FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134  
135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   >>   >|  
get five thousand dollars,' I said. "'I'd git kicked into the discard by the first cop that got to me,' he answered, 'that's what I'd git.' "The creature's dirty, unshaved jowls began to shake, and his voice became wholly a whimper. "'I've got a line on this thing, Governor, sure as there's a hell. That banker man was viewin' the layout. I've thought it all over, an' this is the way it would be. They're afraid of the border an' they're afraid of the custom houses, so they runs the loot down here in an automobile, hides it up about the Inlet, and plans to go out with it to one of them fruit steamers passing on the way to Tampico. They'd have them plates bundled up in a sailor's chest most like. "'Now, Governor, you'd say why ain't they already done it; an' I'd answer, the main guy--this banker man--didn't know the automobile had got here until he sent me to look, and there ain't been no ship along since then.... I've been special careful to find that out.' And then the creature began to whine. 'Have a heart, Governor, come along with me. Gimme a show!' "It was not the creature's plea that moved me, nor his pretended deductions; I'm a bit old to be soft. It was the 'banker man' sticking like a bur in the hobo's talk. I wanted to keep him in right until I understood where he got it. No doubt that seems a slight reason for going out to the Inlet with the creature; but you must remember that slight things are often big signboards in our business." He continued, his voice precise and even: "We went directly from the end of the Boardwalk to the old shed; it was open, an unfastened door on a pair of leather hinges. The shed is small, about twenty feet by eleven, with a hard dirt floor packed down by the workmen who had used it, a combination of clay and sand like the Jersey roads put in to make a floor. All round it, from the sea to the board fence was soft sand. There were some pieces of old junk lying about in the shed; but nothing of value or it would have been nailed up. "The hobo led right off with his deductions. There was the track of a man, clearly outlined in the soft sand, leading from the board fence to the shed and returning, and no other track anywhere about. "'Now, Governor,' he began, when he had taken a look at the tracks, 'the man that made them tracks carried something into this shed, and he left it here, and it was something heavy.' "I was fairly certain that the hobo had salted the place
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134  
135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

creature

 

Governor

 

banker

 

automobile

 

slight

 

deductions

 

tracks

 

afraid

 
precise
 

directly


returning
 

unfastened

 

Boardwalk

 
remember
 

carried

 
reason
 
things
 

business

 

signboards

 

leading


continued

 

Jersey

 
salted
 

pieces

 
combination
 

twenty

 

eleven

 

hinges

 
fairly
 

outlined


leather

 

workmen

 

packed

 

nailed

 

border

 

custom

 

thought

 

layout

 
viewin
 
houses

steamers

 

passing

 

kicked

 

discard

 

dollars

 

thousand

 

answered

 

wholly

 

whimper

 

unshaved