The Further Adventures of Jimmie Dale Part 32

Hoppy Meggs moved forward, dropped on his knees in front of the trunk, examined the lock for an instant--and grunted in contempt.

"Aw, it's a cinch! Say, I could do it wid a hairpin!" he grinned--and a moment later threw back the lid.

Hunchback Joe drew a short, ugly blackjack, a packet of papers, and a large roll of bills from his pocket, and tossed the articles into the trunk.

"Lock it again!" he instructed tersely.

Hoppy Meggs hesitated--he was staring into the trunk.

"Say, youse don't mean dat--do youse?" he demanded heavily. "Not dem papers dat--"

Hunchback Joe's smile was not pleasant.

"Lock the trunk!" he said curtly. And then, as Hoppy Meggs closed down the lid: "I didn't bring you here to offer any advice; but as I don't want you to labour under the impression that, not having any brains of your own, there aren't, therefore, any brains at all to stand between you and the police, I'll tell you. If they recover the original doc.u.ment, besides fixing the crime on Klanner, they'll figure they've got it back before any harm has been done, and before it has been pa.s.sed on to whoever had paid down the little cash advance to Klanner for the job in the shape of that roll there--eh? And figuring that way they won't change any of the plans or details as they stand now in those papers--eh? And meanwhile a _copy_ is just as good to the man who is coughing up to you and me and the rest of us for this, isn't it?"

"My Gawd!" said Hoppy Meggs in fervent admiration, as he locked the trunk.

"Yes," said Hunchback Joe--and the snarl was back in his voice. "And now you see to it that you've got the rest of what _you've_ got to do straight. It won't pay you to make any mistakes! Let the Mole's crowd start something before you pull the lights--it's got to look like a drunken row where the bystander, with n.o.body but himself to blame for being in such a place as that, _accidentally_ gets his! And you tip the Kid off again to leave Klanner by his lonesome at the table before the trouble starts, or he'll get in bad himself. The Kid can pull a fake play to make up with some moll across the room. Klanner's no friend of his, he never saw the man before--you understand?--just ran into him outside the dance hall, if any questions are asked. But I don't want any questions, and there won't be any if he plays his hand right. Tell him I said his job's over once he has Klanner inside--and to stand from under. Get me?"

"Sure!" said Hoppy Meggs.

"Well, we'll beat it, then," snapped Hunchback Joe.

The room was in darkness again. Jimmie Dale crouched further back along the wall. The rear door opened, two shadows emerged, pa.s.sed around the corner of the tenement--and disappeared.

The minutes pa.s.sed, five of them, and then Jimmie Dale, too, was making his way softly along the areaway to the street--but in Jimmie Dale's pockets were the short leaden blackjack, ugly for the stain on its leathern covering, the packet of papers, and the roll of banknotes that had been in Klanner's trunk. He gained the street, paused under the nearest street lamp to consult his watch, and swung briskly along again. It was a matter of only two blocks to Baldy Jack's, one of the most infamous dance halls in the Bad Lands, but it was already ten minutes to ten.

And now a curious metamorphosis came to Jimmie Dale's appearance. The neat, well-fitting Fifth Avenue tweeds did not fit quite so perfectly--the coat bunched a little at the shoulders, the trousers were drawn a little higher until they lost their "set." His hat was pulled still farther over his eyes, but at a more rakish angle, and his tie, tucked into his s.h.i.+rt bosom just below the collar, exposed blatantly a diamond s.h.i.+rt stud. But on Jimmie Dale's lips there was an ominous smile not wholly in keeping with the somewhat jaunty swagger he had a.s.sumed, and the lines at the corners of his mouth were drawn down hard and sharp. It was miserable work, the work of a hound and cur! Who, better than the _janitor_ of the bank, would have had the opportunity to carry on that work there! And so they had selected Klanner as their victim.

