Latest / Mysteries of London Vol. I part 1 / Rich Crooks - Gordon Young

Transcript

Rich Crooks - Gordon Young · Mysteries of London Vol. I part 1

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter one of Rich Crooks by Gordon Young. This is
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Read by Ben Tucker. Rich Crooks by Gordon Young, Chapter one.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Now and then, people of God in my way, and
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: bullets have been used, But it is another thing to
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: kill a man in what is called cold blood. Every
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: one of us has perhaps wondered that God has let
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: certain people live, and each of us is probably wished
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: for the daring to do what God should. In our opinion,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: he knows all about everybody, and that perhaps makes the difference.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Since circumstantial evidence has no influence on him. That perhaps
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: explains why He lets some people live on and on,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: though perhaps not why others die. There came a time
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: when I held the lives of two men in my
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: hands and did not know which to throw away. One
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: killed a woman, and the other had believed evil things
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: of her. For a time I felt that the latter
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: was even the more deserving of death, and I was
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: sure that both had lived too long. Yet I hesitated
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: to wink at the death of either, Contrary to the
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: opinion that many people have of me. I am scrupulous
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: about certain things. Don everhard A wrathful, youthful cousin of
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: mine once had said, in a tone of disappointment and disgust,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: you talk like a preacher. He had encountered certain scruples
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: of mine, and had angrily searched for the most crushing
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: thing he could say to a professional gambler who was
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: usually spoken of in the newspapers as a gun fighter
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: and occasionally faintly damned by the police, who were as
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: frequently wrong for a clever crook. This is essentially a
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: complicated story because from first to last, it covers many
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: years and involves the motives and wickedness of more than
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: one man. Sheer luck, if not accident, twice brought me
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: into the plot, though I sometimes suspect Fate of being
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: too thoughtful a dramatist to leave anything to mere chance.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: In a way, what I have to tell comes about
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: because Jack Richmond, that same cousin, got himself engaged to
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: core A Cornwall. When I learned that her name was
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Cornwall and that she came from Utah, I had reason
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: to meditate interestedly in my youth. Our family a rather
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: large one had been land poor in southern California. But
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Jack came of age and into possession of an oil
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: field all his own. He arrived with his pockets full
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: of money to camp on my doorstep. His imagination had
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: been fired by what he had heard of me, in
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: spite of the censorship which heads of our family had maintained.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: I was the disgrace, and he had ambitions to follow
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: in my tracks. But as I have said, he fell
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: in love. Ordinarily, I do not interfere with the folly
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: of other people, not even of my own cousins. But
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: I had dragged him almost by the ears from a
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: card table, and he was indignant. So he classed me
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: with a preacher, which was not without its complimentary angle.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: I really could not blame him for gambling, since we
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: had the same grandfather back of us, and there was
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: a strong undertow in her blood to do the things
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: for which he had been famous. End of chapter one,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Chapter two of Rich Crooks by Gordon Young. The LibriVox
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: recordings in the public domain. Chapter two, Jack, who was
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: not a gay spind thrift and did not like the
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: flashing luxury that usually attends the giddy young man, of
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: money usually dined with me in a quiet restaurant that
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: gave more attention to its cuisine than depotted plants and
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: gilded frescoing. One evening, he chanced to dine there alone,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: and a girl at a nearby table helplessly appealed to him.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: She had lost her purse, and her check came to
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: one dollars and seventy cents. He did what anybody would
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: have done, and what she intended a young fool would do. Also.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Her explanations were plausible, and her personality seemed fascinating. He
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: went home with her and was introduced to two old men,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: an uncle and a father, who, against Jack's protests, refunded
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: the one dollar and seventy cents and gave him their
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: thanks with the usual impudence. He said of them to me,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: the old fellow with the glasses and the twisted nose
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: is the father the other dyspeptics her uncle. When he
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: told me that their names were Joseph and Daniel Cornwall,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: I said nothing. Though I had much to say, I
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: knew it was not by chance that he had been
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: more or less artfully brought into their house for a
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: month in one way or another. Those same Cornwall brothers
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: had been trying to get in touch with me. I
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: did know nothing about the one called Joseph, and not
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: all that I wished to know about the one called Daniel,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: not all I would have liked to know, in case
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: our affairs were to be further entwined. They had been entwined,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: if I may use so mild a word, some years before.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: But he didn't know it. That is, he did not
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: know that Don Richmond alias Everhard was the same person
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: that had entered his office, plundered as safe, and later
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: disposed very effectively of the person who tried to recover
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: the little box of papers. Daniel Cornwall's suspicions centered on
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: a man named Smithers, who was far from being innocent.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: But I must continue with Jack's part for a few
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: words more. He called on Cora again. He liked her,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: He loved her. I have often wondered why there must
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: be a benevolent destiny that occasionally takes young fools in hand.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: But Jack seemed to win the confidence of the two
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: loose jointed, secretive old men by the very remark that
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: anyone would have thought most likely to get him thrown
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: out of the house and have the door bolted behind him.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: He was blindly led to discuss what relatives he had
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: in the city, and with a little burst of pride,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: mentioned that I don everhard was his cousin. At that,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: he said, they became surprised and eager. My name is
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: well known. Any time a hack rider, one of these
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: fellows that fill what spaces left over from the day's
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: news and are paid by the inch, simply must pay
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: his rent. He rehashes what somebody before him is written
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: of my record, discusses my psychology, and speculates on how
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: a man with so many notches on his gun, I
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: never not to gun in my life can move unmolested
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: in a civilized community. Those old fellows began to ask
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: interested questions. They wanted to meet me. Jack said that
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: he would have me over the very next afternoon. He did.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: End of chapter two, chapter three of Rich Crooks by
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Gordon Young. This LibriVox recordings in the public domain. Chapter three,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Jack had explained to me ugly old conjures. But they're
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: rich father's Joseph and Uncle Dan. How do I know?
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: She called one uncle Dan, he called the other Joseph.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Think I was asleep, not me. I was sitting on
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: the edge of my chair, swatting every question that came
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: over the plate. We were met at the door by
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: a servant who did not succeed in hiding the fact
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: that he was surprised to see me. He had no
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: way of knowing from my face or manner that I
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: noticed his surprise, but I did, as there is not
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: one face in a thousand that I cannot place immediately.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: I was a little puzzled to find myself unable to
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: remember one who showed such marked recognition of me. He
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: was a man somewhat above middle aged, slightly bald, rather
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: red of face, and well fed. He looked like a hypocrite,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: as every able bodied man does when he plays flunky,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: bowing in those whom he really does not think are
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: as better as or even his equals. Perhaps they wouldn't
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: be if he did not choose the lap dog's wave.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Keeping his stomach full. This fellow's jaw stiffened and his
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: eyes popped. His hands were pretty unsteady, and I saw
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: drops of sweat on his forehead. We went through the
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: hall into an old room with a high ceiling. The
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: room appeared musty and full of shadows, though the curtains
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: were up and the autumnal sun was bright. We were
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: greeted by the two old men. I say they were old,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: though at a glance I saw they were aged by
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: something besides years. Mister Daniel Cornwall I had met before,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: but then I had worn a mask. He was the elder,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: the larger, the more decisive, and I did not doubt
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: at all but that he was the most criminal. Though
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: excepting that his face was flabby rather than thin, both
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: men looked somewhat alike. Mister Joseph Cornwall appeared almost consumptive.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: I heard him cough frequently. His face was thin, just
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: skin across bones, his nose prominent and a little twisted.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: He had a thin mustache that like a ragged veil,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: fell over his loose mouth, and the large rimmed glasses
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: accentuated the queerness of his face. His voice was harshly husky.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: I had not known him except remotely. He had in
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: some way, it remained entirely outside of my circle of experience.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: During the time I was in Utah, Daniel Cornwall was
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: the dominant character. Their intentions were something more than friendly.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: I could not imagine what kind of starling jacket found
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: in that nest of lean owls. Kor did not come
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: into the room until we had been there for some time.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: I could not guess what those old fellows actually wanted,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: but I had known all along that they were after
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: something protective from me. I am continually having people after
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: me for one reason or another, and not alone from
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: those who think that my gone is for sale. It
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: would not be easy to count the number of people
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: who disliked me, and, as the saying goes, have it
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: in for me. I have enemies that I have never seen,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: never heard of, since some people hold a grudge against
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: me because their own friends had been hurt, some of
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: them buried. After a few words, Joseph mentioned that they
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: too were from the West, as if that put a
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: tribal relation upon us. They sat back with their eyes
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: on me, and jack imperviously rattled on. He said nothing
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: worth repeating, and they were obviously waiting for what I
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: did not know, but for something, probably that would give
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: them opportunity to talk to me alone. Being a fine
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: pair of old schemers, they had already prepared for that.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: I had noticed the man, the footman, who met us
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: at the door trying to attract Daniel Cornwall's attention when
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: we came into the room, but he had been ignored. Presently,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: he returned and with an obvious effort, kept his eyes
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: from me, while telling the old fellow Daniel that he
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: would like to speak to him on a matter of
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: great importance. Sir Daniel looked at him as one might
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: order away a well trained dog, made a gesture and said,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: I'm quite busy, Quiller, I'm busy. It might be important,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: said Joseph, a little nervously to his brother's Quiller reluctantly
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: turned away, shooting a glance at me. His nerves are going,
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Daniel growled. This morning. He was all excited over something
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: he dreamed. But Dan, the other began, and it was
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: plain that his nerves were also jangled. Being frightened at
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: every shadow isn't going to help matters, said the more
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: aggressive Daniel, a very hard expression coming into his face.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: For a second, he spoke rather testily. I knew that
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: Daniel had a temper, a great amount of resolution, much cunning,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: and no honor. I knew also, one who plays poker
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: for a living knows many things by simply looking into
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: a man's face that Joseph was much like him. Finally,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Cora came in, dressed in a plain, neat tailored suit
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: of dark cloth. She was not at all I had expected,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: not at all. I looked at her very hard. She
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: was up the same type appearance and manner as a
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: woman whom some ten years before I had gone out
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: of my way to help. It was strange, indeed, but
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: I rather liked her at once, though I knew she
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: had made a dupe of my cousin. For one thing,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: she wasn't pretty, and having that blessing, of course, did
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: not think that every man was made to sigh for her,
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: to flirt with her, to hover about her, and be
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: satisfied with smiles and artificial blushes. It is a great
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: day in the lives of blonde flappers when they learned
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: how to blush by holding their breath. Cora was a blonde,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: but she did not blush. Her eyes were gray and serious.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: She had probably been matter of fact and serious in
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: the restaurant and actually fascinated Jack, where a more pretty
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: and giddy young person would have aroused him to only
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: a flirtation. She was intelligent and direct. I have given
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: my nights in much of my days to leaning across
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: green topped tables, looking into the eyes of men. One
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: plays most games of cards by watching the pips. One
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: plays poker by watching faces. For a long time, I
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: watched her face with a hard scrutiny that my made
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: her uneasy. I did not care. I wondered if slight, blonde,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: gray eyed women were all alike. She had her hat
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: in her hand, as if she were going out. After
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: being introduced to me, she said, Uncle Dan, something seems
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: wrong with Quiller. He looks ill. Quiller's been drinking again.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Daniel Cornwall said gruffly, then more personally, you're going out,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: my dear. She looked at him with a touch of surprise.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: She was no adept at deception. It was her role
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: to go out and take Jack with her. In a
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: few minutes she did, and I was left alone with
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: the two old men. End of chapter three, Chapter four
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: of Rich Crooks by Gordon Young the LibriVox recordings in
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Chapter four. It would be needless, if
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: not tedious, to tell at length all that was said.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: The young people had no sooner left the room than
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Daniel got up and drew together the sly doors across
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: the entrance from the hallway, Joseph, with an attempt at
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: a confidential smile, moved his chair a little closer toward me.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Daniel looked about cautiously, and, seeming satisfied, also pulled his
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: chair a little nearer to me. Mister Everhard, Daniel began
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: rubbing his hands together. Chances at last brought us together.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: He said it with a grin, smugly. His grin was unpleasant,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: his smugness repugnant. For a brief moment I wondered if
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: he knew more than I gave him credit for knowing,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: and if he thought that he had trapped me. But
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: he was merely trying to make me think accident had
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: taken place of design. And mister Everhard, he went on,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: as we have conveyed to you before, we are rich men.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Joseph nodded and smiled encouragingly. I did not say anything.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: I looked at them from one to the other. My
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: thoughts were scooting in and out. I knew that Daniel
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Cornwall had enemies, some of them, one at least, a
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: very powerful man who thought himself more or less helpless.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: So long as Daniel retained possess of a little black
