An' besides, they'll
be haulin' me off to the county seat in a day or two. Now, this is dead
straight, I'm goin' to give you. Maybe it won't help you none, but '11
give you a lead."
"Go on," cried Bonner breathlessly.
"Well, Sam Welch come to me in Branigan's place one night--that's in
Fourt' Avenue--an' says he's got a big job on. We went over to Davy
Wolfe's house an' found him an' his mother--the old fairy, you remember.
Well, to make it short, Sam said it was a kidnaping job an' the Wolfes
was to be in on it because they used to live in this neighbourhood an'
done a lot of work here way back in the seventies. There was to be five
thousand dollars in the job if we got that girl safe on board a ship
bound fer Europe. Sam told us that the guy what engineered the game was
a swell party an' a big boy in politics, finance, society an' ever'thin'
else. He could afford to pay, but he didn't want to be seen in the job.
Nobody but Sam ever seen his face. Sam used to be in politics some. Jest
before we left New York to come up here, the swell guy comes around to
Davy's with another guy fer final orders. See? It was as cold as h----
as the dickens--an' the two of 'em was all muffled up so's we couldn't
get a pipe at their mugs. One of 'em was old--over fifty, I guess--an'
the other was a young chap. I'm sure of that.
"They said that one or the other of 'em would be in this neighbourhood
when the job was pulled off; that one thousand dollars would be paid
down when we started; another thousand when we got 'er into the cave;
and the rest when we had 'er at the dock in New York--alive an' unhurt.
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