"If you"re a linguist, Crewe, you"ll have heard of the phrase: _Sauve qui peut_. It means "Git!" And that"s the advice I"m giving and taking.
To-morrow we"ll meet to liquidate the Boundary Gang and split the Gang Fund."
He turned his companions out to get what sleep they could. For him there was little sleep that night. Before the dawn came, he was at Twickenham, examining a big motor-launch that lay in a boat-house. It was the launch which should have carried Lollie Marsh and Selby on their river and sea journey. It was provisioned and ready for the trip. But first the colonel had to take from a locker in the stern of the boat a small black box and disconnect the wires from certain terminals before he stopped a little clock which ticked noisily. He had tuned his bomb to go off at four in the morning, by which time, he calculated, Lollie Marsh and her escort would be well out to sea. For the colonel regarded no evidence that might be brought against him as unimportant.
CHAPTER x.x.xIV
CONSCIENCE MONEY
The colonel was sleeping peacefully when Pinto rushed into his bedroom with the news. He was awake in a second and sat up in bed.
"What!" he said incredulously.
"Selby"s pinched," said Pinto, his voice shaking. "My G.o.d! It"s awful!
It"s dreadful! Colonel, we"ve got to get away to-day. I tell you they"ll have us----"
"Just shut up for a minute, will you?" growled the colonel, swinging out of bed and searching for his slippers with the detached interest of one who was hearing a little gossip from the morning papers. "What is the charge against him?"
"Loitering with intention to commit a felony," said Pinto. "They took him to the station and searched his bag. He had brought a bag with him in preparation for the journey. And what do you think they found?"
"I know what they found," said the colonel; "a complete kit of burglar"s tools. The fool must have left his bag in the hall and of course Jack o"
Judgment planted the stuff. It is simple!"
"What can we do?" wailed Pinto. "What can we do?"
"Engage the best lawyer you can. Do it through one of your pals," said the colonel. "It will go hard with Selby. He"s had a previous conviction."
"Do you think he"ll split?" asked Pinto.
He looked yellow and haggard and he had much to do to keep his teeth from chattering.
"Not for a day or two," said the colonel, "and we shall be away by then.
Does Crewe know?"
Pinto shook his head.
"I haven"t any time to run about after that swine," he said impatiently.
"Well, you"d better do a little running now then," said the colonel.
"We may want his signature for the bank."
"What are you going to do?"
"I"m going to draw what we"ve got and I advise you to do the same. I suppose you haven"t made any preparations to get away, have you?"
"No," lied Pinto, remembering with thankfulness that he had received a letter that morning from the aviator Cartwright, telling him that the machine was in good order and ready to start at any moment. "No, I have never thought of getting away, colonel. I"ve always said I"ll stick to the colonel----"
"H"m!" said the colonel, and there was no very great faith in Pinto revealed in his grunt.
Crewe came along an hour later and seemed the least perturbed of the lot.
"Here"s the cheque-book," said the colonel, taking it from a drawer.
"Now the balance we have," he consulted a little waistcoat-pocket notebook, "is 81,317. I suggest we draw 80,000, split it three ways and part to-night."
"What about your own private account?" asked Pinto.
"That"s my business," said the colonel sharply. He filled in the cheque, signed his name with a flourish and handed the pen to Crewe.
Crewe put his name beneath, saw that the cheque was made payable to bearer, and handed the book to the colonel.
"Here, Pinto." The colonel detached the form and blotted it. "Take a taxi-cab, see Ferguson, bring the money straight back here. Or, better still, go on to the City to the New York Guaranty and change it into American money."
"Do you trust Pinto?" asked Crewe bluntly after the other had gone.
"No," said the colonel, "I don"t trust Pinto or you. And if Pinto had plenty of time I shouldn"t expect to see that money again. But he"s got to be back here in a couple of hours, and I don"t think he can get away before. Besides, at the present juncture," he reflected, "he wouldn"t bolt because he doesn"t know how serious the position is."
"Where are you going, colonel?" asked Crewe curiously. "I mean, when you get away from here?"
Boundary"s broad face creased with smiles.
"What a foolish question to ask," he said. "Timbuctoo, Tangier, America, Buenos Ayres, Madrid, China----"
"Which means you"re not going to tell, and I don"t blame you," said Crewe.
"Where are you going?" asked the colonel. "If you"re a fool you"ll tell me."
Crewe shrugged his shoulders.
"To gaol, I guess," he said bitterly, and the colonel chuckled.
"Maybe you"ve answered the question you put to me," he said, "but I"m going to make a fight of it. Dan Boundary is too old in the bones and hates exercise too much to survive the keen air and the bracing employment of Dartmoor--if we ever got there," he said ominously.
"What do you mean?" demanded Crewe.
"I mean that, when they"ve photographed Selby and circulated his picture, somebody is certain to recognise him as the man who handed the gla.s.s of water over the heads of the crowd when Hanson was killed----"
"Was it Selby?" gasped Crewe. "I wasn"t in it. I knew nothing about it----"
The colonel laughed again.
"Of course you"re not in anything," he bantered. "Yes, it was Selby, and it is ten chances to one that the usher would recognise him again if he saw him. That would mean--well, they don"t hang folks at Dartmoor." He looked at his watch again. "I expect Pinto will be about an hour and a half," he said. "You will excuse me," he added with elaborate politeness "I have a lot of work to do."
He cleared the drawers of his writing-table by the simple process of pulling them out and emptying their contents upon the top. He went through these with remarkable rapidity, throwing the papers one by one into the fire, and he was engaged in this occupation when Pinto returned.
"Back already?" said the colonel in surprise, and then, after a glance at the other"s face, he demanded: "What"s wrong?"