Chapter VII: Taking Chances

In the meeting of Seaman, Elwell and the one Patsy said was Lannigan, Nick saw strong confirmation of the theory that he had been inclined from the first to believe.

That was that one at least of the promoters who, on the inventor’s death, had tried and failed to get hold of the drawings and models through the widow, was now engaged upon the desperate enterprise of hiring a burglar to enter the house of Mr. Herron and steal them.

As a result of Chick’s investigation, it appeared that Seaman was the only man likely to engage in such an enterprise, although nothing had been discovered that in the slightest degree connected him with that burglary.

His own investigation as to Elwell, the lawyer, had led him to suppose that the lawyer had seized in the death of Pemberton, the inventor, and the ignorance of the widow as to business matters, an opportunity to increase his own financial gains by a control of the model and drawings.

But all of this was simply the result of shrewd suspicion, in which there had been nothing pointing to who had entered the house, nor anything even hinting at a conspiracy between the lawyer and the promoter on the one side and the burglars on the other.

Patsy’s experiences of the day, however, had supplied, if not knowledge, at least suspicion as to who that burglar was.

Now, the meeting of the three in a part of the city so remote from the haunts of at least two, indicated that they were on the right track. And what had been mere suspicion was rapidly getting into the shape of fact.

Lannigan was a new hand in New York. That he had even come to the city had been unknown to Nick. He had never seen him nor come in contact with him, but he had heard of him as a most skillful thief whose line of work was principally that of opening safes, as some of the Philadelphians knew to their cost, for it was in that city he was suspected of making his headquarters.

Nick had heard that he had learned the trade of safe-lock making and had become an expert in opening safes where the combination had been lost. That the expertness he had reached in this had been his undoing, as he had been persuaded into doing this work for burglars who had opened the way for him to enter banks and other places where money was stored.

Nick had sent Chick into the saloon for the reason that he feared he would be recognized by Elwell, on whom he had called earlier in the day.

He had supposed that they had entered this saloon only for the purpose of taking a drink, and would soon come out again, for he believed that the meeting was for the purpose of receiving from Lannigan the drawings and models.

But as the time was prolonged, he began to believe that matters were taking a shape quite different from what he had supposed.

Finally, by the aid of a wig and a false mustache and a change of hat, he made a sufficient change in his appearance to prevent Elwell from recognizing him, and then he entered the saloon himself.

There were a number of persons standing about and ranged along the bar, but in a hasty glance around he could see none of the three under suspicion, nor was Chick at once visible.

At the rear of the saloon there was a partition about man high that formed of the corner a small private room.

The door of this room was open, and as Nick pushed his way cautiously toward the rear, he could see that the three men were seated about a small table in the center of that room.

A glance at them was sufficient to see that matters were by no means moving along smoothly between them.

Lannigan and his companion seemed to be opposed to Elwell and Seaman, the first of whom was apparently pleading with the other two.

Looking around quickly for Chick, Nick saw in the angle made by this partition and the side wall, and not far from the door of the small room, a man intently engaged in reading a newspaper held in such a manner as to utterly conceal his face and body.

Nick surmised that the person behind this paper was Chick, and that he had gotten as close to the party within the room as he could without discovery.

Going back to the front of the saloon, Nick gave a whistle, which was one of the signals between himself and his assistants, and, watching the paper held by the man in the corner, saw a peculiar flirt of it, which assured him that he was right in supposing Chick was behind him.

From the fact that Chick did not change position, he was also satisfied that Chick was on the track of something which he regarded too important to leave.

And so, working himself down by degrees to the rear of the room, he began an examination to see if it were possible for him to get close to this room at a point where he also could hear what was going forward within it.

He observed that at the end of the bar was a large ice box in which the larger beer kegs were put, and that at the back of that was a small room where was the washstand. Between this ice box and the small room and the one in which the four were seated, was a small passageway which led to a door, which, in Nick’s judgment, opened into a hallway from which the upper part of the building was gained.

Nick immediately left the saloon by the front door, and, walking along Forty-second Street, found a rear door at the end of the building, which, on trying, he found opened into the hallway he had supposed was there.

On his right, a few feet further on, was a door, and on trying this he found it to be the one he had seen from the barroom.

Cautiously passing this, he turned quickly into the small room where was the washstand. In the corner of this room was a chair, which he mounted and saw that he could climb to the top of the ice chest where, lying at full length, he would be well concealed.

It was but the work of a moment to place himself in that position.

When there he found that he could hear quite well, though the people within the room were talking in a low voice.

Finally Lannigan spoke in a tone made louder by his irritation. And his words fell quite distinctly on Nick’s ears.

“What’s the use of going over that again,” said Lannigan. “You didn’t give it to me straight in the beginning. You gave me a stiff that the papers wasn’t of much value, of no value to the man that had them, but only to you, and that the best they would do if they were in your hands would be to save you time.”

“Well, that is true,” said Seaman. “We were bound to get them by law, but it would take a year or more to do so.”

“Stop it,” said Lannigan. “There’s no use of lying any more about it. You played me for a chump. You never came to me on the job until you found out there was no way in law by which you could get them. If there had been you wouldn’t have come to me at all.”

“You have been misinformed,” said Elwell.

“No, I haven’t,” said Lannigan. “I’ve got it all straight. And you lied to me about the money there was into the papers. There’s been a big race for these papers, and there’s more than one that’ll bid high to get them. I am on to it straight when I say that the man from whom they was took would put up fifty thou. to have them back.”

“Oh, you’re wild,” said Seaman.

