Children of the Whirlwind Part 12

"What's this for?" Larry asked.

"I was told that word had gone out to the Ginger Buck Gang to get you,"

answered the d.u.c.h.ess. "Barney has some secret connection with the Ginger Bucks. His saying that you were a stool and a squealer is not the only thing he's got against you; he's jealous of you on account of everything--especially Maggie. So you'll need that gun."

"What's this I've fallen into the middle of?" exclaimed Hunt. "A Kentucky feud?"

"It's very easy to understand when you know the code," Larry explained grimly. "Down here when an outfit thinks one of its members has squealed on them, it's their duty to be always on the watch for their chance to finish him off. I'm to be finished off--that's all."

"Say, young fellow, the life of a straight crook doesn't seem to be getting much simpler! Why, man, you hardly dare to stir from the house!

What are you going to do?"

"Going to go around my business, always with the pleasant antic.i.p.ation of a bullet in my back when some fellow thinks it safe for him to shoot."

The three of them discussed this latest development over their dinner, which they had together up in Hunt's studio. But despite all their talk of his danger, a very real and near danger, Larry's mind was more upon Maggie who had thus suddenly been wrenched out of his life. He remembered her excited, boastful talk of their first evening. Her period of schooling was indeed now over; she was now committed to her rosily imagined adventure, in which she saw herself as a splendid lady. And with Barney Palmer as her guiding influence!...

Dinner had been finished and Hunt was trying to give Larry such cheer as "Buck up, young fellow--you know the worst--there's nothing else that can happen," when the lie direct was given to his phrases by heavy steps running up the stairway and the opening and closing of the door. There stood Officer Casey, heaving for breath.

Instinctively Larry drew his pistol. "Casey! What're you here for?"

"Get rid of that gat--don't be found with a gun on," ordered Casey. "And beat it. You've got less than five minutes to make your get-away."

"My get-away! What's up?"

"You haven't come across as the Chief ordered you to, and he's out to give you just what he said he would," Casey said rapidly, his speech broken by panting. "There's been a stick-up, with a.s.sault that may be changed to attempted manslaughter, and the Chief has three men who swear you're the guilty party. It's a sure-fire case against you, Larry--and it'll mean five to ten years if you're caught. Gavegan and I got the order to arrest you. I've beat Gavegan to it so's to tip you off, but he's only a few minutes behind. Hurry, Larry! Only--only--"

Casey paused, gasping for his wind.

"Only what, Casey?"

"Only alibi me, Larry, by slipping over a haymaker on me like you did on Gavegan. So's I can say I tried to get you, but you were too quick and knocked me cold. Quick! Only not too hard--I know how to play possum."

Larry handed the pistol to Hunt. "Casey, you're a real scout! Thanks!"

He grasped Casey's hand, then swiftly relaxed his grip. "Ready?"

"Fire," said Casey.

Larry held his open left hand close to Casey's jaw, and drove his right fist into his palm with a thudding smack. Casey went sprawling to the floor, and lay there loosely, with mouth agape, in perfect simulation of a man who has been knocked out.

Larry turned quickly. "You two will testify that I beat Casey up and then made my escape?"

"Sure, I'll testify to anything for the sake of a good old goat like Casey!" cried Hunt. "But hurry, boy--beat it!"

The d.u.c.h.ess held out Larry's hat to him, and thrust into his coat pocket a roll of bills which had come from her capacious skirt. "Hurry, Larry--and be careful--for you're all I've got."

Impulsively Larry stooped and kissed the thin, shriveled lips of his grandmother--the first kiss he had ever given her. Then he turned and ran down the stairway, Hunt just behind him. He turned out the light in the back room, and called to Old Isaac to darken the p.a.w.nshop proper. He was going forth with two forces in arms against him, the police and his pals, and he had no desire to be a s.h.i.+ning mark for either or both by stepping through a lighted doorway.

"Larry, my son, you're all right!" said Hunt, gripping his hand in the darkness. "Listen, boy: if ever you're trapped and can get to a telephone, call Plaza nine-double-o-one and say 'Benvenuto Cellini.'"

"All right."

"Remember, you're to say 'Benvenuto Cellini,' and the telephone is Plaza nine-double-o-one. Luck to you!" Again they gripped hands. Then Larry slipped through the darkened doorway into whatever might lie beyond.

CHAPTER XI

A misting rain was being swirled about by a temperish wind as Larry came out into the little street. Down toward the river the one gaslight glowed faintly like an expiring nebula; all the little shops were closed; home lights gleamed behind the curtained windows which the storm had closed; so that the street was now a little canyon of uncertain shadows.

Larry had not needed to think to know that Gavegan would be making his vindictive approach from the westerly regions where lay Headquarters.

So, keeping in the deeper shadows close to the building, Larry took the eastern course of the street, remembering in a flash a skiff he had seen tethered to a scow moored to the pier which stretched like a pointer finger from the little Square. As yet he had no plan beyond the necessity of the present moment, which was flight. Could he but make that skiff unseen and cast off, he would have time, in the brief sanctuary which the black river would afford him, to formulate the wisest procedure his predicament permitted him.

