His fellow clerks looked at him askance at first, for they knew there had been no vacancy, and there was a long waiting list ahead of him, but the young man bore himself with such a quiet, modest air of _camaraderie_ about him that by the noon hour they had quite accepted him as one of themselves.
During the morning a package came to the bank and a letter which read in part:
... I am returning these securities to you in the hope that you may be able to place them in the possession of Jimmy Brunell. They belong to him, and my conscience is responsible for their return. I don"t know where to find him. I do know that at one time he did some banking at the Brooklyn & Queens Inst.i.tution. If he does not do so now, kindly hold these securities for Jimmy Brunell until called for, and in the meantime see Walter Pennold of Brooklyn.
With the package and letter came a request from Henry Blaine which those in power at the Brooklyn & Queens Bank were only too glad to accede to, in order to ingratiate themselves with the great investigator.
In accordance with this request, therefore, the affair was made known by the bank-officials to the clerks as a matter of long standing which had only just been rediscovered in an old vault, and the subordinates discussed it among themselves with the gusto of those whose lives were bounded by gilt cages, and circ.u.mscribed by rules of silence. It was not unusual, therefore, that the new clerk, Alfred Hicks, should have heard of it, but it was unusual that he should find it expedient to make a detour on his way to work the next morning which would take him to the gate of Walter Pennold"s modest home.
Perhaps the fact that Alfred Hicks" real name was Guy Morrow and that a letter received early that morning from Henry Blaine"s office, giving Pennold"s address and a single line of instruction may have had much to do with his matutinal visit.
Be that as it may, Morrow, the dapper young bank-clerk, found in the Pennold household a grizzled, middle-aged man, with shifty, suspicious eyes and a moist hand-clasp; behind him appeared a shrewish, thin-haired wife who eyed the intruder from the first with ill-concealed animosity.
He smiled--that frank, winning smile which had helped to land more men behind the bars than the astuteness of many of his seniors--and said: "I"m a clerk in the Brooklyn & Queens Bank, Mr. Pennold, and we have a box of securities there evidently belonging to one Jimmy Brunell. No one knows anything about it and no note came with it except a line which read: "Hold for Jim Brunell. See Walter Pennold of Brooklyn."
Now you"re the only Walter Pennold who banks with the B. & Q. and I thought you might like to know about it. There are over two hundred thousand dollars in securities and they have evidently been left there by somebody as conscience-money. You can go to the bank and see the people about it, of course. In fact, I understand they are going to write you a letter concerning it, but I thought you might like to know of it in advance. In case this Mr. Brunell is alive, they will pay him the money on demand, or if dead, to his heirs after him."
The middle-aged man with the shifty eyes spat cautiously, and then, rubbing his stubby chin with a hairy, freckled hand, observed:
"Well, young man, I"m Pennold, all right. I do some business with the Brooklyn & Queens people--small business, of course, for we poor honest folk haven"t the money to put in finance that the big stock-holders have. I don"t know where you can find this man Brunell, haven"t heard of him in years, but I understand he went wrong. Ain"t that so, Mame?"
The hatchet-faced woman nodded her head in slow and non-committal thought.
Pennold edged a little nearer his unknown guest and asked in a tone of would-be heartiness. "And what might your name be? You"re a bright-looking feller to be a bank-clerk--not the stolid, plodding kind."
Morrow chuckled again.
"My name is Hicks. I live at 46 Jefferson Place. It"s only a little way from here, you know." He swung his lunch-box nonchalantly. "Of course, bank-clerking don"t get you anywhere, but it"s steady, such as it is, and I go out with the boys a lot." He added confidentially: "The ponies are still running, you know, even if the betting-ring is closed--and there are other ways--" He paused significantly.
"I see, a sport, eh?" Pennold darted a quick glance at his wife.
"Well, don"t let it get the best of you, young feller. Remember what I told you about Jimmy Brunell--at least, what the report of him was. If I hear anything of where he is, I"ll let the bank know."