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: steel box, or rather of its contents. I knew too
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: that he had another enemy, said to be a wild,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: dangerous fellow, who would have, had he known who I was,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: possibly have tried to make good certain and jealous threats.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: And we will be generous, Daniel added, impressively, as if
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: I did not know that he had a reputation for
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: being miserly. The point to the fifteen minutes of fumbling
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: speech was this. They had previously tried to engage me
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: as a sort of personal guard, and they now asked
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: me to state what terms I pleased. They were old,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: innocent men and in danger. Would I interest myself in
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: their behalf in looking about anxiously for someone to help them.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: They had thought no one else could do so well
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: as I. They had written letters asking me to call
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: on them, those being coldly answered. They had sent a
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: lawyer to engage my interest. They might have sent the
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: devil with results. I dislike lawyers, all of them. I
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: mentioned the protective value of the police. Daniel made a
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: deprecating gesture and grinned the police were all right for
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: watching rat hole. They could follow tracts. This was different.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: I mentioned private agencies he came back flatteringly and said
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: their need was for a man of high personal courage
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: and resource. Steve Ellis, he said, could evade the police.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: Private detectives would not be likely to stand against him.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Daniel Cornwall himself was a crafty, vicious, enormously rich old rascal,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: the sort of a man whom it was said that
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: he never kept an inconvenient promise nor rewarded a friend.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: I knew something of Steve Ellis, I had known his
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: wife very well. I also knew something of the man
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: who was then governor of Utah, in Cornwall's most powerful enemy.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Perhaps that was one, or maybe the reason why Daniel
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Cornwall was out of the state. Though in his little
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: black box he had put evidence that could ruin and
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: wreck the man. It was a curious and complicated situation.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: The governor whom I will call Walsh, though that in
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: no way resembles his name, had in his younger days,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: become involved, perhaps more or less innocently, in some profitable
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: crooked work. Cornwall had stored the indubitable illegal evidence of
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: that in his little black box. Walsh knew much that
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: was crooked. Wiccan even dastardly of Cornwall and longed to
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: bring him to justice, to crush him, wipe him out,
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: but to do so he would have to sacrifice his
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: own career, for Cornwall would have retaliated by opening the
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: little Black Box. Cornwall, for his part, would have liked
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: to exterminate Walsh, but if he attacked Walsh, then the
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: governor would probably in the midst of his own ruin
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: land Cornwall in prison, if not on to the scaffold,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: supposing that a multi millionaire can ever be hanged, which
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: is doubtful in a country that leaves justice in the
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: hands of lawyers. So it was that they were like
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: two powerful giants, deadly in their enmity, but aware that
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: it would be mutually ruinous if they made an open fight.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Let Walsh once get his hands on that black box,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: and Cornwall was doomed. Nor did I doubt at all
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: that Cornwall hesitated the thoughts of assassination in trying to
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: figure out how he could dispose of Walsh. The immediate
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: concern of the Cornwalls, however, was not with Walsh. It
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: was with Steve Ellis. The situation was made more peculiar
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: and complicated by Ellis, whereas Cornwall and Walsh were continually
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: bluffing each other, and neither wanted or dared to come
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: actually to a crisis. Ellis was thought to be implacable
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: in his hatred of Daniel Cornwall. The Cornwalls thought, as
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: many people have, that I was sort of a cutthroat
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: for sale to a high bitter and with cunning enough
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: to evade punishment. I have evaded punishment largely because I
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: never deserved it. Even the police east and West, certainly,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: no friends of mine, were not without a kind of,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: let me say, a kind of gratitude for the way
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: I had come out of corners into which I had
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: occasionally been crowded. Law abiding citizens whom the police feel
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: it their duty to protect and to avenge, do not
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: shoot it people from the rear or from shadows, do
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: not pick corals and lay traps. Moreover, I never bothered
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: the police with complaints. The police and courts everywhere more
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: or less respect the ruling of Western juries to the
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: effect that the man who draws life and shoots first
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: as innocent. So those two old fellows, wholly unaware that
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: I knew a great deal about the cause of their fears,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: with a kind of grotesque eagerness in which both became excited.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: Tried to tell me the history of their haunting terrors.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: It was a long story, and Daniel lied a great deal.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: I won't repeat their story, for it was largely false.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: And when I have said that Daniel claimed Steve Ellis's
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: hate was inspired over certain mining claims, I have told
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: enough that part may or may not have been true.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: I did not know anyway. Perhaps money had originally been
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: at the bottom of the trouble. But Ellis seems to
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: have been the sort of man who looked for trouble.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: He had, so I heard, repeatedly, said that he would
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: kill me. He did not know my name, He knew
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: merely the name I happened to be using at the time.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: And then he was in a position to make threats
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: with impunity, for he was in the penitentiary. He believed,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: or pretended to believe, that MY presence under the roof
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: of his wife's house was injurious to his honor, and
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: since he was in prison, was dependent on the tales
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: that other men carried to him. End of chapter four,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: Chapter five of Rich Crooks by Gordon Young. This LibriVox
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain chapter five. It chanced
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: that some years before I had been in Utah, in
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: various parts of Utah, and had not taken the trouble
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: to introduce myself to anybody, that is, by the name
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: which was perhaps known to some of the people there.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: Even then, I was patiently waiting until the police of
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: San Francisco had, as they eventually did, do, assure themselves
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: that I had had nothing to do with a certain
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: little affair in which numerous liars conspired together to get
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: me out of the way. Legally, there had been enough
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: perjured witnesses to hang a saint. I may mention, though
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: it has nothing to do with the story that at last,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: impatient I returned quietly to San Francisco, made a midnight
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: call upon the ring leader of the frame up, and
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: impressed on him that I was weary of waiting for
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: his conscience to get the better of his prejudice against me.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: I suggested that he confess the next morning. He did so.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: It was that during the time I had been in
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Utah under the name of Smith or some such nonentity,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: I had minded my own business and got into trouble.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: It came about through a woman, missus Ellis her husband
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: was in prison, and for some reason or other she
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: wanted him out. I was staying quietly in her home,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: paying board and rent. I liked her because she asked
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: no questions. She was a little blond, gray eyed woman,
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: and told me some things about herself, not with the
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: idea of arousing sympathy, but because it is the nature
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: of her sex to talk. Among other things, she loved
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: this husband, Steve Ellis, who was in prison. She said
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: that he was innocent. Most wives do say that sort
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: of thing about their convicted husbands. She said that the
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: trouble had originated over a copper mind claim, and that
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: Daniel Cornwall, one of many copper kings of the West,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: had railroaded Steve Ellis because he wouldn't do some of
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: the cornwall dirty work. I asked questions in one direction
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: in another, and as I loafed a good deal over
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: poker tables, I had plenty of chance to hear all
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: manner of reports. As nearly as I could tell, Daniel
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Cornwall was a scoundrel and Steve Ellis was a dangerous
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: man with numerous friends. I heard that Ellis had formerly
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: been a gunman in Cornwall's employ I heard many things,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: and some of them were, no doubt true. Missus Ellis maintained, however,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: that he was innocent. She said that Steve had told
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: her that if she or any of his friends could
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: get hold of a little black box in Cornwall's private safe,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Cornwall himself would pull wires and bribe officials to get
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: him out. Missus Ellis said that Steve was a good
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: man in his way, but it seemed that he was
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: always in trouble through no fault of his own. Why,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: she said, his own child scarcely knows him. The child
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: was in a boarding school where missus Ellis, by dint
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: of scramping and gathering money from Lord knows where, kept
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: her under the illusion that a girl's life would be
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: easy and happier if secluded and educated. I had had
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: nothing in particular to do, and having assured myself that
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Daniel Cornwall was a mean, rich, old devil, and looking
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: the ground over carefully, I took certain precautions by way
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: of disguise and paid him a visit. As nearly as
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: he could tell. I looked like a rough miner, the
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: ends of a mustache poked from beyond my mask, my
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: clothes or of the sort of miner would be likely
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: to wear when he thought he was passing for a
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: city fellow. It was necessary, of course, to dispose of
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: a servant or two before I reached him. I made
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: the visit late in the evening, and I tied the
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: servants comfortably in a corner and left them there to meditate.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: Daniel Cornwall was a bachelor, so his establishment was easily raided.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: I found him in bed, I got him out and
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: made him open the safe. Not finding what I wanted,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: I induced him to put on his clothes and go
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: with me to his office. I succeeded in convincing him
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: that he would be shot if he tried to give
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: an alarm, and also that something of the kind would
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: happen if he looked round at me during the time.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: I had the mask off, for obviously I could not
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: go parading through even nearly deserted streets at eleven p m.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: With a mask on. I found that rich men are
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: easily bluffed by threats of violence. Anyway, we went to
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: his office and he opened the safe. There he nearly
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: dropped when he saw me remove the little black still box.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: He offered money. He offered almost everything imaginable. I took
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: the key away from him and opened the box. I
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: read enough of the papers to see what they were about.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: Walsh at that time was Attorney General or something of
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: the kind. In a kind of disgust, I threw the
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: key toward an open window. It went out. I replaced
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: the papers and slammed the lid down, not noticing that
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: a corner of one of the papers had stuck out.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: I'll never get that box open, he cried. It's a
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: special dock. You won't need to open it for some time.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: I told him, this is what I came after, but
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: there is a good chance that you may get it back.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: He had thought that I was looking into the box
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: in the hope of finding money or jewels, and he
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: was tremendously wrought up when he saw that I intended
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: to carry it off. I let him bite into a
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: handkerchief stuffed into his mouth, and tied his arms and
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: legs to a chair. Then I went out and into
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: a cheap rooming house where I had changed clothes earlier
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: in the evening. It was one of those houses that
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: did not have running water, but a pitcher and large
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: bowl for washing purposes was in the room. I put
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: the bowl near the window so as to carry out
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: the odor of smoke, and burned a few little things
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: I wanted to get rid of my mustache among them.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: The next day a messenger delivered a package to missus Ellis.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: It came from one of Steve's friends, so a scrap
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: of paper with it said she was a wise woman
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: and did not take me into her confidence. That is,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: she said nothing about the open sesame having mysteriously arrived.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: Maybe she wondered what it contained, but there was no
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: way of getting into it without going to a locksmith,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: and it was a solid little affair. Besides, for her purpose,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: she did not need to get into it. She must
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: have notified Cornwall that he had better use his influence
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: or it would be turned over to Walsh, who would
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: be glad to use his influence. The same scrap of
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: paper that told her it was from one of Steve's
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: friends advised her to take the matter up with Walsh
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: in case Cornwall did not show sufficient interest. I had realized,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: perhaps a little too late, that Walsh would probably think
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: she had cheated him if she did call this attention
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: to the box. For I tempered a little with the contents.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Usually I spent my evenings down in commercial alley over
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: a poker table, just idly playing and having a little
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: secret sport and making tin horns wonder why their plans
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: went awry. One hot, sultry night, I left early, went home, and,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: having a downstairs bedroom, left the hall door open to
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: get a little more air. I shot the man who
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: threw the glare of a dark lantern into my face
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: from the doorway. I had an impression that there were
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: two men, that is, I was sure I heard the
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: rush and clatter of a man running. It wasn't the
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: one I shot at. He was buried after being identified
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: as a shyster lawyer. Perhaps he thought it better to
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: go direct after loot than more safely to take its
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: second hand from his larce and his clients. Missus Ellis
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: vaguely told me in the police that the thieves must
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: have been after some papers. She kept her own counsel
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: as far as I knew, and I asked no questions.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: I left Salt Lake almost at once, since I did
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: not care for the attention that was coming my way,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: though of course the coroner did not hold me in
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: the least responsible. I went back to San Francisco. I
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: did not know what had happened in the case after
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: I left, for I was kept rather busy with personal
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: affairs of my own. But now the Cornwall brothers, after
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: having told me about Steve Ellis, sat up as if
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: jerked by wires. When I inquired whatever became of missus Ellis.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: For a moment or two, boney and loose jointed Daniel
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: looked as if I had hit him with a club,
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: and the emaciated Joseph upset his glasses from off his
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: nose in a quick dash to adjust them so as
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: to peer the harder at me missus Ellis, Daniel exclaimed,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: with a suddenness that had a suggestion of alarm in it.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: How did you know? The other corner Wall began and
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: broke off chokingly. Anytime a man is vengeful, you can
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: make sure there is a woman's shadow on him, I said, smoothly,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: as if unaware that I plucked at a veil. They
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: did not care to have disturbed. But how did you know?