But Klanner, if allowed to talk, might be able to defend himself--therefore Klanner would not be allowed to talk. There was only one way to prevent that effectively--by killing Klanner. But, again, Klanner's death must not appear in any way to be consequent to the murder at the bank--therefore it was to bear every evidence of having been purely inadvertent, and, in a way, an accident. Yes, it was crafty enough, hideous enough to be fully worthy even of the fiendish brain that had planned it! Kid Greer, having probably struck up an acquaintance with Klanner during the past few days, had inveigled Klanner to-night into Baldy Jack's, ostensibly, no doubt, for an innocent and casual gla.s.s of beer, and in a general row and melee in the dance hall--not an uncommon occurrence in a place like Baldy Jack's--Klanner would be shot and killed. The rest was obvious. The man's effects would naturally be examined, and the evidence of his "guilt" found in his trunk. It was an open and shut game against a dead man! Even his previous good record would smash on the rock of a presumed double life. The fact that Klanner had voluntarily been in a place like Baldy Jack's was d.a.m.ning in itself!

Jimmie Dale, approaching the garishly lighted exterior of the dance hall now, lit a cigarette. The plan, if successful, placed the guilt without question or cavil upon Klanner, but that was not all--strong as that motive might be, Clarke had had still another in view, and one that perhaps took precedence over the first. Hunchback Joe had defined it clearly enough. The doc.u.ments would have been valueless to Clarke, either to sell, or to put to any use himself, if the plans and arrangements they contained were subsequently altered or changed. But it was obvious that a man in Klanner's station could have no _personal_ interest in them; it was obvious, as evidenced by the money, that he was working for some one else, and therefore the doc.u.ments appearing in his trunk would logically appear to have been recovered _before_ he had been able to hand them over to his princ.i.p.al, and _before_ any vital harm had been done that would necessitate any change in the details they contained.

Jimmie Dale pushed the door of the dance hall open, and stepped nonchalantly inside. It was the usual scene, there was the usual hilarious uproar, the usual close, almost fetid atmosphere that mingled the odours of stale beer and tobacco. Baldy Jack's was always popular, and the place, even for that early hour, was already doing a thriving business. Jimmie Dale's eyes, from a dozen couples swirling in the throes of the bunny-hug on the polished section of the floor in the centre of the hall, strayed over the little tables that were ranged three and four deep around the walls. At the upper end of the room a man, fair-haired and neatly dressed, though his clothes were evidently not those of one in over-affluent circ.u.mstances, sat alone at one of the tables. It might, or might not, be Klanner. Jimmie Dale strolled forward up the hall, and, as though deliberating over his selection of a seat, paused by the table. The man looked up. There was a long, jagged scar on the other's right cheek bone. It was Klanner. Jimmie Dale pulled out a chair at a vacant table directly behind the other, and sat down. A waiter, in beer-spotted ap.r.o.n and balancing a dripping tray, came for his order.

"Suds!" said Jimmie Dale laconically.

Again Jimmie Dale's eyes made a circuit of the place, failed to identify the person of one Kid Greer, and, giving up the attempt, rested speculatively instead on Klanner's back. Yes, he could quite fully understand why the Tocsin could not have warned Klanner to beware, for instance, of Kid Greer. Such a warning, apart from keeping Hunchback Joe from planting the evidence, would even have defeated its own end--for, even to save Klanner, the game had to be played out as Hunchback Joe had planned it. They meant to "get" Klanner, and if not here at Baldy Jack's, then somewhere else. She _knew_ what they meant to do here--she _might not_ know when, or how, or where they would make the attempt if they had been forced to change their plans.

Jimmie Dale tossed a coin on the table, as the waiter set down a gla.s.s of beer in front of him--and then, over the top of the gla.s.s, Jimmie Dale resumed his scrutiny of the hall. Directly behind him was a back entrance that opened on a lane at the rear of the building; and between himself and the entrance was only one table, which was unoccupied.

Jimmie Dale, playing with his match box, as he lighted another cigarette, dropped the box, stooped to pick it up--and drew his chair unostentatiously nearer to Klanner.