"I"ll be getting on; I"m late now--" Morrow paused on the bottom step of the little porch and turned. "See you again, Mr. Pennold, and your wife, if you"ll let me. I pa.s.s by here often--I"ve been boarding with Mrs. Lindsay, on Jefferson Place, for some time now. By the way, have you seen the sporting page of the _Gazette_ this morning? Al Goetz edits it, you know, and he gives you the straight dope. There"ll be nothing to that fight they"re pulling off Sat.u.r.day night at the Zucker Athletic Club--Hennessey"ll put it all over Schnabel in the first round. Good-by! If you hear anything of this Brunell, be sure you let me or the bank know!"
For a long moment after his buoyant stride had carried him out of sight around the corner, Walter Pennold and his wife sat in thoughtful silence. Then the woman spoke.
"What d"ye think of it all, Wally?"
"Dunno." The gentleman addressed drew from his pocket a blackened, odoriferous pipe and sucked upon it. "Must be some lay, of course.
I"ll go up to the bank and find out what I can, but I don"t think that young feller, Hicks, is in on it. I"ve been in the game for forty years, and if I"m a judge, he"s no "tec. Fool kid spendin" more"n he earns and out for what coin he can grab. I"ll look up that landlady of his, too, Mame; and if he"s on the level there, and at the bank--"
"And if those securities are at the bank, he ought to be willin" to come in with us on a share," the wife supplemented shrewdly. "But it seems like some kind of a gag to me. You knew all Jimmy Brunell"s jobs till he got religion or somethin", and turned honest--I can"t think of any old crook who"d turn over that money to him, two hundred thousand cold, because his conscience hurt him, can you? You know, too, how decent and respectable Jimmy"s been livin" all these years, putting up a front for the sake of that daughter of his; suppose this was a put-up game to catch him--what do the bulls want him for?"
"I ain"t no mind-reader. I"ll look up this business of securities, and then if the young feller"s talked straight, we"ll try to work it through him, if we can get to him, and I guess we can, so long as I ain"t lost the gift of the gab in twenty years. We"ll be as good, sorrowing heirs as ever Jimmy Brunell could find anywheres."
Before Walter Pennold could reach the bank, however, an unimpeachably official letter arrived from that inst.i.tution, confirming the news imparted by the bank-clerk concerning the securities left for James Brunell. Pennold, going to the bank ostensibly to a.s.sure those in authority there of his cordial willingness to a.s.sist in the search for the heir, incidentally a.s.sured himself of Alfred Hicks" seemingly legitimate occupation. A later visit to Mrs. Lindsay of 46 Jefferson Place convinced him that the young man had lived there for some months and was as generous, open-handed, easy-going a boarder as that excellent woman had ever taken into her house. Just what price was paid by Henry Blaine to Mrs. Lindsay for that statement is immaterial to this narrative, but it suffices that Walter Pennold returned to the sharp-tongued wife of his bosom with only one obstacle in his thoughts between himself and a goodly share of the coveted two hundred thousand dollars.
That obstacle was an extremely healthy fear of Jimmy Brunell. It was true that there had been no connection between them in years, but he remembered Jimmy"s att.i.tude toward the "snitcher," as well as toward the man who "held out" on his pals; and behind his cupidity was a lurking caution which was made manifest when he walked into the kitchen and found Mrs. Pennold with her shriveled arms immersed in the washtub.
"Say, Mame, the young feller, Hicks, is all right, and so is the bank; but how about Jimmy himself? If I can fix the young feller, and we can pull it off with the bank, that"s all well and good. But s"pose Jimmy should hear of it? Know what would happen to us, don"t you?"
"If he ain"t heard of them securities all this time they"ve been lyin"
forgotten in the bank, it"s safe he won"t hear of "em now unless you tell him," retorted his shrewder half, dryly. "Of course, if he"s lived straight, as he has for near twenty years as far as we know, and he finds it out, he"ll grab everything for himself. Why shouldn"t he?
