Rupert Hughes

“ Memling sighed dismally: "The circumstances are not particularly conducive to a jocund entente."
Nellie threw him a startled look. "I got the woid 'soicumstances,' but after that I fell off. But I think the soicumstances are such that we all got a right to be full of glee and moith. Here's you, the greatest sculptor in the woild, making the portrait bust of a grande dame—I suppose swells don't call it bust, but boist—anyway, you ought to be happy dabbling in clay again, but you act like you was kneading red-hot mush and it boint your fingers. ”

“ Worthington planned. For when Nellie returned, she heard Mrs. Worthington chattering like a magpie, and Memling laughing with more than polite interest.
Mrs. Worthington was saying:
"After all, there isn't any figure more picturesque than Claude Duval, or Dick Turpin, do you think so? If one is a gentleman it doesn't matter so much about his profession, does it? I always believe that manners are far more important than morals, don't you? In fact, they are the highest kind of morals—don't you think so? ”

“ Memling beamed. "I don't know much about police affairs, but with so many policemen going to Sing Sing promotions must be very rapid, and you look to me like an ambitious man. You leave no stomach unturned—I mean no stone unturned. Fancy, now, you're being so thorough as to visit the home of so prominent a man as Commodore Worthington and accuse a starving sculptor of having carried off a whole storage warehouse. ”

“ Worthington was worn to peevishness, and she observed contemptuously:
"They show their lack of intelligence in attempting the crime in the first place. And as for imagination, if they had any they would realize that they are bound to be caught."
"Not necessarily," said Memling, "for the people who are set to catch them are sometimes even less intelligent and even less imaginative. And the coarsest work sometimes goes undetected, the plainest clews overlooked. ”

“ All that day the cordon remained. And the next morning the same figures were visible like hungry wolves on the prowl about a sheepfold.
VI. "Doik, we gotta do sumpum to shake off that Melick mut," said Nellie. "We can't stay here forever. I think I'd rather be in the pen than spend a life sentence here watching Mrs. Worthington pouring the love light from her eyes on you, and dodging the old commodore's impoitinent advances to me."
"If I only had those documents of Melick's here, I could scare him to death. I wasn't as wise as I thought I was when I put them in the Continental Warehouse. ”

“ The man who tried to get anywhere with two women in double harness is bound to get a smash-up. I'll go back to town and let the police take me to the nice quiet penitentiary, where there are no women at all."
The mention of the penitentiary brought Nellie back to earth. The hot flashes of jealousy gave way to a cold sweat of terror. She had almost forgotten that she was in more danger of losing Memling to the law than to this lady, and that the penitentiary would divorce them more effectually than any flirtation. ”

“ Success meant so much; failure meant the end of everything except life—and what was life without liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
IV. The commodore was fortunately called to a meeting of the house committee of his yacht club, and the evening was devoted to perfecting the alibi.
A complete series of events was constructed and memorized, rehearsed, altered, and rerehearsed. Memling tried to forestall every possible flaw in the story. He played the part of an imaginary detective, and put Mrs. Worthington, Nellie, and himself through grueling cross-examinations. ”

“ The commodore, Mrs. Worthington, and Nellie made themselves conspicuous on the veranda.
Memling reached the pier without being held up, and the motor boat hastened him to the yacht. The anchor came up with a rush, and the vessel turned her nose to New York. Memling retired to a stateroom and emerged in his own clothes. The yacht dropped him in a dinghy at an unfrequented slip, and he made his way to his club, found in his letter box the self-addressed envelope containing the safe-deposit keys, and took a taxicab to the warehouse. ”

“ It was evident that during the night a cordon had been drawn around the Worthington estate. They were under siege.
Believing that the best defense is attack, Memling determined to make a sally. After an examination through the commodore's marine glasses, he decided that the man on the front beach was Lieutenant Melick himself in plain clothes. He decided to beard the lion before the lion sprang at him. Nellie protested frantically, but Memling answered that if they were to be taken it would happen inside the house or out. ”

“ I just can't. All we do is sit around and think of our past crimes."
And all three of them had crimes to think of. Dirk Memling and Nellie had completed the most ambitious and triumphant crime of their careers—the raid on the Continental Storage Warehouse—and they were, for the first time, closely shadowed by the police.
They had found that a storage warehouse is a vast receptacle for many things besides jewelry, cash securities, silver, clothes, automobiles, paintings, pianos—and what not. ”

“ District Attorney. Memling had an idea that these might come in handy in case the police lieutenant or the district attorney grew unpleasantly active.
Nellie, for her part, had slipped into her bosom a document to which Memling had attached no importance. It was simply a certified copy of the decree in the divorce case of a prominent society woman, Mrs. Percy Schermerman, who had named as corespondent a still more prominent woman, Mrs. Willoughby Worthington. The evidence had been sealed, and the yellower papers had toiled in vain to find out just who the prominent corespondent was. ”

“ Woithington that ought to be proud as a Toik at having her double chin poipetrated to immortal fame by a great sculptor, but she's acting like she was a shoplifter being held and mugged for the rogues' gallery. "And here's me, that's prayed all my life to get a look-in at high society, and now that I find myself really inside a swell home without committin' boiglary, I'm wondering if I can keep from screaming and chewing up the foiniture one day more. ”

“ You'd think we was a coupla millionaires tryin' to kill time instead of a coupla boiglars tryin' to keep from doin' it. We've got our alibi all built up, but when are we going to get a chance to use it? ”

“ OF all the house parties that ever house-partied, Doik," Nellie summed up the situation to Memling, "this is soitainly the woist. Mrs. Hostess had to be blackmailed out of the invitation, and Mrs. Guestess and Friend Husband only accepted in pref'runce to goin' to the penitentiary. I'd always hoid that high society folks are bored to death all the time, but I didn't know how doleful they could be. ”

“ The trunk belonged to an actress famous for the number and fervor of her love affairs on and off the stage.
The district attorney turned again to his letter. It had a sadly different look in the cold perspective of time. ”