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: Daniel insisted, with a sort of tentative suspicion, taking up
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: his brother's question. Ten chances to a half a one
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: always that it's a wife if not a wife, then
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: the daughter. Daughter. Joseph's voice was excitedly high pitched. Daughter,
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: I repeated, nodding. Daniel was staring at me. He did
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: not know what to think. I became aware that Joseph Cornwall,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: trembling from uplifted arms to his knees, was standing and
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: was almost speechless in his emotion. I tell you, Steve
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: Ellis is a mean scoundrel, he shouted hoarsely, A brute, sir.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: He killed his wife as surely as a man ever
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: killed anything. I adopted Cora Ellis, Sir, made her my heir.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: If he bothers her, he ought to be shot down
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: like a dog, and I would like to do it.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: He ended with a fit of coughing. The man was
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: grotesquely pitiful. He looked about as dangerous as a sparrow.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: His emotion was far too great for his body. He
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: shook from weakness. I looked at him for a long time.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: If that was acting, it was extremely good acting. But
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: I was not convinced Joseph is thunderhearted. Daniel put in,
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: as if explaining something. I wondered what he thought he
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: was explaining in such a tone of half apology. You
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: didn't want me to do it. Joseph almost flared, I
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: see what it's got us into. You know that has
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: nothing to do with it. Steve Ellis hates me, always
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: has hated me, never shown any love for me either.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: Daniel replied, but you, you tried to keep her from
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: marrying him, wanted to marry her yourself. There was much
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: in his voice that sounded like a taunt. I know
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: he was jealous of me, the grotesque, Joseph said, defensively. Uh.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: His brother answered with mean scorn. If he killed her,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: it wasn't because he was jealous of you. He was
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: jealous for that tin horn gambler that was living with
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: her while he was in the pen. Daniel added a
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: curse of his own against that tin horn gambler. I
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: inquired softly if Daniel had trouble with that fellow. It
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: seemed that he had. He was rather vague and excited,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: but I gathered from his remarks that he had guessed
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: the aforesaid tin horn gambler had had something to do
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: with a good deal of the trouble that came upon
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: him about that time. He seemed to think, in spite
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: of the intimation that Steve Ellis had had reason for
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: hating the tin Horn, that the fellow had been a
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: friend of Steve's. I asked how Steve Ellis had brought
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: about the death of his wife, but both of them
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: were uncommunicative. They had questions of their own. I persisted.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: Daniel looked expectantly at his brother, and Joseph said that
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: Ellis was sent up on circumstantial evidence. The woman was
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: found dead less than twenty hours after he had been
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: released from prison, her skull fractured. Now Steve Ellis was
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: being again released. He had been released circumstantial evidence. In
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: all that, Joseph Cornwall explained exasperatedly angrily, was the justification
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: for letting him out. Daniel watched me closely and was silent.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: I remarked that it was strange, exceedingly strange. Then Daniel spoke,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: but wash Governor, he's letting him out. I understood something then,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: of how it had come about. I said, bluntly and
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: with meaning, that I might care to have a word
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: or two with Steve Ellis when he arrived in New York.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: Daniel Cornwall continued to eye me a little broodingly, but
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: Joseph was full of gratitude. As Daniel was pushing open
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: the sliding doors, I caught sight of Quiller, looking quite
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: haggard and anxious, waiting at the foot of the stairs.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: At the door, I glanced back over the shoulder of
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: the nervous Joseph, who was aimlessly talkative, agitatedly polite. I
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: saw a Quiller gripping the arm of Daniel Cornwall. I
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: heard his excited whisper, as without looking toward me, he pointed.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: His eyes were on the dazed face of Daniel. I
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: caught the words the man that killed Taggart. The door
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: closed behind me, and somewhat reflectively, I went on my way.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: Taggart had been the name of the shyster lawyer who had,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: considering the ways and morals of his sort, taken a
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: step toward honesty and turning burglar. His regeneration might eventually
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: have been complete had he not awakened me. I had
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: always thought there had been two of them that night,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: and the man with Taggart might have, in the tenseness
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: of that moment, when the stream of light fell on
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: my face, got such a vivid glimpse of me as
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: to recognize me on sight. Years later, perhaps it was
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: my face that had troubled his dreams. End of chapter five.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: Chapter six of Rich Crooks by Gordon Young. This LibriVox
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: recordings in the public domain. Chapter six, several things happened
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: simultaneously and in rapid sequence. The Cornwall brothers quarreled, and Cora,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: overhearing them, learn such things as caused her to flee
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: the house. Her haste to get from under that roof
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: caused her to remove also a little black box which
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: had been entrusted among her things. Daniel, in constant dread
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: of thieves, had thought they would be unlikely to search
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: her personal effects, and had had her keep it for him.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: Daniel Cornwall, following the quarrel, also disappeared when he discovered
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: that I was the tin horn gambler and the man
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: who had shot Taggart. He thought he had caught the
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: devil on his hook, and was pretty much excited. He
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: had sent Taggart and Quiller to try to get back
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: that little steel box so as to avoid all delay
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: and if possible, obviate the need of having to let
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: Steve Ellis get out of prison. Daniel had quarreled because
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: he wanted to run and hide again, but Joseph, the weaker, younger,
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: and least aggressive, stubbornly refused. His conscience seemed to have
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: been a little easier. He had been traveling in the
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: Orient at the time and had nothing at all to
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: do with the affair. He was sick, too, he said,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: and in no condition to play the fugitive, though he felt,
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: and rightly enough. I suppose that Steve Ellis would kill
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: him if he got the chance. Likely enough, he would
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: make the chance. Take any sort of strong, bold man,
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: Throw him into prison twice, and he will probably come
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: out of it desperate, dangerous, and reckless. As nearly as
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: I could gather from what I heard and what I suspected,
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: Ellis had not only been jealous of him, but held
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: him almost equally responsible for the things that made him.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: Ellis so eager for vengeance against the brother. So it
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: was that Daniel Cornwall disappeared, taking Quiller with him. Quiller
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: afterward came back to learn Cora's address with a view
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: toward recovering the precious box. Joseph did not know it.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: He advised Quiller to come to my cousin or to me.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: Quiller lurked about until he got a word with Jack,
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: But the word Jack gave him was to go to
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: Blank where he belonged. Quiller did not approach me, perhaps
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: for fear that he might land in the same locality
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: with Taggart. I smiled over all that excitement about the
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: little Black Box, which, for all of its value and importance,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: had not been opened in years. But things happened rapidly.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: Shortly afterward, a battered was found on the water front,
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: and by clothes, papers, and purse was unquestionably identified as
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: Daniel Cornwall's. The police got their hands on Quiller and
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: held him in jail because he could tell no satisfactory story,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: and whenever a millionaire is murdered, the police insist on
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: at least pretending to have the guilty party. Joseph was
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: badly frightened and wanted to have Steve Ellis arrested, but
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: nobody could find him. He had come to New York
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: and he knew the Cornwall address. About the time the
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: body was found, he had telephoned demanding to see Cora.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: He swore that he would see his daughter. Joseph wrote
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: me that Ellis was very angry about it. He said,
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: in effect that since Daniel was out of the way
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: the papers is given the tribute of headlines to the
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: Salt Lake millionaire. He would ignore Joseph if he would
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: do the right thing by the girl. Joseph, with the
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: moneyed man's usual viewpoint, could not understand what Ellis meant
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: by the right thing. How could a man, he wrote
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: me plaintively do more than he had for the girl.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: I am afraid he will kill her, the old man wrote.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: His letter was not so much to give me explanations
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: as to beg me to come to see him, and
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: of course that meant to protect him. He was very
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: broken up over Cora. Did I know where she was?