But s"pose the bulls are after him for somethin", and the bank"s hood-winked as well as us, where are we if we mix up in this? Tell me that!"
"There"s another side of it, too, Mame."
Pennold walked to the window, and regarded the sordid lines of washed clothes contemplatively. "What if Jimmy has been up to somethin" on the quiet, that the bulls ain"t on to, and this bunch of securities is on the level? If I went to him on the square, and offered him a percentage to play dead, wouldn"t he be ready and willin" to divide?"
"Of course he would; he"s no fool," returned Mrs. Pennold shortly.
"But let me tell you, Wally, I don"t like the look of that "See Walter Pennold of Brooklyn," on the note in the bank. S"pose they was trying to trace him through us?"
"You"re talkin" like a blame" fool, Mame. Them securities has been there for years, forgotten. Everybody knows that me and Brunell was pals in the old days, but no one"s got nothin" on us now, and he give up the game years ago."
"How d"you know he did?" persisted his wife doggedly. "That"s what you better find out, but you"ve gotter be careful about it, in case this whole thing should be a plant."
"You don"t have to tell me!" Pennold grumbled. "I"ll write him first and then wait a few days, and if anyone"s tailing me in the meantime, they"ll have a run for their money."
"Write him!"
"Of course. You may have forgotten the old cipher, but I haven"t. You know yourself we invented it, Jimmy and me, and the police tried their level best to get on to it, but failed."
"You can"t address it in cipher, and if you"re tailed you won"t get a chance to mail it, Wally. Better wait and try to see him without writing."
For answer Pennold opened a drawer in the table, drew forth a grimy sheet of paper and an envelope, and bent laboriously to his task. It was long past dusk when he had finished, and tossed the paper across the table for his wife"s perusal. This is what she saw:
[Ill.u.s.tration: An image of a coded message is shown here in the text.]
When she had gazed long at the characters, she shook her head at him, and a slow smile came over her face.
"You"ve forgotten a little yourself, Wally. You made a mistake in the _k_."
He glanced half-incredulously at it, and then laid his huge, rough hand on her thin hair in the first caress he had given her in years.
"By G.o.d, old girl, you"re a smart one! You"re right. Now listen.
You"ve got to do the rest for me, the hardest part. Mail it."
"How? If we"re tailed--"
"There"ll be only one on the job, if we are, and I"ll keep him busy to-morrow morning. You go to the market as usual, then go into that big department store, Ahearn & McMa.n.u.s". There"s a mail chute there, next the notion counter on the ground floor. Buy a spool of thread or somethin", and while you"re waitin" for change, drop the letter in the box. You used to be pretty slick in department stores, Mame--"
"Smoothest shoplifter in New York until I got palsy!" she interrupted proudly, an unaccustomed glow on her sallow face. "I"ll do it, Wally; I know I can!"
The next morning Alfred Hicks was a little late in getting to his work at the bank--so late, in fact, that he had only time to wave a cordial greeting to his new friends in their cages as he pa.s.sed. He paused, however, that evening, with a pot of flowering bloom for Mrs.
Pennold"s dingy, not over-clean window-sill, and a packet of tobacco which he shared generously with his host. He talked much, with the garrulous self-confidence of youth, but did not mention the matter of the securities, and left the crafty couple completely disarmed.
Neither on entering nor leaving did Hicks appear to notice a short, swarthy figure loitering in the shadow of a dejected-looking ailanthus tree near the corner. It would have appeared curious, therefore, that the lurking figure followed the bank-clerk almost to his lodgings, had it not been for the fact that just before Jefferson Place was reached the figure sidled up to Hicks" side and whispered:
"No news yet, Morrow. Pennold went this morning to old Loui the Grabber and tried to borrow money from him, but didn"t get it. I heard the whole talk. Then he went to Tanbark Pete"s and got a ten-spot.
After that, he divided his time between two saloons, where he played dominoes and pinochle, and his own house. I"ve got to report to H. B.
when I"m sure the subject is safe for the night. Have you found anything yet?"