Chapter XXV: The Unfolding of Rogers’ Plot

“Mr. Carter,” continued Morgan, after a short pause, “I suppose it would be a sort of paradox to say that there could be such a thing as a square crook, but if there ever was a crook who tried to be on the square as far as his business would permit, Tom Morgan is that chap.”

“It is something of a paradox, Red,” laughed Nick. And then he added seriously: “Why do you not shake the business and be on the square all round?”

“Too late, sir--too late. There is too much past and not enough future in mine.”

“‘Though thy sins be as scarlet, they shall be washed as white as wool,’” quoted Nick solemnly.

“I know all that, sir, and I appreciate your kindness in saying it, too. I know, moreover, that you are just the man who would hold out a helping hand to a chap like me who made a break to get up onto the brighter and better side of life. But I didn’t come here to discuss that with you, and if you don’t mind we won’t do it.”

“All right, Morgan. Go ahead; only, I would like to add just one word on the present topic before we leave it.”

“What is that?”

“This: If there should ever come a time when you want to play square, come straight to me and say so. I’ll promise to believe you--to take your word for it, and to stand for you in the fight that is bound to follow.”

“Thank you, Mr. Carter. I won’t forget; and who knows? There may come a time when I’ll call that hand of yours.”

“Good,” said Nick. “I hope there will.”

“And now, before I get down to the business of my call here to-night, I want to say a word in explanation of my position.”

“Go ahead, Red.”

“I told you just now that my principle was a fair field and no favors. That expression means more with me than it does with some people.”

“I’ve no doubt of it, Morgan.”

“It means, for instance, that when I decide to crack a crib somewhere I know that in doing it I am more than likely to get you on my track, and that it is your duty to nail me if you can.”

“Exactly.”

“Well, if you do nail me, I do not cherish the least sort of hard feeling toward you for doing it. I am a professed enemy to society; you are its guardian. If I do wrong it is your duty to catch me and send me away, if you can--and I respect you rather than hate you for doing your duty, even though I may be the victim of your zeal.”

“I believe you, Morgan, although it is rather an unusual view for your class to take.”

“It is true in my case; but if I should try, I don’t think I could put my finger upon another crook who feels just as I do about it.”

“No; I do not think you could.”

“Ninety-nine out of a hundred of the crooks who have, sooner or later, felt the weight of your hand, want revenge.”

“That is only natural, I suppose.”

“Natural or not, it is true. Many a man is engaged this minute in keeping tabs on the days of the week and month by scratching on the walls of their cells, who are only waiting to get out in order to get square with you.”

“Sure thing, Red; but I’m not getting nervous about them.”

“Oh, I know that, and it isn’t what I’m driving at. Let me go on in my own way.”

“Correct. Go ahead.”

“Some of them want to murder you; some only want to punch you, and--well, there are all sorts of feelings among them, and out of the whole lot it is safe to say that not one out of a thousand would ever take definite shape if there was nobody to direct them.”

“Aha! I think I see your point.”

“Now, I’ll tell the story of my own experience, and you will see exactly what I mean.”

“Well?”

“I hadn’t been out of prison more than four or five weeks when an old pal of mine came to see me. The first thing he did was to ask questions until he found out that I owed the time I had just been doing up the State to you. Then he asked me to meet some of the gang he was training with, at a place down in East Houston Street. I asked him what the lay was, and he told me that I would find out when I got there--and I did.

“In a few words, the lay had three prongs to it. One of them was for the rescue of a man named Paul Rogers, of whom I had never heard at all at the time. He was sure to be convicted of murder in the first degree, and a rescue was planned to take him away from his guard while he was on his way to Sing Sing.

“I saw no objection to that, inasmuch as we were to be well paid for the job. I did not know, and I do not know now, where the money came from to pay us; I only know that there was plenty of it. There wasn’t to be a blow struck--and, in short, the whole plan was so slick and comfortable, and there was such real genius in it that I rather enjoyed the thing, and went into it as much for the fun of it as for the money--although that was a consideration.

“I won’t stop to tell you about the plan now, for you will hear all about it in the morning. It is one of the things that can happen once, easily, and because of the very simplicity of it, can never occur again. I haven’t been told yet whether it succeeded or not, but I am sure it did, it was so slick.

