Children of the Whirlwind
minute she gets a police record. I've got to have a man who's able
to stand between me and the police. And I've got to know from past
performances that the man can do these things. Just large words about
what he can do, or hints about what he has done, don't count for a
nickel with me. This is plain, hard business I'm talking, Barney, and I
don't mean to hurt your feelings when I tell you that you don't measure
up in any way to the man I need.”
It had been difficult for Barney to hold himself until she had finished.
To start with, he had the vain man's constant itch to tell of his
exploits, his dislike for the anonymity of his cleverness unjustly
ascribed to some other man. And then Maggie had played upon him even
more skillfully than she imagined.
“I'm exactly the man you need in every way!” he exploded.
“Those are just words,” she said evenly. “I said I had to have something
more than mere words.”
“I'm ace-high with Chief Barlow!”
“You've got to be more explicit.”
Barney was now all excitement. “Don't you get what that means? I've
never been locked up once, and yet I've been pulling stuff all the time!
And yet look how Larry Brainard, that the bunch thought was so clever,
got hooked and was sent away. I guess you know the answer!”
“Again, Barney, I've got to ask you to be more explicit.”
“Then the answer is that all the while I've been working on an
understanding with Barlow. I guess that's explicit!”
“You mean,” she said in her cool voice, “that you've been a stool-pigeon
for Barlow?”
“Sure!--though I don't like the word. That's the only safe way of
staying steady in the game--an understanding with the police. All there
is to it is now and then to tip the police off about some dub of a
crook: of course you've got to be smooth enough not to let anyone guess
your game.”
“That doesn't seem to me such a strong talking point in your favor,” she
said thoughtfully.
“But don't you get the idea? I'm so strong with Barlow that I can get
away with anything I want to. That means I can give you the protection
from the police you just spoke about. See?”
“Yes I see.” Again she spoke thoughtfully. “But I told you I had to
be shown. You must have done some pretty big things to have got such a
standing with Barlow. For example?”
“I could write you a book!” He laughed in his excited pride. “You ask
for an example. I could hardly hold myself in awhile ago when you said
you'd practically swung the present deal alone, and that I'd done almost
nothing. Why, Maggie, I did just one smooth little thing without which
there couldn't have been any deal.”
“What?”
“You'll admit that nothing would have been safe with Larry Brainard
determined to butt in on what you did?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I'm the little guy that fixed Larry Brainard so he wouldn't hurt
anyone!”
“You did that?” For the first time Maggie showed what seemed to be a
live interest. “How?”
“How? You'll say it was clever when you learn how. And you'll say that
I'm the man you want on that count of being able to put over a situation
so that no one will ever guess I'm the man who did it. You'll admit that
putting Larry Brainard out of business, so he'd stay out, was certainly
a stiff job--for though I don't like him, I admit that Larry is one wise
bird. One thing I did was to suggest to Barlow that he force Larry to
become a police stool. I knew Larry would refuse, and I figured out
everything else exactly as it has happened. I ask you, wasn't that
putting something clever over?”
“It certainly was clever!” admired Maggie.
“Wait! That's only half. To finish Larry off so that he wouldn't have a
chance I had to finish him off not only with the cops, but also with
his pals. So I tipped off Barlow to the game Red Hannigan and Jack
Rosenfeldt were pulling and--”
“Then Larry Brainard really didn't do that?”
“No; I did it! Listen--there's some more to it. I spread the word, so
that it seemed to be a leak from the Police Department, that it was
Larry who had squealed on Red Hannigan and Jack Rosenfeldt. Did his old
pals start out to get Larry? Well, now, did they! If I do say it myself,
that was smooth work!”
“It was wonderful!” agreed Maggie.
“And there's still more, Maggie! You remember that charge of stick-up
and attempted murder of a Chicago guy that the police are trying to land
Larry on? I put that over! I'm the party that was messed up in that. I
was trying to put over a neat little job all on my own; but something
went wrong just as I thought I was cleaning out the sucker, and I had to
be rough with that Chicago guy in order to make a get-away from him. I
beat it straight to Barlow, and said that right here was the chance to
fasten something on Larry. Barlow took my tip. My foot may have slipped
on the original job, but my bean certainly did act quick, and you've got
to admit I turned an apparent failure into something bigger than success
would have been. And that's certainly traveling!”
“It certainly is!”
“And now, Maggie “--Barney pressed her eagerly--“I've shown you I'm just
the sort you said a man had to be for you to tie up with him. I've shown
you I can guarantee you police protection. And I've shown you I'm able
to put over clever situations without any one ever guessing I'm the
party who put 'em over. I fit all your specifications! How about our
settling right now to join up some place--Toronto's the best bet--say
three days after we make our get-away after to-night's clean-up? Let's
be quick about this, Maggie--before Old Jimmie comes in. He's due any
minute now!”
“Isn't that him at the door now?” breathed Maggie.