As he came near that smothered glow-worm of a street-lamp it a.s.sumed for him the betraying glare of a huge spot-light. But it had to be pa.s.sed to gain the skiff; and with collar turned up and hat-brim pulled down and head hunched low, he entered the dim sphere of betrayal, walked under its penny's-worth of flame, and glided toward the shadows beyond, his eyes straining with the preternatural keenness of the hunted at every stoop and doorway before him.

He was just pa.s.sing out of the sphere of mist-light--the lamp being now at his back helped him--when he saw three vague figures lurking half a dozen paces ahead of him. His brain registered these vague figures with the instantaneity of a snapshot camera at full noon. They were mere shadows; but the farther of the three seemed to be Barney Palmer--he was not sure; but of the ident.i.ty of the other two there was no doubt: "Little Mick" and "Lefty Ed," both members high in the councils of the Ginger Bucks, and either of whose services as a killer could be purchased for a hundred dollars or a paper of cocaine, depending upon which at the moment there was felt the greater need.

In the very instant that he saw, Larry doubled about and ran at full speed back up the street. Two shots rang out; Larry could not tell whether they were fired by Little Mick or Lefty Ed or Barney Palmer--that is, if the third man really were Barney. Again two shots were fired, then came the sound of pursuing feet. Luckily not one of the bullets had touched Larry; for the New York professional gunman is the premier bad shot of all the world, and cannot count upon his marksmans.h.i.+p, unless he can get his weapon solidly anch.o.r.ed against his man, or can sneak around to the rear and pot his unsuspecting victim in the back.

As Larry neared the p.a.w.nshop with the intention of making his escape through the western stretch of the street, he saw that Old Isaac has switched on the lights; and he also saw Officer Gavegan bearing down in his direction. They sighted each other in the same instant, and Gavegan let out a roar and started for him.

Caught between two opposing forces, Larry again had no time to plan.

Rather, there was nothing he could plan, for only one way was open to him. He dashed into the p.a.w.nshop and into the back room. At the d.u.c.h.ess's desk Hunt was scribbling at furious speed.

"I'm caught, Hunt--Gavegan's coming," he gasped, and ran up the stairs, Hunt following and stuffing his scribblings into a pocket. As Larry pa.s.sed the open studio door he saw Casey sitting up. "Down on the floor with you, Casey! Hunt, work over him to bring him to--and stall Gavegan for a while if you can."

With that Larry sprang to a ladder at the end of the little hall, ran up it, unhooked and pushed up the trap, scrambled through upon the roof, and pushed the trap back into place.

Fortune, or rather the well-wis.h.i.+ng wits of friends below, gave Larry a few precious moments more than he had counted on. He was barely out on the rain-greased tin roof, with the trap down, when Gavegan came thumping up the stairs and into the studio. At sight of the rec.u.mbent Casey, head limply on Hunt's knees, and his loose face being laved by a wet towel in Hunt's hands, Gavegan let out another roar:

"h.e.l.l's bells! What the h.e.l.l's this mean?"

"I tried to nab Brainard," Casey mumbled feebly, "and he knocked me out cold--the same as he did you, Gavegan."

"h.e.l.l!" snorted Gavegan, his wrath increased by this reference. "You there"--to Hunt and the d.u.c.h.ess--"where'd Brainard go? He's in this house some place!"

"I don't know," said Hunt.

"Yes, you do! Leave that b.o.o.b side-kick of mine sleep it off, and help me find Brainard or you'll feel my boot!"

The big painter stood up facing the big detective and his left hand gripped the latter's wrist and his right closed upon the detective's throat just as it had closed upon the lean throat of Old Jimmie on the day of Larry's return--only now there was nothing playful in the noose of that big hand. He shook Gavegan as he might have shaken a pillow, with a thumb thrusting painfully in beneath Gavegan's ear.

"I've done nothing, and that bully stuff doesn't go with me!" he fairly spat into Gavegan's face. "You talk to me like a gentleman and apologize, or I'll throw you out of the window and let your head bounce off one of its brother cobblestones below!"

Gavegan choked out an apology, whereat Hunt flung him from him. The detective, glowering at the other, pulled aside curtains, peered into corners; then made furious and fruitless search of the rooms below, bringing up at last at Maggie's door, which the d.u.c.h.ess had slipped ahead of him and locked. When he demanded the key, the d.u.c.h.ess told him of Maggie's departure and her carrying the key with her. It was a solid door, with strong lock and hinges; and two minutes of Gavegan's battering shoulders were required to make it yield entrance. Not till he found the room empty did Gavegan think of the trap and the roof.

Larry made good use of these few extra minutes granted him. Whatever he was to do he realized he must do it quickly. Not for long would the forces arrayed against him be small in number; Gavegan, though beaten at the outset, would send out an alarm that would arouse the police of the city--and in their own degree the gangsters would do the same. During his weeks of freedom Larry had unconsciously studied the layout of the neighborhood, his old instincts at work. The subconscious knowledge thus gained was of instant value. He hurried along the slippery roofs, taking care not to trip over the dividing walls, and came to the rear edge of a roof where he had marked a fire-escape with an unusually broad upper landing. He could discern the faint outlines of this; and hanging to the gutter he dropped to the fire-escape, and a moment later he was down in the back yard; and yet two moments later he was over two fences and going through a rabbit's burrow of a pa.s.sageway that went beneath a house into the street behind his own.