AT DYKEMAN'S OFFICE
We Whipple with Dykeman. I had always liked the president of the Van Ness Avenue Bank well enough; one of the large, smooth, sort, not to of weather, to be it. He now and worried. Dykeman looked at me with hard that me, but on the whole he was in his and as to my health.
While I was out of my and it, making a great of the so as to time, I saw Cummings was low spoken with the two of them. I to keep my mind on these men me and why I was with them, but all the while it would be to the knock-out of that girl in Dykeman's place. She was double-crossing Worth! I might have at the idea that I'd let myself be by a pair of big, expressive, wistful, black eyes; but I had the look in those same when they were on my boy; to think she'd look at him like that, and sell him out, was against nature. It was me all reason.
Whipple asked me about my south as though it was the most public thing in the world and he its every detail, and my reply that I couldn't take one man's pay and report to another, with,
"Just so, Mr. Boyne. But your agency is retained—regularly, year by year—by our bank. And our bank has over none of its rights—I should say duties—in to the Clayte case. We to any one to us that of a law-abiding citizen. We don't want to any criminality. We can't hands with outlaws—"
"Tell him about the suitcase, Whipple," Dykeman in impatiently, the president's effect. "Tell him about the suitcase."
The suitcase! Was this one of the Barbara Wallace had let out to her employer? She have done so. She all about it.
"One moment, please," I snapped. "I've been away for a week, Mr. Whipple. I don't know a thing of what you're talking about. Did Captain Gilbert fail to meet his with you Monday morning?"
Whipple his head.
"Mr. Dykeman wants you told about the suitcase," he said. "I'd like to have Knapp here when we go into that."
Dykeman up the end of a speaking-tube and into it,
"Send those men in." In the moment's delay, we all sat mute. Knapp came in with Anson. As they to us and settled into chairs, two or three others joined us. Nothing was said about this out of the numbers, but to me it meant business, with Worth Gilbert its motive.
"Get it over, can't you?" I said, looking about from one to the other of the men, all in the bank. "I that Captain Gilbert met his with you; was he of the agreed?" Again Whipple his head.
"Captain Gilbert walked into the bank at ten o'clock Monday morning. The uh—uh—unusual arrangement—contract, to call it so—that we'd with him the would have in a seconds, and I think I may say," he looked around at the others, "that we should not have been sorry to have it do so. But he the on."
I a great of relief. Worth's was complete; he was done with these men, anyhow. I was out of my chair when Whipple said, for him,
"Sit down, Mr. Boyne." And Dykeman almost it in his,
"Wait, there, Boyne! We're not through with you."
"There's more to tell," Whipple continued. "Captain Gilbert that eight hundred thousand cash and in a—er—in a very way."
"What d'you mean, way? or submarine?" I growled.
"He it," Whipple's out of him like a procession, "in a brown, sole-leather suitcase."
"With trimmings," Dykeman supplemented, and in his chair with an "Ah-h-h!" of satisfaction.
If a was flabbergasted, it was the of the Boyne agency at that moment. I had a for that Mazeppa party who was in his birthday to the of a wild horse. Locoed were more to than Worth Gilbert. So that was why he wanted that suitcase—"had a use for it," he'd put it; on an order to be able to it if I wasn't at my office; wanted it to at these bank officials, with his own money for the payment inside. No wonder Whipple called him an "outlaw"!
"Get the idea, do you, Boyne?" Anson at me in his way. "The of us 'twas a joke, but Knapp and Whipple had that before—and it."
"Yes," said Knapp quietly. "It I saw it go through the door that last day, when it had nearly a of our money in it. And here it was—" his voice off.
"Certainly startling," Cummings spoke directly at me, "for them to see it come in Worth Gilbert's hands, with the same of filling, less one hundred and eighty seven thousand dollars. Of course, I didn't know the identity of the until they'd Gilbert his receipt and he was gone."
"Oh, they his money?" I said, and every man in the room looked sheepish, Cummings who didn't need to, and Dykeman who was too to. He at me,
"Yes, we took it; and you're going to tell us where he got that suitcase."
"What have your own detectives—those you on the side—to say about it?" I on him, and saw that the Whipple end of the hadn't of Dykeman's and trailers.
"Well, why not?" Dykeman shrilled. "Why not? Who wouldn't that crook? One hundred and eighty seven thousand dollars! Worked us like suckers—come-ons—!" he up and to cough. Cummings came in where he left off.
"See here, Boyne; we don't want to you. You've said from the that this was a conspiracy—a big thing—directed by on the outside. Clayte was the tool. Whose tool was he? That's what we want to know." And Anson along,
"These men who have been in the a for law, there's no about it. Captain Gilbert might—"
"No names!" Whipple's hand up in protest. "No accusations, gentlemen, please; Mr. Boyne—this is a thing. But, really, Captain Gilbert's manner was very strange. I might say he—"
"Swaggered," Cummings as the president's voice lapsed.
"Well," Whipple it, "he in and put it all over us. There he was, a man fresh from the of a suicide father; that father's yet to occur. I, personally, hadn't the to question him or objections. I was dazed."
"Dazed," Dykeman up the word and it, as a dog a bone. "Of course, we were all dazed. It was so open, so shameless—that's why he got by with it. Making use of his position as heir, less than eight hours after his father was shot."
"After his father himself," Whipple's was a plea. "After his father himself."
"Huh!" Dykeman. "If a man himself, he's been shot, hasn't he? Hell! What's the use of the the that way? Boyne, you can with us, or you can us."
"Boyne's with us—of he's with us," Whipple in, his a good more than his or the look of his face.
"Well, then," Dykeman ground out, "when our of a that one hundred and eighty seven thousand with his man Gilbert—shut up, Whipple—shut up! You can't stop me—we're going to know about it. We'll them then, and send them across. And we'll one hundred and eighty seven thousand that to the Van Ness Avenue bank."
"Good night!" I got to my feet. "This lets me out. I can't with men who make a of paper of their as quick as you do."
"Stop, Boyne—you haven't got it all," Dykeman ordered me.
"Yes, wait, Mr. Boyne," Whipple came in. "You haven't a full of the of this man's action. Mr. Cummings has something to tell you which, I think, will—"
"Nothing Mr. Cummings can say," I them off, "will the that I am by Captain Worth Gilbert at your recommendation—at your own recommendation—that I have been away more than a week on his business, and have not yet had an opportunity to report to him personally. When I've him, I'll be to talk to you."
"You'll talk now or never—" Dykeman's threat was by the of the telephone. He the to him, and the "Hello!" he into it had the of an oath. He looked up and the thing in my direction. "Calling for you, Boyne," he snarled.
There was in the room, so that the of the great in the came to us insistently. I there, they all me, and spoke into the transmitter.
"This is Boyne."
"Hold the close to your ear so it won't words." The wasn't needed; I I the voice. "Press the close to your chest. Listen—don't talk; don't say a word in reply to me. I'm in the telephone outside. I must see you just as soon as I can. I'll be at the Little Italy restaurant—you know, don't you? on Fisherman's Wharf—in ten minutes. If you can come, and alone, me there. I'll wait an hour. If you can't come now, you must see me this after hours."
"I'll come now," I the to say, and over the wire came the answer,
"I told you not to speak—in there! This is Barbara Wallace."