“Well--things went along swimmingly until there came a new deal, all in the same game. I have told you there were three deals. The second one was a play against Nick Carter.

“I want you to understand in the beginning that there wasn’t a man in that outfit who had not suffered at some time or other at your hands. There wasn’t a man there who had not cried out from behind prison walls for vengeance against you. There wasn’t one who did not grasp eagerly at the thought of it--and right here, Mr. Carter, was where I bolted.”

“Do you mean that you defended me there among them?”

“Well, I wasn’t quite such a blooming fool as that, you know. Such a thing wouldn’t have done you any good, and it would have done me a lot of harm. No; I just kept my mouth shut and told them that I’d carry out the program I’d enlisted for, and that I’d see them later about the rest of it.

“Now, I told you at the start that I didn’t come here to do any peaching on my pals, and so you must not expect me to tell you any names. I couldn’t do that. Nor will I tell you all of the plot; but I will tell you this much:

“The main guy behind the whole outfit is that same Paul Rogers, and it would appear that he is some pumpkins in his own country, wherever that may be--England or France; I don’t know which. He’s either got a big wad of shekels, or he knows where to find one when he needs it.

“Now, Paul Rogers has got a wife, whom you also sent up. She was to get out of the pen to-day, her time being greatly shortened for good behavior, and all that. Maybe you know who she is, Mr. Carter?”

“Yes; Isabel Benton, or Rogers; it is the same thing.”

“That’s right. Those are the only names I shall mention. You’ll have to guess the others as they appear.”

“I think I can do that.”

“All right. I hope you can. Please take notice that I am telling you only what I have picked up at the meetings of that mob, and I don’t vouch for the truth or the correctness of any of it. I never heard of any of the parties except yourself, until I trained with the crew I’m speaking about.”

“Go on. I understand.”

“Up the river somewhere, not as far as Sing-twice, I imagine, there is a beautiful country place where some people live whom you know. There is a very beautiful young lady in the family, and somehow the notion has gotten out among the crooks that you are very friendly with that family and especially with the daughter. This Isabel Benton and the daughter are as alike as two peas, it is said, and there was a plot to place Isabel in her place, once upon a time, which plot failed.”

“I know all about that,” said Nick.

“All the better if you do. The father of the young lady is a multi-millionaire. There is a brother, also, who is what the boys call a smart fool. You know what that means. He is money blind. He has abilities and won’t use them. He is smart, but too lazy to use his head. Gritty, but too easy to fight. A good fellow, but too much taken up with killing time to do anything else. A young chap, I imagine, who hasn’t been woke up yet, so to speak--a sort of an electric motor without any current to speak of.”

Nick laughed aloud.

“That is a first-class description of a person whom you never saw,” he said.

“Well, it is the impression I received from what I heard about him. That boy--he’s about twenty-four, I think--is very much in the way of Paul Rogers, and Paul Rogers proposes to put him out of it. The old man is still more so, and Paul Rogers has sworn away his life. The old lady--the mother--is a sort of supernumerary, but when the time comes she is billed to shuffle off in some way or other--I don’t know what.”

“And the young lady?” asked Nick.

“I was getting down to her. I couldn’t find out much about the plot against her, save that the woman Isabel is to take her place, somehow and somewhere, and the thing is to be done so slick that nobody will suspect that it is done.”

“Do you mean that you do not know the particulars, or that you are keeping them back?”

“I mean that I don’t know them, only to the extent that if you don’t keep a mighty close watch over her she will disappear off the face of the earth in such a way that you won’t have any idea that she is gone until it is too late to help her; and that because you are the only factor in the plan which can interfere with their success, you are to be gotten rid of in the most approved fashion--and that, Mr. Carter, is what I came here to tell you about. Paul Rogers was set free this afternoon, and I happen to know that there is a bet on, with the odds against you, that you will be a dead one inside of forty-eight hours after he is at liberty.”

“In that case, Morgan,” said Nick coolly, “you won’t mind answering me a few questions, will you?”

“I don’t think so. Ask ’em, and I’ll tell you.”