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: I did? I knew more than that, I knew what
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: she had overheard when the cornwalls, not suspecting that she
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: was bending above the top of the stairs, quarreled. She
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: had fled in tears, in anger and rage and bewilderment.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: She did not know where to go or what to do,
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: but she wanted her father, whom she had thought was
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: still in prison. She tumbled into a cheap rooming house
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: as it seemed to fit her humiliation as well as
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: her purse. She scorned the cornwall money. The old fellows
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: had not been so generous in spending allowance and sent
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: for Jack Richmond. She confided with him, and he came
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: breathless to repeat it to me. I called on her,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: but she was a little afraid of me. Yet she
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: confirmed to me all that Jack had reported. She had
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: overheard terrible things. She did not know what to do.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: In tears, she confessed that she had trapped Jack in
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: the restaurant with the plea of no money and brought
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: him home. The Cornwalls had forced her to do it.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: She seemed at that time to owe them so much
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: that there was nothing which she would have refused to
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: do for them, though it made her feel ashamed to lie.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: I understood. I had from the first understood all about
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: the craft the Cornwalls thought they were using and getting
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: in touch with me through Jack. I am an unsympathetic person,
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: but having heard Corr's story, I was a little affected.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: She was a fine girl. I was convinced of that.
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: I joined with Jack in urging her to go into
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: better surroundings than to let us engage a companion for her.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: She refused. However, I did oppose Jack's insistence on marrying
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: her forthwith my impetuous cousin and I had an exchange
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: of remarks. I tried to impress upon him that he
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: would be a dunce to marry her before this trouble
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: was over. He would have been too. He exploded ill,
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: temperately and said many angry things. He wanted to marry
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: her and have the legal right to tell the world
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: to go hang, and to break anybody's head that interfered
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: with her. He wanted to lynch Cornwall single handedly. He
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: was furious enough to tell me I might bluff some
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: people just because I could shoot quick and straight. But
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: he didn't want any interference from me. Did I understand.
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: I did fully. I would not have had as much
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: respect and liking for him if he had not been
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: angry with me and said just the things he did say.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: There is much despicable in the man who shows common
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: sense when in love. The ancients must have known it,
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: for they pictured love as being blind. The fellow who
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: calculates on whether or not a girl is trustworthy, whether
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: or not he will have trouble on her account, is
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: scarcely above the fellow who speculates on how much money
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: he will make by the marriage. Jack told me to
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: go to the devil that he was going to marry
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: her at once, but he didn't. She was in no
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: mood for marriage. She was full of troubles and inwardly tormented.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: She refused to marry him or to accept help from him.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: There was no pose about it. She was going to
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: work and earn back something of her self respect. Jack
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: was a likable fellow, though he might as well have
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: carried his head under his arm for all the good
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: it did him. And she no doubt loved him all
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: the time, but did not quite realize it. Or maybe
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: she did realize it. I don't know. Anyway, she refused
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: to marry him. End of chapter six, chapter seven of
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: Rich Crooks by Gordon Young, Aslibrivox recordings in the public domain.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: Chapter seven. I called on Joseph and asked for the truth.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: Though I already knew more than he could tell me,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: having been a successful business man, he was an adept
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: at lying. In fact, he had begun his career by
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: being admitted to the bar. With a tall glass of
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: whiskey and water by the table toward which his trembling
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: hand went frequently. He tried to tell what he thought
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: would arouse sympathy for him. It was impossible. Had he
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: not been a feeble, sick old man, I would have
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: made his life more miserable than it was by letting
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: him know just how much I knew. What facts I
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: did get from him were jerked rather than pride. It
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: was offensive to me to hear him say that he
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: had been in love with missus Ellis almost from her girlhood.
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: He had always been well off in money matters, but
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: she chose to marry Steve Ellis, a big, drunken bully.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: So Joseph Cornwall said he had never married. He tried
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: to make me think that it was because of a
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: sentimental attachment for Corrus's mother, but he did not succeed.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: He had no relatives that he cared about. He got
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: himself appointed chorus guardian, made her his heir, though he
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: had not legally adopted her. I tried to be honest,
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: that is, as honest as a man can be without
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: developing into one of those unprejudiced non entities who look
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: at all sides of a question and never let themselves
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: be stirred by a fierce direct anger. But I did
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: have to take into consideration that Joseph had been on
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: a trip to the Orient during the time that I
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: was in Salt Lake and at the time of Missus
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: Ellis's death. In fact, he had not returned until Ellis
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: had been convicted of the murder. It was really his
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: ill health that kept me from being brutal toward him.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: I have repeatedly said that he was an old man,
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: but he wasn't in Gears somewhere around forty five, I judged,
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: But he was feeble and troubled by fears, if not
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: by his conscience. He wanted my sympathy, my friendship, as
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: he spoke of it. I told him rather ambiguously that
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: most of my friends were crooks who took their chances
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: boldly with the police, and he reached hurriedly for his whisky,
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: without understanding precisely what I meant. In the course of
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: trying to gain my gratitude, he explained that his brother,
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: suspecting the gambler who had been staying at Missus Ellis's
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: had had something to do with the theft of the
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: Little Black Box, had caused vicious reports of my presence
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: there to be carried to Ellis in prison. Ellis was
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: an inordinately jealous man, and the purpose of The lies
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: had been to break up what friendship may have existed
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: between Ellis and the man who called himself Smithers. The
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: Cornwalls had learned through Quiller that Smithers and I were
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: the same. Joseph explained several times that he and his brother,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: knowing my reputation and knowing that I was in New York,
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: had thought to engage me to protect them from Steve.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: Ellis and Daniel had been terrified to discover that I
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: had in Utah and known as Smithers. Joseph asked many questions,
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: but he got no answers, or rather no information. I
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: did not give him Corra's address, and he could not
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: give me. Ellis's private detectives had kept him and his
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: brother informed of Ellis's threats and movements after he was
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: pardoned by that rascally Governor Walsh, but all track had
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: been lost after he reached New York. You have no idea,
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: mister Everhardt, He said, what a wretchedly dishonest man Walsh's.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: It happened that I knew something of that too. I'm convinced.
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: He went on that he pardoned Elis just to have
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: him hound my brother and me. Why don't you strike back,
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: I demanded, strike back, Yes, ruin him? What do you mean,
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: he asked anxiously suspiciously. Then he blurted it out. You
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: got that box, you opened it, You're gonna sell it
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: to Walsh. I'll pay you more. I must have it.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: I'll have you arrested. Then he checked himself and tried
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: to wipe out the thread of arrest by talking money again.
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: I assumed a pose, a puzzlement, and twisted from him
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: the admission that the box contained papers that would ruin Walsh.
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: But Alas Walsh had evidence that would injure the Cornwalls
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: and ruin the name of his dead brother, who another Alas,
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: was not alive to refute it. I assured him with
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: sincerity and for the time convinced him that I did
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: not have a single paper or scrap of paper that
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: belonged to his brother or referred to Walsh. He wanted
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: to know where Cora was. He wanted to get hold
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: of the little black steel box. It contained valuable documents.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: He explained how it came to be in Cora's possession
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: that must be returned to him. What could she have
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: done with it? I could have told him what she
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: had done with it, but I didn't. I could have
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: told him that it was in my room, but I
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: did not mention any such thing. I could have told
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: him lots of things that would have surprised him, a
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: few things, one at least, that would have nearly paralyzed him.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: I demanded to know why he thought Ellis might hurt
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: the girl. Cornwall tried to be rather vague. He really
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: he did succeed in a way, But it seemed that
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: Ellis had been enraged when she permitted him, Joseph Cornwall,
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: to make her his heir. Why should he have felt
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: that way? Cornwall was perturbed by that line of questioning.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: He evaded anything more definite than to say Ellis had
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: always hated him because of missus Ellis. That old fellow
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: had not had his legal training in Vain. He was
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: good at subtleties, lies and evasions. I could have rocked him,
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: knocked the props from under him in twenty words, But
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: there seemed to be no reason just then for crushing
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: what little spirit, if not life, that he had left.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: The affair was far from being ended, and I thought
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: that after I had had a talk with Steve Ellis,
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: if I could ever locate that fellow, I would know
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: more of what I ought to do. I may pause
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: to admit that my income is not so large as
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: I sometimes wish it, and on occasion I have been
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: known to use a little of what looks suspiciously like blackmail.
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: I haven't many weakness as a sentiment, but two things
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: always arouse my sympathies, sick dogs and crippled children. Before
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: I finished with Joseph, I expected to see a large
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: subscription go to a certain children's hospital. Perhaps I would
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: sell him the Little Black Box. But more important motives
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: than that were, of course behind my interest. I am
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: fairly likely to want to meddle, though I do not
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: always do so wherever it appears that rank and justice
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: has been done. I had not only liked missus Ellis,
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: I liked Cora also, and if she were coming into
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: my family as Jack's wife, as there was no doubt
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: that she would, For Jack was a youth who got
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: what he wanted. I had good justification for taking the
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: trouble to interfere in the complications that affected her. End
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: of chapter seven, Chapter eight of Rich Crooks by Gordon Young.
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: The Slibrivox Recordings in the public domain. Chapter eight. My
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: justification increased almost immediately. Somebody nearly killed Cora Ellis. She was,
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: in spite of all that Jack could do, still living
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: in that cheap rooming house. Somebody entered the room at
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: night and nearly fractured her skull with a blow. Her
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: mother had been killed in the same way, a blow
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: to the head while she lay in bed, but Cora
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: was not killed, though her condition was serious concussion of
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: the brain. I believe the doctor said she was carried
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: to the hospital dangerously near death. Her name got into
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: the papers. More than that. Pretty much the whole story
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: eventually got there. Jack could then use his money to
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: give her comfort and help. If there had been anything
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: she needed that money could not buy, I suppose he
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: would have gone out and stolen it. He got in
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: a regiment of doctors and special nurses, had her put
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: into a private room, and made a fuss because it
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: wasn't good enough. Also, he ordered that nobody should be
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: permitted to see her, and had somebody on watch outside
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: of her door as well as in. He was excited
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: and thorough She had evidently been assaulted by someone intent
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: upon recovering the little black steel box. Her whereabouts had
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: probably been discovered by the simple method of shadowing. Jack,
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: who had visited her on an average of something like
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: twice a perhaps only on an average of once, But
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: as stayed the rest of the day, had gone out
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: with her, carried her off to shows and cafes, and
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: succeeded a little in distracting her attention from the need
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: of a job. The room was ransacked, but the little
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: box was not found. She did not have it. She
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: had given it to Jack to return to the corn Walls.
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: He had brought it home to wrap for a messenger,
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: and I, with deceptive consideration, told him I would attend
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: to it for him. It was a heavy little thing,
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: being solidly built, and without a key one would have
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: trouble getting it open. Daniel Cornwall had evidently known that
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: I counted on his knowing, as he also knew very
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: well what papers it had, and as he could tell
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: whether or not the lock had been tempered with, he
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: had apparently had no occasion to look them over. Perhaps
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: he had been too much of a miser to have
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: a new key made. Anyway, I didn't get into it.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: I did not try. I stowed it away with care
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: in my own room. As a matter of principal or
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: lack of it, as you prefer, it is always well
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: to have the joker up one's sleeve. That little to
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: me represented most emphatically the joker. I did rather wish
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: that I could peep inside of it again, but it
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: was too much trouble to have the sturdy little lock forced. Besides,
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: not even Daniel Cornwall or Walsh knew better than I
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: what it contained. I wished very much to get in
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: touch with Steve Ellis. For one thing, that blow intended
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: for his daughter's head had a deadly similarity to the
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: other which had sent him to prison. There was only
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: a circumstantial evidence it was true, but there seemed to
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: be other reasons than inadequate evidence that had decided Walsh
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: to sign his pardon. Jack came home one evening with
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: an air of excitement. Say what'd you know about it?