“Wild nawthin’,” said Lannigan, angrily. “Yer tried to give me a gold brick, and if it hadn’t been for what I found out this morning you would. No thousand casenote is goin’ to get that thing from me.”

“A thousand dollars for an hour’s work at your own trade, with six or eight thousand dollars of stuff besides that you took out, isn’t much of a gold brick,” said Seaman.

“It’s the chances I took,” said Lannigan, “that puts the price on.”

“You got away with the chances all right,” said Seaman.

“No,” said Lannigan, so sharply that his voice rang. “Nick Carter is on the hunt at this minute. Do you know what that means?”

“I suppose it means,” said Seaman, carelessly, “that he’s trying to find out who went into that house during the night.”

“I’ll tell you what it means,” said Lannigan. “It means that the smartest man on earth is right at my heels, and that I’ll be lucky if I get out of town without being nabbed.”

“But----”

“It means that to get for you what will make you big rich, I may have to do time in the cage. And you can bet your bottom dollar that I’m not goin’ to do that for any little thousand casenote, now that I know how much those papers are worth to you and others.”

“Lannigan,” said Elwell, “there’s a side to this that you don’t seem to look at. You are striking so high that the people I represent, and Seaman here, can’t reach it. Now, we will admit for the sake of argument that there are others that will pay well for those drawings, perhaps more than we will pay. But if you go back on the bargain that you entered into, there is no reason why, if we lose the papers, that we should keep our mouths shut about the thefts of those jewels and silver plate. The taking of them was all outside of our bargain.”

“You mean,” said Lannigan, “that you would peach on me?”

“If you go back on your word and your bargain, there is no reason why we should have any friendship for you. This game isn’t all your own.”

There was a moment’s pause in the conversation, and then Lannigan said, in a most threatening tone:

“There are sharp knives and straight-shooting revolvers, and all the undertakers are not dead.”

“So,” replied Elwell, “you are threatening to add murder to your list.”

“No,” replied Lannigan; “I am only telling you that you can’t fool me. That’s all.”

There was a movement and sound as if somebody had thrust back a chair and risen to his feet.

“But what’s the use of talking?” said Lannigan. “You got my say. If you want them papers what’s into that leather case you can get them for fifty thou. I’ll give you until to-morrow, this hour, to think it over, and if you don’t come down I’ll make the best deal I can with the man I took them from, and I know how to do it.”

There was the sound of a step or two and Seaman’s voice was heard.

“Wait a moment, Lannigan,” it said, “I want just a word.”

There was silence some four or five minutes, when Seaman was heard again:

“Lannigan,” he said, “we’ll make you a new offer. We haven’t got the money you demand. It’s a big sum. But I stand ready to make this deal with you now, if you’ll take it. If you will deliver those drawings and the model to me this afternoon, I’ll give you five thousand dollars in cash and my promise in writing, well indorsed, to give you fifty thousand dollars when this thing is sold to the company that stands ready to buy and manufacture.”

There was no reply to this for a moment or two, and Seaman added:

“It’s the best I can do, and in giving you five thousand I give you every cent I have. I can’t make the sale, which is all ready to make for big money, unless I’ve got these things in my hands. And that’s all there is about it. If you don’t take this offer we’ve got to throw up our hands and we won’t owe you a cent.”

There was silence following this, which lasted a long time, and it seemed to Nick that Lannigan and his companion must have been consulting over this last offer.

Finally there was a step or two heard and then Lannigan’s voice, saying:

“Is that five thou. to be laid down to-day?”

“On the delivery of that leather case with all that’s in it.”

“How soon can you do it?” asked Lannigan.

“As soon as you can deliver the goods.”

“That’s now.”

“And I have the funds with me now.”

“Well, then, if you close up the first part of the bargain right away, we’ll do it.”

Everybody apparently rose from their feet, and amid the scuffle and movement was heard Seaman’s voice:

“Let’s get about it at once.”

“Come with me, then,” said Lannigan.

“Where to?” asked Elwell.

“You will know when you get there,” replied Lannigan, gruffly.

Nick slipped off the ice box and regained the floor of the little washroom quickly.

Slipping out of the door and through the hall he was on the corner of Forty-second Street and Third Avenue before the precious quartet came from the saloon, for they had stopped to take a drink to bind their bargain.

Leaving the saloon, they turned to the left, going up Third Avenue to the north.

Close behind them came Chick.

Nick and Chick exchanged signals and, at Nick’s suggestion, made by a wave of the hand, Chick rapidly crossed to the other side of the avenue, while Nick followed up after the four on the same side they were traveling.

The way of the four was up half a dozen blocks, where they turned into a cross street going to the right, or in the direction of the East River.

Two or three blocks were passed and they came to the end of a block where, on the corner, was a three-story brick building which did not occupy the whole of the lot on which it was built. Between the end of the house and the adjoining one was a yard of some ten feet in width, which was separated from the street by a high, board fence.

In this fence was a gate, and Lannigan led the way through the gate, standing by to close it after the last one had passed through.

Standing on the other side of the street, Nick saw that there was a closed staircase built on the outside of the house in the rear, by which each floor above the liquor saloon, which occupied the first floor, was reached.

Chick came up and Nick said to him:

“They have gone into that house and by those stairs from the outside.”

“Do we raid them?” asked Chick.

“Yes,” said Nick, sharply; then he added: “But I wish Patsy were here.”

“First,” said Chick, “we ought to look to see what other outlets there are to the house.”

“Go into the barroom,” said Nick, “and see if you can find inside stairways. I’ll take a look about the outside.”

The two started for the purpose.