister. It’s my job to nab the whole bunch of you when you’ve done something to be nabbed for. But I like you—every one of you—and I’m damned if I can sit back and see you go up for something you didn’t do. Specially when you’ve been double-crossed by an honest man.” ”

“ The jewels have been returned to Paris. Yeager has disappeared. Noah Lathrop swears he don’t know nothing about anything crooked. And when Tim gets through serving his smuggling time, Jim—they’re going to send him back to Paris to stand trial for stealing them jewels.”
Her voice trailed off. Jim blinked with maddening slowness and turned his apparently sightless eyes upon a pert little squirrel nearby. But his voice was charged with keenest sympathy——
“They’ve got him dead to rights, sure enough, aint they, Mary?”
“Yes,” with fierce bitterness, “they have. He hasn't a leg to stand on. ”

“ Tim's story verified that of Mary in every way. The big, handsome, red-headed crook was pitifully embarrassed at the knowledge that Jim was working for him. Too, he made no attempt to conceal his emotion at tidings of Mary’s activity in his behalf. Jim found him bitter against Lathrop and not at all so against Walt Yeager. “Poor Walt! He was crossed up pretty near as bad as I was. And he's flat now. Gosh! To think of getting away with a job like that and then have a falldown. It's tough!” ”

“ In answer to their frank questionings he invariably returned an answer astounding in its simple logic——”
“A feller is either born crooked or straight. I was born straight—that's all. You can’t blame me for that any more than I can blame you for bein’ crooked.”
But now he was to attain the unspoken ambition of many years: he was to expend his talents in an effort to free one of his criminal friends from an unjust charge. Let Tim Lannigan serve his time for smuggling—he was guilty. But Jim had checked up on Mary’s story and knew that she had spoken the truth. ”

“ I wish I thought he’d dare buy those things—I wish we could catch him with the goods.”
Jim's toneless voice came as though from another room. “You keep those eyes of your’n peeled, Mary. If he's gone this far with the deal the chances are he'll go through. An’ if you can get wise to the hour when they pull it I’ll be on hand. ...”
“You think they’ll do it at home?”
“Surest thing you know. A guy as keen as Lathrop ain’t riskin' a deal like that in his office; he wouldn't even let Teddy come there if he knew what he was comin’ for. Yeh, Sis, I reckon they’ll put it through at home. ”

“ True, thus far Jim had done very little and that little with his customary modest unobtrusiveness. His chief aid had been in moral support, in a willingness to talk things over. What had really been accomplished had been the result of her own unremitting vigilance ... but the hour was approaching when Jim was to play a leading rôle. At the moment of dénouement she would have been sadly handicapped without him—and she knew it, for there was no possible chance of publicity without an airing of her own unsavory reputation. ”

“ You've got the money. I'm broke. There ain't a piece of evidence against me. And Jim Hanvey is square. I’m asking him to make you prove that you didn't steal those jewels.”
Lathrop stammered. He stared first at Nelson, then at the lethargic Hanvey. “A-a detective?” he muttered.
“Uh-huh.” It was Jim who answered. “A regular, honest-to-Gawd detective.” He flashed his badge and strode over to the table. He inspected the pearls briefly. “It’s that Rawlings’ stuff, ain’t it, Teddy?”
Nelson shook his head. “You can’t prove anything by me, Jim. Say listen——” he became very earnest. ”

“ They've been watchin’ Teddy ever since them pearls were stolen. The only reason they didn’t nab him long ago was because they didn’t know where he had 'em cache’d—it wasn’t gonna do ’em a bit of good to grab Teddy unless they got the pearls, too.”
She shook her head slowly—“I didn’t know they suspected Teddy of that job. ...”
“There ain't but a half dozen men in the country could of done it,” explained Jim, “an’ Teddy was the only one with a perfect alibi, so they knew it was him. But it ain’t Teddy they’re after—it's the stuff.”
“So-o ... and you think he's trying to sell 'em to Lathrop?” ”

“ I’ll commence right at the beginnin', Jim. It started six months ago when Tim went to Europe. You know he's a real gent and every once in so often he works the card graft on the big steamers—not often enough for them to know him. Only when business is dull.
“Well, he was over there loafing around waiting for a certain party to sail for America again, this party being the grandest sucker which ever stood a couple of raises for the privilege of drawin’ to an in-between straight. About that time Mr. Noah Lathrop was in Paris doing some jewelry buying. He goes over there once or twice every year. ”

“ Beside him was a pile of crisp, new one-hundred dollar bills. His lean, rather saturnine, face, still reflected the avarice of a moment since although an expression of stark terror was now slowly robbing him of his naturally aggressive unpleasantness. ”

“ He's doing a two-year stretch in Atlanta. He left me flat—that's why I went to work. I got a nursing job because I naturally like kids. I had to do somethin’.”
“Mm!” Jim's face betrayed no particular interest. If there was doubt of her in his mind he did not show it. “Funny—you workin’ as a nursegirl while Tim is doing a stretch. Well—I sure hope you stay on the straight an’ narrow. It don’t pay awful good but it's real safe.” ”

“ Jim regarded him steadily. “Tim Lannigan is a good friend of mine, Lathrop. One of the best friends I have. It just occurs to me that we might make a little deal. ... Interested?”
“Yes. Yes. Go on.”
“Well—all we’ve been after in this Rawlings affair is the stuff. We don’t care particularly about sending Teddy Nelson up. And since we’ve got the pearls ... how about this: You sit down there and sign a confession that you hired Tim Lannigan to smuggle in those jewels. You can say that you didn’t know they were stolen—that it was simply a job on your part to beat the customs. ”

“ Lathrop was out that evening—“Gadding about like she always does. ...” and the butler was attending to affairs of his own. Mary had been left in charge of the complacently sleeping Pauline. She crept to the door of the library and applied an ear to the keyhole.
From inside came the wellnigh unintelligible murmur of voices. Occasionally one or the other of the men would become argumentative. It was plain that they were bargaining. Mary fancied that she could see the long-sought-for string of Rawlings pearls through the keyhole ... ”

“ Lathrop was interested, of course. It was a graft for him. He'd run no risk buying the stuff in New York and since his house has a first class rep he knew he could slip 'em on the market one by one and the trade would never be no wiser. They dickered around for awhile and agreed on one hundred and forty thousand dollars cash, F. O. B. Maiden Lane. And that's where Tim was pulled into the deal.
“Walt Yeager wasn’t willing to declare those jewels at the customs and he wasn’t game to try and smuggle 'em. ”