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: A gink showed up today and tried to raise a
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: rumpus because they wouldn't let him in. Said he was
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: her father. No, it wasn't the Cornwall, this peptin he telephoned.
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: I didn't see the Fellaw told him if he showed
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: up again, to hold him and yell for the police.
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: Corra's getting along. Find no excitement, say the doctors. They've
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: got to say something that made me think they're earning
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: their money. But when they tried to limit me to
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: fifteen minutes, say I'd like to know what business. But
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: the doctor I'm paying is not telling me how long
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: I can talk to my girl. Oh, the father person.
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: They told him to drop around tomorrow and see me.
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: Ellis did come around the next day, but the hospital
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: people and trying to follow Jack's advice about holding him
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: and calling in the police aroused his suspicions and he
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: got away. End of chapter eight, Chapter nine of Rich
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: Crooks by Gordon Young, the Slipper Ofox recordings in the
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: public domain. Chapter nine then came one of those disagreeable
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: surprises that are sometimes called bolts out of a clear sky,
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: though the sky had not, as one may judge from
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: what had been told, seemed so very clear. Anyway. Pretty
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: much of the whole affair got into the newspapers, and
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: on top of that, Joseph Cornwall appeared to have tried
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: to get security from Ellis by telling him that I
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: had been known as Smithers and salt Lake. Ellis probably
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: believed he had more reason to be jealous of me
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: than a Joseph Cornwall. And Ellis had no way of
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: knowing at all that I had done him a bit
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: of a service, or maybe that old scoundrel of a
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: Joseph Cornwall. It thought that by forcing Ellis's attention on me,
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: he would cause me to dispose of him. I knew
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: this had happened because Ellis wrote me a very abusive
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: letter saying he had found out that I was Smithers,
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: that he didn't care how bad my reputation was as
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: a gunman. He would get me, and he wanted me
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: to know it that I would pay for having done
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: Daniel Cornwall's dirty work. It seems to be a very
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: stupid characteristic of almost everybody bent on relieving a grudge
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: to send a warning, an abusive warning. I don't know
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: why it is so, but it is. I suppose it's
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: related to the passion for abusing an enemy that is
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: so marked in savages. The only thing about the letter
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: that gave me a second's pause, and it was a
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: rather long letter full of abuse and some illumination as
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: to how he had discovered who I was, was the
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: accusation that I had done Daniel Cornwall's dirty work. I
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: suppose that Joseph had added that lie to draw Ellis's
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: lightning more inevitably upon my head. I was more irritated
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: by the newspapers though by anything else. Jack, in a
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: moment of idiocy, had let the reporters get the best
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: of him. True enough, those fellows are likely to get
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: the best of anybody. And it is no trick at
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: all for a pack of them, sharp eyed, wily tongued,
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: lightning witted to turn a young emotional lover inside out.
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: They've got him to talk about Cora. I won't say
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: that he had sense enough not to tell them what
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: she had heard when the Cornwalls had quarreled. He probably
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: forgot that completely at the time. He told them pretty
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: much everything else. He said that Cora's room had evidently
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: been robbed in an effort to secure the little box
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: of important papers which she had previously turned over to him,
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: and he had returned to the Cornwalls. No, he did
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: not know what the box contained. He the idiot, told
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: of Cora's father and her semi adoption by the millionaire
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: Joseph Cornwall. The newspapers flared. Joseph Cornwall denied having received
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: the box. The papers clamored to know what was in it,
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: and speculated in headlines the recent murder or suicide of
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: Daniel was rehashed by a system of elimination and deduction.
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: They concluded that I had the box. They were encouraged
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: to this conviction by Joseph Cornwall, who seemed to have
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: lost his own head too. I was always a good copy.
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: All in all, it was a wail of a story.
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: I was pestered for a statement, but I said nothing.
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: Long dispatches from Salt Lake added sensational information to the
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: local stories. It was a muddle and a mess in
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: Those hounds of the press left no stones unturned. I
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: put on my best poker face and let them guess
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: whatever they would. I did succeed in impressing upon Jack
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: that he had made a fool of himself. I also
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: told him if he so much as breathed a word
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: of what Cora had told him and me of why
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: she fled the corn Walls, I would see to it
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: that she never did marry him, in case, as was unlikely,
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: she ever forgave him herself. The papers were frantic to
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: discover that point, but they did not succeed. It was
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: one matter upon which Joseph was equally desirous of silence.
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: I gave out nothing to papers or to the police,
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: and though the latter rather looked askance at me, they
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: did not make any formal inquiries. Joseph evidently did not
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: want to take legal steps to recover the box in
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: it contents, though he was now sure I was a liar,
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: since for fear I might give the document's publicity, I'd
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: told him I had no papers of his, his brothers,
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: or of Walsh's. That would hit Walsh's hardest, it is true,
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: but it would also cause Walsh Samson liked to pull
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: down the cornwall reputation, if not even to do violence
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: to Joseph himself. I did not say anything to the
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: newspapers or to the police, even when Yang Lee, the
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: mute chinaman who attended to the rather large apartment Jack
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: and I shared, was knocked unconscious while answering a call
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: at the door. Again, that blow over the head, the
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: same that had killed missus Ellis, nearly killed Cora, and
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: glancing a bit narrowly spared Yang from more than a
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: severe bump. True, three different men could have struck as
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: many different blows, but it looked much as if someone
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: was putting its trust in a club. My rooms were searched.
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: At the party who invaded the apartment looked into the
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: dictionary which I had carefully hollowed out. He might have
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: been satisfied, though I doubt it. Anyway, he would have
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: found the little black still box, just as I had received.
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: On the same day, I received a telegram from the
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: Secretary to the Governor of Utah. The governor had evidently
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: been reading the papers and New York dispatches. The telegram
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: requested me to meet the Governor at such and such
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: a hotel thirty minutes after his train arrived on the
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: following Thursday. Even I, who have had some experience in
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: the ways of the world and its troubles, was beginning
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: to feel a little bewildered at the rapidity with which
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: complications were developing. End of chapter nine, Chapter ten of
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: Rich Crooks by Gordon Young. The Slibrivox recordings in the
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: public domain. Chapter ten. I wanted to meet Steve Ellis.
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: It had been made plain that he wanted to meet me,
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: so nothing would have been more simple than the making
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: of an appointment if I had known where he was
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: or how to reach him. I doubted whether Ellis paid
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: attention to the personals in the newspapers. Probably did not
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: search them out as many citymen do over them breakfast coffee.
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: Young brokers and clerks hoping to find themselves somehow identified
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: as the man the lady in blue with the merry
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: widow hat wishes to meet again, or some such romantic nonsense. Besides,
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: it would have been impossible to say much in such
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: a personal without letting all the reporters in the city
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: and on the appointment. However, I thought I could use
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: the reporters. I permitted them to think I was trying
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: to retire, to evade them, to escape publicity, to hide
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: when I moved over to the Jersey's side and took
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: a modest little cottage, such as I hoped would encourage
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: midnight prowlers to come and call on me. The reporters,
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: thinking of course that they had something I did not
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: want known, managed to get my new address into their
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: follow up stories on the Cornwall case. The important thing
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: was that Jack, this time, acting under instructions, intimated to
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: them that the little black steel box went with me.
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: It had come to the point where it seemed that
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: I would have to offer myself as bait to catch
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: the sort of fish I was after. I had taken
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: the small furnished cottage with an idea toward encouraging the
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: sort of people who probably thought I did not want
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: to see them, to pay me unexpected calls. I made
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: a few minor alterations in the arrangement of the furniture
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: and hangings and waited. The first to come arrived boldly
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: in the daylight. Yanglee, standing behind the curtains near the door,
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: took a long look at the fellow and shook his head.
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: Yang was telling me that this was not the man
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: who had cracked him over the head when he had
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: opened the door two days before. The man knocked and
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: I called to him to come in. He hesitated, but came.
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: He was a person of no importance, probably a cross
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: between a lawyer and a private detective, and had been
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: sent by Joseph Cornwall to buy the Little Black Box.
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: He acted as if he were being vastly generous in
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: offering ten thousand dollars for the box. I said I
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: would not consider less than thirty thousand dollars he protested.
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: I told him the price was now forty thousand dollars.
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: He gasped. I assured him that the value of the
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: box had gone up to fifty thousand. He almost shouted
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: that I must be crazy the insult. I added another
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: ten thousand dollars. I always did think that I had
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: the making of a financier in me. He offered forty
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars, but my price had jumped to seventy thousand dollars,
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: and I was courteous enough to assure him that every
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: attempt to bicker or beat down my price would make
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: it rise again. He lost his tempers, so I came
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: out flatly for one hundred thousand dollars. Go back to Cornwall,
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: I said, and ask him how much he thinks I
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: could get for the box by offering it at auction
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: in Salt Lake. Of course, the fellow did not know
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: the story and value of the box, but he was
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: a little shaken. He thought his gift of legal rhetoric
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: could influence me. He snapped blackmailer, and the price mounted
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: ten percent. He began to get rattled and asked, you
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: will take one hundred thousand? Then no, I told him
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: it is one hundred and twenty thousand dollars now, and
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: if you open your mouth to object again, it'll be
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: one and thirty thousand dollars. So the best thing you
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: can do is to get out. But if my client
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: wants to pay it, he almost wailed, Evidently he had
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: been instructed to get the box. If money could buy it,
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: then tell him to come in person. In person, mind you,
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: next Thursday at two thirty five, promptly with a cashier's
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: check for one hundred and thirty thousand dollars made out
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: to mister J. C. Collins to the Sweet Sea of
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: the Treyborne Hotel. He is to notify me by tomorrow
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: whether or not he will accept, or else I may
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: offer my box for sale in Salt Lake. Mister, or
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: rather doctor J. C. Collins, was a friend of mine
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: and a devoted enthusiast who gave all his time in
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: most of his money to the Star of Hope Hospital,
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: an institution for crippled children, and bless his soul, he
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: had no scruples about tainted money. He believed that when
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: it went into bandages and braces for children, even the
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: smell of coal oil would be cleansed from it. I
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: had already engaged the suite as a fitting place to
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: let the Governor of Utah interview me. Maybe he had
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: already taken by telegraph the precaution of engaging a room.
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: Maybe not. He was, no doubt a little excited. Anyway,
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: it would make no difference. End of chapter ten, Chapter
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: eleven of rich Crooks by Gordon Young. This LibriVox recording
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Chapter eleven. The following afternoon, Thursday,
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: we had another visitor. It seemed that, in spite of
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: my calculations and rather queer precautions, our visitors were coming
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: in the daylight. Yang, from his tireless station behind the curtains,
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: saw the man walk hesitantly up and down the sidewalk
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: before our house, and glance continually indecisively toward it. Yang
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: attracted my attention, and I peeked through a corner of
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: the window. I was undoubtedly a fellow I wanted to see.