It was ten o'clock now, time that--yes, the game was on--_now!_ A man, that he recognised as one of the Mole's gunmen, had dropped into a seat a couple of tables away from Klanner, where there was a clear s.p.a.ce between the two men. There was a sudden jostling among the dancers on the floor--then an oath, rising high above the riot of talk and laughter--a swirl of figures--a medley of shouts and women's screams, drowning out the squeak of the musicians' violins and the thump of the tinny piano.

Jimmie Dale's jaws locked hard together. There was a struggling, Furious mob at the lower end of the hall--but his eyes now never left the gunman two tables away. Klanner, in dazed amazement, had half risen from his seat, as though uncertain what to do. The screams, shouts, oaths and yells grew louder--came the roar of a revolver shot--another--pandemonium was reigning now. It seemed an hour, a great period of time since the first shout had rung through the hall--it had been but a matter of seconds. Jimmie Dale was crouched a little forward in his chair now, tense, motionless. What was holding Hoppy Meggs! This was Hoppy Meggs' cue, wasn't it?--those shots there, aimed at the floor, had only been to create the panic--there was to be _another_ shot that--

The hall was in sudden darkness. With a spring, quick on the instant, Jimmie Dale was upon Klanner's back, hurling the man to the floor. The tongue-flame of a revolver split the black over his head; there was the deafening roar of a revolver shot almost in his ears that blotted out for an instant all other sounds--and then came the shouts and cries again in an access of terror and now the rush of feet--a blind stampede in the darkness for the exits. Another shot from the gunman, as though to make his work doubly sure, followed the first--but now some of the fear-stricken crowd had come between them, plunging, falling, tripping over tables and chairs, seeking the rear exit.

"Quick!" Jimmie Dale breathed in Klanner's ear. He was half lifting, half dragging the man along. "Quick--get your feet, man!"

There was a surging mob around them now, pus.h.i.+ng, fighting madly to reach the door; and, as Klanner regained his feet, they were both swept forward, and, lunging through the door, were precipitated out into the lane. And here, wary of a riot call that had probably already been rung in by the patrolman on the beat, the crowd was taking to its heels and dispersing in both directions along the lane.

"Quick!" said Jimmie Dale again--and, with his hand on Klanner's arm, broke into a run.

Those running in the same direction turned off from the lane at the first cross street; but Jimmie Dale held to the lane, and it was three blocks away from Baldy Jack's before he stopped.

Klanner was panting from his exertions.

"My G.o.d--what's it mean!" he gasped. "I--I thought I saw a revolver in that man's hand, the fellow next to me, just as the lights went out."

"You probably did," said Jimmie Dale grimly.

"Well----what's it mean?" repeated Klanner heavily.

It was a moment before Jimmie Dale answered. For the man's own sake, the less that Klanner knew the better, probably--and yet the man must be kept out of harm's way for the rest of the night. Having failed at Baldy Jack's, it was certain, since Clarke's whole plan hinged on Klanner's death, that they would try again. After to-night--if all went well--it did not matter, for Klanner then would be no longer a factor to Clarke or Hunchback Joe!

"It means," said Jimmie Dale gravely, "that there's been some sort of a gangster's fight pulled off, and that probably there's been dirty work--murder--in there. The police will go the limit to round up everybody they can find who was in Baldy Jack's. There's only one thing to do--keep your mouth shut and lie low to-night. You can't take any chances of getting into this--you look like a man who's got a decent job he doesn't want to lose, and you don't look like a man who is ent.i.tled to be saddled with a reputation for hanging around that sort of place. Do you live near here?"

"Yes," said Klanner, a little dully.

"Well then," said Jimmie Dale quietly, "get out of this neighbourhood for the night. Don't risk recognition while the chase is hot. Go uptown somewhere to any hotel you like, and _stay_ there in your room. You can go to work just as well from there in the morning. Got any money?"

"Yes," said Klanner slowly. "Yes, I got some money--and I guess you're right. Say, who are you anyway? You seem to have a line on this sort of thing, and I guess I owe you a whole skin. If you hadn't--"

"I'm a man in a hurry," said Jimmie Dale whimsically--and then the grim note crept back into his voice. "I am giving you a straight tip.

Take it--and take that street car that's coming along there." He held out his hand.

