red into little furrows; and, reverting to the code
message, her thoughts harked back to a well-known crime, the authorship
of which still remained a mystery, and which had stirred the East Side
some two years ago. A man--in the vernacular of the underworld a "stage
hand"--by the name of Kroner, credited with having a large amount of
cash, the proceeds of some nefarious transaction, in his possession
on the night in question, was found murdered in his room in an old and
tumble-down tenement of unsavory reputation. The police net had gathered
in some of the co-tenants on suspicion; Nicky Viner, referred to in the
code message, amongst them. But nothing had come of the investigation.
There had been no charge of collusion between the suspects; but Perlmer,
a shyster lawyer, had acted for them all collectively, and, one and all,
they had been discharged. In what degree Perlmer's services had been of
actual value had never been ascertained, for the police, through lack
of evidence, had been obliged to drop the case; but the underworld had
whispered to itself. There was such a thing as suppressing evidence,
and Perlmer was known to have the cunning of a fox, and a code of morals
that never stood in the way, or restricted him in any manner.

The code message threw a new light on all this. Perlmer must have known
that old Nicky Viner had money, for, according to the code message,
Perlmer prepared a fake set of affidavits and forged a chain of fake
evidence with which he had blackmailed Nicky Viner ever since; and Nicky
Viner, known as a dissolute, shady character, innocent enough of the
crime, but afraid because his possession of money if made public would
tell against him, and frightened because he had already been arrested
once on suspicion for that very crime, had whimpered--and paid. And
then, somehow, Danglar and the gang had discovered that the old, seedy,
stoop-shouldered, bearded, down-at-the-heels Nicky Viner was not all
that he seemed; that he was a miser, and had a hoard of fifty thousand
dollars--and Danglar and the gang had set out to find that hoard and
appropriate it. Only they had not succeeded. But in their search they
had stumbled upon Perlmer's trail, and that was the key to the plan they
had afoot to-night. If Perlmer's fake and manufactured affidavits were
clever enough and convincing enough to wring money out of Viner for
Perlmer, they were more than enough to enable Danglar, employed as
Danglar would emplo