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: I hurried to a chair and sprawled into it. Shortly
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: I heard a hard rap on the door. I called out,
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: come in. The door did not open. I called out again.
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: Then it opened slowly, and mister Steve Ellis filled the doorway.
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: He was a big man with sharp, definite features, slow
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: in his movements and deliberate. He did not need to
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: speak for one to know that he was embittered, but
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: his voice, though not loud, had a kind of husky insolence.
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: He wore a felt hat of light gray that he
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: took off reluctantly in the doorway. He was a little uneasy,
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: but not nervous. His fingers were steady. His coat was
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: of dark brown material and double breasted. He closed the
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: door by reaching out behind his back and did not
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: take his eyes off me. Won't you sit down, I asked, no.
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: He glanced about a little furtively. No one was in sight.
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: My hands rested on the arms of the chair. You
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: are a mister Ellis. I believe I've been expecting you.
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: He made a slight start of surprise. Yes, I'm Steve Ellis.
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: You're that fellow Smithers. It was a cross between an
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: accusation and a question. I've used that name, yes, and
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: you call yourself everhard too. Again the suggestion of a
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: question with an undertone of contempt. You came looking for trouble,
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: I asked that rather surprised him, But after a pause,
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: after a moment of study, he said, between clinched teeth, Yes,
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: you dirty little tin horn for flusher. I come looking
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: for trouble. I'm going to give you the beat in
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: the year life. I did not move, though he leaned
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: forward as if to rush. With a suggestion of sarcasm,
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: I replied, I see you find out that a man
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: weighs about fifty pounds less than you and decide to
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: beat him up. I believe that the prison system is
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: designed to teach a man in such caution, is it not,
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: he replied, by swearing at me, embracing himself as if
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: to jump. He was considerate enough, however, to tell me
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: that there was just one way that I could escape
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: being beaten up. That was to give him the little
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: black steel box. Indeed, he cursed me. He was rather
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: infuriated because I did not seem to be frightened. He
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: told me that he would have killed me, but he
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: had promised the governor not to kill anybody. I see,
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: Governor Walsh lets you out on condition that you would
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: steal for him. You keep that tuck up and all.
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: He did not finish what he would do. He stopped,
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: just why do you think you would like to try
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: to kill me. He assured me that I knew, and
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: then went on to mention his wife. And so I said, coldly,
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: you killed her. I did not, he shouted, I never
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: touched her. God, I loved her. I told him that
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: a lot of love he must have had when he
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: eagerly believed lies that made her out to be disreputable.
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: Don't preach to me, he cried. Preach to you, preach
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: to the devil, sir, if it be preaching to say
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: that you are a jealous coward and cur make the
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: most of it. You had only one friend while you
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: were in the pen, and that was your wife. And
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: when you came out, you killed her because she had
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: to let rooms to keep from going hungry. And you
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: bargain with a crooked governor for a pardon. He threw
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: back his coat and jerked at a gun handle. Of course,
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: you're ready to shoot a man you'd think unarmed. I
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: had not moved. My legs were extended before the chair,
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: my hands were on the chair's arms. Try it and
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: see how many policemen pounce on to you. He looked about,
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: almost hurriedly. I smiled, You are very simple and a
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: little stupid. Don't you know the police are looking for you?
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: Don't you know I came here so you'd think it
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: was easy to find me alone. I got your letter
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: and your threats. Do you think I would be here
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: alone to receive a wife murderer? Again? He cursed me,
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: but he did not offer to shoot. He rammed the
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: gun angrily into the holster and looked about a little dazed.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: I didn't kill Dan Cornwall, he said, with something of
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: hopelessness in his voice. He had read the papers, He
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: knew why the police wanted him. I asked him just
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: what he had meant by saying that I did Daniel
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: Cornwall's dirty work, and got out of him the belief
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: that I had been one of Cornwall's gunfighters. He had
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: several of them, to jump copper claims and that sort
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: of thing. Who had told him that I did Cornwall's
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: dirty work? Why one of the garden the penitentiary, the
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: same guard that had told him stories about his wife.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: The guard knew me for one of Cornwall's spies and gunmen.
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: Cornwall had showed a good deal of cunning when he
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: bought that guard. Do you know how you came to
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: be paroled that time? You were paroled. Weren't you pardoned
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: then too? You seemed to be rather fortunate in getting pardons.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: He said that he had been sent over on a
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: frame up, that he had been in Cornwall's employ and
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: refused to carry out some crooked work. A friend of
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: his had had a claim Cornwall wanted it jumped. Ellis
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: said that he had sworn he would stand by his friend.
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: Cornwall had trumped up a theft charge and sent him over.
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: I asked why he had supposed that the fellow called
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: Smithers would have killed the man Taggard sent to burglarized
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: missus Ellis's house if he too had been one of
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: Cornwall's men. He didn't, or said he didn't know Taggart
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: had been sent by Cornwall. He claimed that he didn't
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: know what Taggart had been after that, he had thought
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: Taggart was after Smithers. I called him a liar, and
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: he quivered as if jabbed with a hot piece of iron.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: Do you know how you came to get out of
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: prison that time? Walsh, he was Attorney General, then tipped
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: off the governor he knew about the frame up on me.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: Walsh told me himself this last time by digging into
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: him with questions I discovered, though I was for a
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: moment rather of the opinion that he lied. That missus
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: Ellis had sent word only that she had got hold
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: of something that would help toward his pardon. He never
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: knew what it was. His wife had been killed the
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: day he got out. I knew very well that he
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: had not killed her, and was rather predisposed to favor
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: his side of the case, though in my opinion, it
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: was not much worse to murder a wife than to
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: believe a blackguard's lies about her. She had not, he said,
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: told him of having the little steel box cornwall so treasured,
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: though he had been with her most of the day.
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: That night, he had gone down town to see a
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: man about a job. After the man had refused to
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: give him the job, he walked about the streets for hours,
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: worried and brooding. When he got home, his wife was dead.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: He couldn't explain where he had been. The garden, the
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: penitentiary swore he Ellis had said he would get both
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: his wife and that fellow Smithers. Ellis admitted he had
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: threatened Smithers, never his wife. The ways of woman are
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: strange and comprehensible. I could not understand why missus Ellis
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: had not mentioned a black box to him, but I
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: eventually learned, or learned enough to surmise that Daniel Cornwall
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: had when she was using it as a lever to
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: make him pry Ellis from the prison exacted from her
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: the promise to tell no one that she had it.
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: She had kept her promise. It appeared from what I
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: also learned that missus Ellis, who had no liking for
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: the Cornwalls and wisely trusted them not at all, had
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: said she would not surrender the box until Daniel Cornwall
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: admitted that he had framed up the case against her husband.
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: That is a rather important point, as explaining many things
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: that would otherwise be obscure. She was perfectly right in
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: her attitude. She was a fine woman. In the course
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: of our talk, Ellis acknowledged, unconsciously by his manner, that
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: I had rather bluffed him. He sat down and fumbled
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: with his hat brim. He answered my questions with a
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: kind of monotonous hopelessness of tone, as if it were
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: useless to think of fighting his luck. I next found
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: out how he had come to know that Cornwall set
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: such store by a box. He told missus Ellis that
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: if he could be got, Cornwall could be made to
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: do anything. How did you know it? He explained that
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: once he, Cornwall and Cornwall's secretary were taking a little trip,
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: and the secretary carried the little black box. If you
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: ever getten trouble with the old man, said the secretary,
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: half jokingly, at first, get your mits onto this box.
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: I mean it, Steve. Nobody's ever seen the inside of
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: it as I know of Between you and me, I
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: think the old man's got the dope on somebody, and
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: he thinks more of this box than of his bank account.
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: I am giving you a real tip, Steve, just nail
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: this box if you see trouble coming. But the old
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: man never lets it get far away from him. I
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: thought that over carefully and concluded that it might be true.
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: Then change the conversation to Joseph Cornwall. That's skunk, Ellis exclaimed.
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: He spread around that I was a drunk, and I
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: don't know what all I've been drunk. Every man has
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: he tried to get my wife to leave me, then
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: he got my daughter. How do you suppose a man
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: feels havin his daughter take up with skunks like that
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: just because they're rich. Her mother would disown her, and
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: her mother loved her more than anything on earth. His
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: voice almost broke it, then, Ellie, I told him more
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: gently than I usually speak to any one. Most men's
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: troubles in this world come because they trust women. You've
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: caught it the other way around. Cora never knew the
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: truth about the cornwalls. Your wife never told her, at
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: least not enough to brace her up against their lives
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: in what she mistook for generosity. You see, they are
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: a bad lot. But Joseph knows he's sick and likely
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: to die one of these days, and a little bit
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: of conscience has been fermenting down inside him. Maybe he
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: did hoodwink himself into believing that he really loved missus Ellis,
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: though I doubt it, and so I wanted to show
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: kindness to her daughter. But let me tell you this.
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: Cora went out of that house just as soon as
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: she found what kind of a deal they had framed
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: up against you. She found out some other things too, Ellis.
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: And I'm not going to tell you or anybody told.
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: The telling means something more than mere information. But she
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: wants you. She wants you more than she does a
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: rich cousin of mine who is trying to marry her. Now,
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: Hudia suppose could have struck her over the head. He
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: answered promptly that it was some one of the Cornwall's
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: dirty workers, and hurried on to insist that I tell
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: him everything about Cora. We had a long talk about
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: one thing and another, and in the course of the
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: conversation I told him that I knew positively that missus
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: Ellis had been given the little black box at the
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: time she was working for his pardon. He doubted me.
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: Couldn't some of your friends have gone it for Mester?
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: He fumbled over my name, not knowing what to call me,
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: and repeated, mister, I ain't got any friends. None of
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: them would have done anything for me. Walsh some stuff
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: on him the Cornwall had in that box. He told
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: me he wasn't doing it for friendship. He said Cornwall
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: had some evidence that would ruin him, but he'd got
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: to the place where Cornwall could ruin and be He
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: said he was going to come clean. There was an
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: awful roar over his pardoning me, but he said he
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: was convinced I hadn't touched my wife, and that he
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: was going to follow his conscience and the Cornwalls and
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: everybody else could go to the devil. You are sure
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: that I know it. He said it to me right
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: in his own office. He said the Cornwalls had been
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: afraid ever since he got in office that he would
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: cut loose and get him. That's why they got out
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: of Utah. But they could ruin him. That little black
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: box will be my coffin, he said, And I knew
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: right away what he meant. I remembered from the time
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: when I had seen it. You see, mister Cornwall sent
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: him a picture of that box and a key once
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: and a note. Walsh told me all about it, saying
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: he wanted Walsh to have a key to that box
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: because what was in it really belonged to him, and
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: he might want to open it sometime in court to
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: show what a fine upstanding citizen he was sarcastic note
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: it was. Walsh told me all about it. He was excited,
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: and when I saw in the papers all about you
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: having it, I thought I could do the governor a
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: good turn. Besides, old Joe Cornwall told me you was smithers.