"Sure!" said Klanner. "And I--"

"Good-night," said Jimmie Dale, and started abruptly across the street, entering the lane on the other side again--but here, in the shadows, he paused for a moment, watching until Klanner boarded the uptown car.

CHAPTER XXIV

AT FIVE MINUTES OF TWELVE

Twenty minutes later, well along the East River front, in an unsavoury and deserted neighbourhood, Jimmie Dale was crouched before the door of a small building that seemed built half on the sh.o.r.e edge, and half on an old and run-down pier that extended out into the water. The building itself was little more than a storage shed, and originally had probably laid claims to nothing more pretentious--to-day it served as warehouse and office for Hunchback Joe's "business," and, above, for Hunchback Joe's living quarters. Jimmie Dale glanced around him sharply--not for the first time. There were no other buildings in his immediate vicinity, and such as could be seen loomed up only as black, shadowy, distant shapes--warehouses and small factories, for the most part, and empty and deserted now at night. It was intensely black--only a twinkling light here and there from a pa.s.sing craft on the river, and the glow from thousands of street lamps that, like some strange aerial illumination, hovered over the opposite sh.o.r.e. The shed itself, windowless at least in front, was as silent, as deserted, and as black as all around it.

Jimmie Dale's hand stole into his pocket, produced a black silk mask, adjusted the mask over his face--and then the deft, slim fingers were at work with a little steel instrument on the door lock. A moment more, and the door swung silently inward, slowly, inch by inch. He listened intently. There was no sound. He stepped inside, and silently closed and locked the door behind If Hunchback Joe had not returned yet, it was necessary that Hunchback Joe should find the door as he had left it--locked! Again Jimmie Dale listened--and then the ray of his flashlight circled the place. A miscellany of s.h.i.+p's junk was piled without any attempt at order all over the place; a board part.i.tion with two small windows, one on each side of the door, ran from side to side of the shed about a third of the way up its length; and in the sides of the shed itself were also two small, narrow windows--too small and too narrow, Jimmie Dale noted grimly, for the pa.s.sage of a man's body.

He moved forward cautiously, though he was almost certain that he was ahead of Hunchback Joe. He, Jimmie Dale, had come without an instant's loss of time from Baldy Jack's, and it was more than an even chance that Hunchback Joe would have remained somewhere in the neighbourhood until the affair was over. It would take some little time--not until after the police had restored order--to discover that the attempt upon Klanner had been abortive, that Klanner's body was _not_ lying there dead on the floor. But after that--Jimmie Dale opened the door of the part.i.tion stealthily, slipped through, and, as his flashlight swept around again, nodded his head sharply--yes, he had thought so!--there was a means of communication here--a telephone. Well then, after that, Hunchback Joe would set every crook and tool over whom he had any control at work to find Klanner. But that meant different men at work in many different directions, and there must therefore be some central spot where Hunchback Joe could be instantly reached and reports made to him should Klanner be found--and what better place, what more likely place than here in the security of his own lair! Yes, Hunchback Joe, since he, Jimmie Dale, was now satisfied that the other had not yet returned, would be back here, and, in all probability, long before midnight.

Midnight! Why had the Tocsin set midnight, waited for midnight as the hour for the Secret Service raid? Did she have a hidden purpose in that?

Was it possible she knew that some one beside Hunchback Joe would also be here at that hour--that Clarke might be here, too! Well, why not!

There might well be need for a conference between Clarke and his unholy chief of staff! There might--Jimmie Dale frowned savagely. His mind was running riot! He had not come here to speculate on possibilities; for, whatever might happen, there was definite and instant work to do.

The white ray of the flashlight played steadily now around him. The place evidently served as the office; it was part.i.tioned off again in exactly the same manner from the rear of the shed, making an oblong enclosure the width of the shed one way, and a good fifteen feet the other. It was electric-lighted, and contained a battered table in lieu of desk, upon which stood the telephone; there were several chairs, and a safe, whose scratched, marred, and apparently ramshackle exterior did not disguise from Jimmie Dale the fact that it was of the finest and most modern make.