Both waited intently for a moment. But though she pretended so, Maggie's
interest was not upon the outer door. Her attention was fixed, as it had
been with sickening fear this last minute, upon that half-inch crack
in the closet door behind Barney. Why had she, in her dismayed urgence,
allowed Larry to possess himself of that closet key?--when her plan had
been to keep Hannigan as well as Barlow forcibly behind the scenes
until she had acted out her play? She now hoped almost against hope that
Hannigan would not burst forth and ruin what was yet to come. Since that
door unluckily had to be unlocked, her one chance was given her by the
presence of Larry. Perhaps Larry could perceive the larger things she
was striving for, and in some way restrain Hannigan.
These thoughts were but an instant in passing through her brain.
Barney's eyes came back from the outer door to her face. “That's not Old
Jimmie yet.”
“No,” her lips said. But her brain was saying, since the crack still
remained a half-inch crack, “Larry understands--he's holding back Red
Hannigan!”
Barney returned swiftly to his charge. “How about Toronto, Maggie--say
exactly seventy-two hours from now--the Royal Brunswick Hotel?”
Maggie realized she could no longer put him off if she were to keep
him unsuspicious for the next hour. Besides, in her desperate
disillusionment concerning herself, she did not care what happened to
her, or what people might think of her, if only she could keep this play
going till its final moment.
“Yes,” she said--“if we each feel the same way toward each other when
this evening's ended.”
“Maggie!” he cried. “Maggie!” This time, when he exultantly caught at
her hand, she dared not refuse it to him. And she felt an additional
loathing for Barney's caress because she knew that Larry was a witness
to it.
Indeed, it was difficult for Larry, at the sight of Maggie's hand in
Barney's too eager palms, to hold himself in check; and to do this in
addition to holding in check the slight, quivering Red Hannigan, whose
collar and whose right wrist he had been gripping these last three
minutes. For Larry, as Maggie had hoped, had dimly apprehended something
of Maggie's plan, and he felt himself bound by the promise she had
extracted from him, to let her go through with whatever she had under
way; though he had no conception of her plan's extent, and could, of
course, not know of the intention of her overwrought mind to give her
plan its final touch in what amounted to her own self-destruction, and
in her vanishing utterly out of the knowledge of all who knew her.
Another minute passed; then Larry heard three peculiar rings of the bell
of the outer door--an obvious signal. Maggie answered the summons,
and Larry saw Old Jimmie enter. There followed a rapid and compact
conference between the three, the substance of which was the telling of
Old Jimmie of the developments against Dick Sherwood which Maggie had
a little earlier recited to Barney, together with instructions to Old
Jimmie concerning his new role as Maggie's guardian. It seemed to Larry
that he caught signs of uneasiness in Jimmie, but to all the older man
nodded his head.
Presently there was a loud ring. “That's Dick!” exclaimed Barney in a
whisper. “And mighty eager, too--shows that by being ahead of the time
you set! Let him in, Maggie.”
Maggie was startled by the ring, though she did not show it. She thought
rapidly. She had definitely asked Dick to telephone before coming. Why
hadn't he telephoned? Perhaps something had happened to prevent it, or
perhaps an idea had come to him by which their plan could be bettered
without a telephone message. In either case, she and Dick might have
to improvise and deftly catch cues tossed to each other, as experienced
actors sometimes do without the audience ever knowing that a hiatus in
the play has been skillfully covered.
Maggie stood up. “You both understand what you're to do?”
Both whispered “yes.” Larry watched Maggie start across the room, his
whole figure quivering with suspense as to what was going to happen when
Dick entered. He was quite sure there was more here than appeared upon
the surface, quite sure that Maggie did not intend that the business
with Dick should work out as she had outlined. What could Maggie
possibly be up to? he asked himself in feverish wonderment, and could
find no answer. For of course Larry had no knowledge of that most
important fact: that Maggie had actually made a confession to Dick--not
the fraudulent confession she had told Barney of--but an honest and
complete confession, and that in consequence she and Dick were working
in cooperation.
From his crack Larry could not quite see the outer door. But after she
opened the door he saw Maggie fall back with an inarticulate cry, her
face suddenly blanched with astounded fright. And then Larry experienced
one of the greatest surprises of his life--a surprise so unnerving that
he almost loosed his hold upon Red Hannigan. For instead of Dick there
walked into the room the tall, white-haired figure of Joe Ellison, and
Joe's lean, prison-blanched face was aquiver with a devastating purpose.
How in the name of God had Joe come to be here?--and what did that
terrible look portend?
But Larry's surprise was but an unperturbing emotion compared to the
effect of her father's appearance, with his terrible face, upon Maggie.
Life seemed suddenly to go out of her. She realized that the clever play
which she had constructed so rapidly, and upon which she had counted to
clear the tangle for which she was in part responsible, and to bring
her back in time as the seeming fulfillment of the dream of a happy and
undisillusioned father--she realized that her poor, brilliant play
had come to an instant end before it was fairly started, and that the
control of events had passed into other hands.
CHAPTER XXXV
At the entrance of Joe Ellison instead of the expected Dick, Barney and
Old Jimmie had sprung up from the table in amazement. Joe strode past
Maggie, hardly heeding his daughter, and faced the two men.
“I guess you know me, Jimmie Carlisle!” said Joe with a terrifying