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm telling all this to you. I'm
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: no friend of yours, except if you have been good
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: to my girl. Now call in the blank police. You
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: got stuck around here. I thought I'd fight it out
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: if I ever got cornered again, but I'll give up.
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: I'm innocent this time too, though I wish to God
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: I was guilty. I'd give my soul any day to
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: kill Dan Cornwall. I assured him that he was unduly agitated,
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: but there were no police about. He was dazed a
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: little at that and stared around. I told him that
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: if he wished to do something for the Governor, to
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: be at the Treyborne Hotel, Sweet Sea Thursday at two
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: thirty five p m. Be there promptly and come right in.
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: I'll give you the little black still box and you
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: can give it to the Governor. He'll be there too.
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: Now don't look at me that way. You know it
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: isn't a trap. As for traps, if my little withered
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: old Chinese servant hadn't shaken his head as you came
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: up the wall, you would now know how it feels
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: to be trapped. You see, somebody hit him over the
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: head recently, and we are waiting for that person to
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: call again. I rather wondered if, after all it had
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: not been you a little grateful, much bewildered, and scarcely
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: knowing whether or not he was dreaming, Ellis got out
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: of the house. In his hand he carried a little
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: slip of paper upon which I had written his Thursday's appointment.
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: He would at least have that to assure him that
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: he had not been dreaming. End of chapter eleven, Chapter
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: twelve of Rich Crooks by Gordon Young. The s LibriVox
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Chapter twelve. I could
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: have told him that Cora had been doing fine. I
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: did tell him that, without adding that she had been
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: out for a ride in Jack's limousine the day before.
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: I could have told him some other things that would
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: have been of extreme importance. But when one has for
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: so many years kept his own counsel and arranged his
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: little affairs with a knife for the dramatic, perhaps for
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: the mellow dramatic, one is likely to have no scruples
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: about keeping from people things they have a right to know.
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: When Joseph Cornwall sent me word that he would meet
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: me at the tray Borne, I sent back as an
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: answer that he would do nothing of the kind unless
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: the cashier's check had been put into my hands. I
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: was pretty sure that he would not send the money beforehand,
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: though in that answer I conveyed that I had already
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: got in touch with other interested parties out west. I wanted, however,
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: to be sure to have Joseph at the hotel, I
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: should have preferred to have had Daniel Cornwall. Of course,
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: there are various ways of getting what one wants, and
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: though many of my most carefully laid plans have been futile,
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: I have occasionally been quite successful. For one thing, I
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: have never hesitated in life, or in the lesser gamble
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: of games, to find by Hoyle, to play with marked cards.
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: That may seem a contemptible thing to admit, but I
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: never saw an honest poker player yet who wasn't eventually
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: trimmed by cheaters. Though by way of keeping my hand
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: in with a revolver, I toss pennies into the air
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: and hit them. Yet I do not go about picking
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: quarrels with quiet, honest folk. And though I can do
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: some very nearly unbelievable things with cards, I have never
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: yet cleaned out a man who played honestly understand me,
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: for I have no desire to whitewash myself. If a
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: man who can afford to lose gets into a game,
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: and he's no personal friend of mine, I happen to
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: have some use for more money than I have, he's
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: pretty likely to complain of his luck. But to get
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: back to my story. By Wednesday evening I had begun
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: to feel a little impatient, as I had been doing
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: every evening. I left the doors unlocked, the rear windows open,
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: and the screen unlatched. I drew the blinds and rigged
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: out a kind of dummy that threw a passable silhouette
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: against the shade, while Yang hovered in the shadows of
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: the front porch, sheltered by vines, and I lurked patiently
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: as an Indian and a pantry. As usual, nothing came
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: of our precautions. So about ten o'clock, with much care
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: in case we were being watched, the dummy was dismantled.
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: I took its place for a moment, then arose and
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: went into my bedroom and undressed. Then Yang turned out
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: the lights. Whoever has watched the night out sleeplessly listening,
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: I care not how strong his nerves evokes a feeling
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: of the eerie. With every sense strained to catch sounds,
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: one hears much creaking and rustling, and it is very
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: easy to believe in ghosts. Phantom seemed to flicker in
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: the darkness before one's tense eyes and the over alert
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: ears report all manner of faint, suspicious noises. I was
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: alone in the house, not that being alone at all
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: disturbed me, But even I, who am sometimes thought to
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: be without emotion and much more susceptible than I, will,
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: admit to the startling effect of solitary and tense darkness.
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: Each night, after he turned out the lights, Yang left
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: the house, and had anyone taken the trouble to follow him,
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: that person would have been convinced that he did not
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: return until morning. For Yang was very subtle and elusive.
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: On that Wednesday night, I was more tense than ever,
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: for on previous nights I had very nearly exhausted my
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: imagination by wondering what could and might have happened at
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: the multiple appointments I planned at the tray Born. Besides,
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: this was my last night before those appointments were to
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: be kept, and all whom I wanted to be present
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: had not been invited. Around one o'clock I heard something
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: a little more marked than the usual inexplicable creaking that
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: gave me many false thrills. Silence. My imagination had played
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: a trick, or at least I so accused it. The
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: sky was cloudy, and there was neither moon nor stars.
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: The room was inky, but one's eyes grow vaguely accustomed
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: to the thickest blackness. Again, the creaking, as of a
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: cautious foot placed on the back porch. Then silence, an
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: interminable silence. I bent forward, ear strained, and for the
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: briefest of moments, I caught a vague streak of light
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: that sifted beneath the door. Somebody was in the house.
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: He had moved with an infinite caution in silence. Again, silence.
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: The person was listening. I held my breath for a
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: second or two, fearful that he might become alarmed and retreat.
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: Then I knew I could not see. I scarcely heard
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: that the door into my bedroom was opening. It did
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: not creak. I had oiled it with care, and also
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: taken the precaution of laying rugs and mats where it
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: seemed they would be most likely to serve the intruder's purpose.
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: After the door opened, the prowler stood for many minutes, silent, waiting, listening.
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: He had the patience of a hunting animal. Then came
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: an almost noiseless step nearer to the bed. Distinguished a
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: little by the white spread, I could catch the faint
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: creaks of the strained boards. There are few floors that
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: do not creak a little. One may live in a
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: house for years and never know it, but turn out
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: the lights and try to move inaudibly across the room,
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: and the boards seemed maliciously to squeak a warning, though
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: it really may be impossible for one in the next
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: room to hear step by step, With a full minute
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: or two. After each short advance, the figure came nearer
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: and nearer to the bed. There was a pause as
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: he stood at the foot. Then he half crouched and
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: came alongside, inch by inch. I am, by nature rather unemotional,
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: seldom nervous, but I felt a queer little chill pass
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: along my back as I wondered whether he would strike
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: with club or knife. At last, there flashed on the
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: bed a blinding stream of light from an electric torch
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: with incredible swiftness, the man brought down the uplifted loaded
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: cane against the pillow. There was a dull crunching, smashing sound,
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: and the torch was shut off. The blow had shattered
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: the little mannikin, and at that instant I switched on
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: the light. Thank you, I said, with extreme politeness. The
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: man looked like a preacher had the earth given way
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: under his feet and landed him before the Satanic throne.
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: He could not have been more stunned. I stood there,
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: my hands empty, smiling, thanking him. His clothes were black
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: and formal. He wore a stiff white shirt and a
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: little black clerical tone. His rather leathery, flabby face wore
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: side whiskers. A parochial black hat was on his head.
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: He was in his stocking feet. His mouth was open,
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: and his hands and arms were frozen into a gesture
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: of recoil. Amazement and terror burned in his widened eyes.
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: Thank you, I repeated, for taking the trouble to prove
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: to me precisely what I suspected. First there was missus Ellis,
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: then Cora, then my Chinaman, and now myself, each time
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: all because of a little black box which no honest
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: man would give ten cents for and wordless, he hurled
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: himself at me, the loaded cane coming down. I stepped
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: to one side, snatched at the holster, fastened to the
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: curtains behind which I had been standing, and in the
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: twinkling of a second, had reminded him of the fate
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: that befell Tackard when engaged on a similar errand some
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: years before. At my suggestion, he dropped the cane to
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: the floor. Then he cursed me. When he paused, I
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: urged him to go on, explaining to him that I
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: enjoyed listening to compliments. Naturally, that made him more furious,
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: in the awkward way that men have when unaccustomed to
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: the use of guns. He pushed back his coat and
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: tugged at his hip pocket. I had replaced my own
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: in the holster, and I did not take the trouble
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: to reach for it. I sharply told him to put
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: up his hands. Had he refused, I probably would have
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: killed him. Look here, I began businesslike. I don't want
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: to hurt you. I'm not going to call the police.
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: Now put your hands down and keep your fingers away
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: from your hip pocket, and let us talk things over
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: like sensible men. My words in attitude were almost as
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: bewildering a surprise as when I had turned on the light.
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: Why do you suppose I've held up that box? I demanded,
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: hasn't it been very apparent that I needed money outside
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: of some people like you and the Governor of Utah,
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: who was not rich, who would bid for it? I
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: move off to an obscure little house and get the
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: address put into the papers so you could more easily
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: find it. How did you know? He began, his voice shaking.
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: I knew you would come. You went to missus Ellis,
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: to Cora, to my Chinaman. How did you know? He
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: began again, But I interrupted him. All that is of
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: no importance. Let's talk of money. My price is now
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty thousand dollars for the box. Will
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: you pay it? He protested that it would be impossible.
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: Having got on to familiar ground money matters, he became
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: a bargainer. I told him that it would, no doubt
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: be inconvenient, but not impossible anyway. For that sum, I
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: would put the box into his hands, unopened, and just
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 1: as it was when he had seen it last. Otherwise
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: it would be refused him we argued, or rather he did.
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: I said he could fix up whatever explanation pleased him
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: to satisfy his lawyers and bank, but I had to
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: have the money cash by tomorrow, or rather by this afternoon.
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: I told him he would have to be at Sweet
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: Sea of the Treyborn Hotel at two fifty. Promptly, how
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: did he know it wasn't a trap? He knew it
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: very well, I told him, because he could not imagine
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: how I could possibly lay a better trap than the
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: one in which he had just been caught. I explained
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: that I knew very well he would come, for since
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: I was on to his secret, not even millions could
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: save him from exposure unless he silenced me and got
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: his box. You don't dare run off and hide and
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: lose your identity altogether, for you are an old man,
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: not in the best of health either, are you No,
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: And you would be hounded out and couldn't touch your
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: money without revealing your true identity, and couldn't reveal that
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: without being caught. As a matter of fact, the elusive
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: and subtle Yang did return each night after his seeming
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: departure to patiently stand watch for the purpose of shadowing
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: anyone who left house Yang could have shadowed a ghost.
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: So I was not taking nearly the risk that I
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: seemed to be in letting the clerical gentleman go his way.
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: How did you know? He began for the third time,
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: as if obsessed with some peculiar desire for information. But
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: again I cut the question short half maliciously. I know
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: much more than most people give me credit for. For instance,
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: I know that you will be at the tray Bourn
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: this afternoon with the money. Don't interrupt me. I know
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: you will be there for this evening. I expect to
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: have dinner with the Governor of Utah. Yes. If you
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: hadn't been to I don't know whether to call it
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: cunning or stingy to have kept your private detectives in
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: Salt Lake telegraphing news, you would have known that he
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: left quietly for New York recently. Yes or no? Will
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: you be there at two fifty sharp? Yes or no? Yes,
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: he said huskily. Though he was a double dyed liar
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: and criminal, I felt sure that he would keep the appointment.
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: Though he might not intend to keep it, I felt
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: sure that he would be there. I like to plan
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: little dramatic affairs, and in this case I had taken
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: certain precautions. Anyway he promised, He brought in his shoes
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: from the back porch, put them on, and left by
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: the front door. At about three o'clock. I went to
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: bed and sleep, very contented with myself, and full of
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: faith in the slim like chinaman, who, though I had
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: not seen or signaled to him, I knew was following
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: the clerical figure, and would follow no matter where or
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: which way he went. End of Chapter twelve, Chapter thirteen
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: of Rich Crooks by Gordon Young. The slibrivox recordings in
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Chapter thirteen I found an hour, or
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: maybe not so long a time as that of Thursday
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: afternoon quite interesting. There were one or two little variations
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: to my plans, but nothing of importance. Joseph Cornwall arrived
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: before any of my other guests. He came with two
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: or three private detectives and a lawyer, obviously intending to
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: trap me in a little game of blackmail. I knew
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: that was in the air almost as soon as I
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: saw him creeping from the automobile, solicitously assisted by two
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: fellows who could no more proclaimed themselves detectives if they
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: had worn their ten badges as shirt studs instead of
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: concealing them under their coats. An experienced blackmailer like myself
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: understands pretty much the risks he must take. In spite
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: of my assurance that I would not meet him unless
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: he had previously delivered one hundred and thirty thousand dollars
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: into my hands, he came and I had not yet
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: received the money. I really hadn't expected to get it,
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: for one must demand a great deal more in this
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: world than one hopes for. I mean, I had not
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: expected to get it in advance, for Joseph Cornwall, being
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: a certain kind of rich man, would not part with
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: money without some hope not only of getting what he
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: bargained for, but of getting what he paid. His two
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: detectives and the lawyer, not the same little flunky like
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: lawyer person that had called on me, but another, a
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: more important looking legal person, whispered in the lobby for
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: a moment. Then followed the bell boy, who came forward
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: and offered to show them to Sweet Sea. The bell
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: boy was intelligent and attending to business, As I had
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: noticed from my place behind the palms. Joseph and his
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: party were scarcely out of sight before Steve Ellis came
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: in nervously, looking a little lost, but having made up
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: his mind to see it through, whatever it might be.
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: I went up to him and asked him to sit
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: down and wait a minute. I told him that Governor
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: Walsh had already arrived and was in his room, that
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: the Governor would be down in a few minutes looking
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: for me. As I had sent up word that I
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: was waiting, I asked Ellis to receive the Governor for me,
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: and I glanced at my watch. Bring him up to
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: sweet Sea in just eight minutes, but I thought, don't think.
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: I told him it isn't necessary to day have the
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: Governor up there in eight minutes. I left him and
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: hurried upstairs. I met Jack watching me in the hall.
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: He was excited, but trying not to be. I am
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: afraid the nervous shock. He began, What a Richmond afraid?
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 1: I taunted him. Don't worry. Your own doctors have told
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: me it would be all right. Besides, doctor Lingard had
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: a proper dramatic sense, rather unusual in a physician. I
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: had no sooner said that than doctor J. C. Collins
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: of the Children's Hospital, A tall alert tense fellow with
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: a kind of sad humor in his eyes, always in
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: his eyes, elbowed Jack aside, and, almost trembling in excitement, said,
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: look here, don everhard. Are you sure we're not going
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: too far this time? If I should be arrested, scandal
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: hurt the hospital, you know need the money. But have
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: you got your machine ready? The driver is ready to
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: go all set? Yes. But I silenced him with a
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: gesture and said, every bed in your hospital is a battlefield.
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: Are you going to run the chance of losing a
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: lot of battles there for fear of a little risk? Here?
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: Now that touched his weakest spot. He was really a
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: fanatic over his children, and he did need money. Had
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: he had billions, that lover of children, that crusader against treacherous,
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: cowardly diseases that attacked babies and children would still have
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: needed money. He clenched his long, sensitive surgical fingers and said, tensely,
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: go on, I'll go through with it. I stepped into
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: sweet sea and closed the door in my most businesslike manner.
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: I faced the little delegation and cast a quick look
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: at the burly faced detective, who lounged idly against the table,
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: his elbow in a large dictionary. Joseph Cornwall was sitting
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: in a deep plush chair, and the rather pompous legal
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: person was close beside him, whispering into the nervous old
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: millionaire's ear. The money, I said, bluntly. The lawyer person
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: glanced right and left at the two detectives. They straightened
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: up and took a step forward. Waited. Then he began
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: to speak, that is, he cleared his throat, paused impressively,
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: and then began to say that he represented his client.
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: The money are the cashier's check now, or I go
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 1: out of that door. You should have sent it before.
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 1: The lawyer, his name was Parsons, began to ask me
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: if I was sure that I really wanted the bargain
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: to go on. I cut him with a dozen words,
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: saying that if I wanted his advice, I would have
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: engaged him. That made him angry, and he puffed. The
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: determination to make me regret my impudence came over his
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: face and stayed there. You will kindly signed this receipt,
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: he said, offering me a piece of paper. I signed
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 1: no receipt until the money is paid. Yet, he said,
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 1: with the swelling of his chest. You expect my client
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: to pay his money out without being assured of receiving
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: the object of purpose. He can have the object, all right?
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: How do we know it, Sir, demanded Parsons with further
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: expansive chest. Because I said so. Oh, it was as
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: insulting as he could make it. The Governor of Utah's
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: in this hotel. I meet him in five minutes. If
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: I haven't your money by that time, you, Cornwall will
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: probably go to the penitentiary for perjury and conspiracy for
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 1: sheltering a guilty man. When he knew that Steve Ellis
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: was innocent to the murder of his wife. There was
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: a turn in the affairs that had not been expected.
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: Cornwall started out of his chair, shivering, and his thin
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: hands gestured frighteningly as he said, pay him, pay him quick.
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: Mister Parsons handed me a check, a cashier's check for
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty thousand dollars, and held out the seat.
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 1: The check was made out, as I had insisted to J. C. Collins.
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: Parsons thought it was my alias or one of them.
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: I scrawled a signature of some kind on to the paper,
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: but my eyes were on the detectives. No sooner had
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: I dropped the pin than they, awaiting their cues, stepped
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: forward a bot. Sir demanded, Parsons, look up the word
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: box in that dictionary, I taunted them. It's there. In
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: a sort of stupid bewilderment. All eyes turned toward the
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: large book. I might have known it. I might have
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: known it. Cornwall squeaked. All is lost. All is not lost,
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: cried the Parsons person napoleonically. That scoundrel, he leveled an
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: accusing finger at me, shall pay for this. Officers do
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: your duty. Yes, officers do, I said, for I had
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: seen what was coming as far off as one sees
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: a headlight. Put up your hands. They stepped back, their
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 1: hands going upward, for there was a gun in each
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: one of mine. I moved to the door, carefully, laid
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 1: one gun at my feet, opened the door, and without
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: looking around, thrust out the check. Everything's gonna be fine,
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: I said, without looking around. You've just got time to
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: get to the bank. If you hurry, I don't think
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: they'll want to stop payment on it. But you can
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 1: never tell. Doctor Collins had not paused to hear all.
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: I said. He was gone. I closed the door, picked
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: up the other gun, swiftly searched the detectives, and stood
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 1: them up where I could watch them. With the least effort, Cornwall,
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: I said, you probably thought you could get the dead
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: woman to have God forgive you if you stole her daughter,
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: took the girl away from a father whom you knew
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: to be innocent of all the crimes that threw him
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: repeatedly into the penitentiary. That is all you know about
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: women living or dead. Personally. I have an idea that
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 1: her spirit kept nagging at the conscience of Governor Walsh
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 1: until he was roused to dare to do what he
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: knew was right. No, I'm not religious, but I believe
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: in the devil. How can one help it when such
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: things as you, with the protection and aid of fellows
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: like Parson here and these fat dicks, cumber the earth.
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: Your box is in that dictionary. If you want it,
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: look it up. I promised it, and I usually keep
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: my promises, even to rich crooks. Parsons, puffing and angry,
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: began oratorically to warn me of what was due to
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: happen to me, and to explain how I could not escape.
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: He was interrupted by a knock on the door, Come in,
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 1: I said. The door opened, and Steve Ellis and Governor Walsh,
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: amazement scrawled across their faces, came in slowly. There is
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: one more to come, I reminded the boy who had
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: showed them in. Yes, sir, Then notify mister Richmond, you remember, Yes, sir.
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: I closed the door and turned around to look with
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: complaisance upon my little private drama, which was progressing quite
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: well for an impromptu rehearsal. The two detectives against the
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: wall had their hands up that there might not be
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: any mistake as to their identity. When I searched, I
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 1: had taken the precaution of causing them to move their
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 1: large back into a more conspicuous position, and remarked, what
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: a fine advertisement this will be for your agency when
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: it gets into the papers. Everything related to Cornwall and myself,
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: you know, gets into the papers. There they stood, nearly
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: bursting with shame. Joseph shivered in the deep plush chair,
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: and mister Parsons rocked back and forth, glaring passionately from
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 1: tow to heel. He was doing his best to look impressive,
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: though he was a little handicapped by the circumstances. Governor
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: Walsh was a solid man, with something of the typical
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: politician on his face, and something more too, some indication
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: of the man that he might have been, had he
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 1: not for so many years placed career before conscience. I
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: doubted not at all that he had made many compromises.
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 1: Yet to his credit it must be said that though
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: he had not been afraid to attack the Cornwalls openly,
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: he had never tried to make friends with them secretly.
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: What is the meaning of this, sir, demanded the Governor
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 1: with dignity. It's a little reception committee, sir. By the way, Governor,
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: I I've been having a little dispute with these gentlemen
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: over the word box. I believe you are interested in
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 1: the subject too. Mister Daniel Cornwall was once sardonic enough
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: to send you a photograph and a key. Ellis, would
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: you mind looking up box in the dictionary? Ellis stared
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 1: at me as if sure that I was crazy. So
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: did the Governor and everyone else. I may have fancied it,
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: but it seemed to me the detectives stretched their arms
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: a little higher, as if realizing that I was crazy
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 1: and might shoot. Though I'd put my guns away and
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 1: tossed theirs across the room into a closet. I insisted,
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: though with a certain lightness of tone, that Ellis opened
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: the dictionary. He hesitated, then went forward and laid his
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: hands on the book. The room was silent, all were hushed,
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: so the sudden knock on the door was like thunder.
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 1: I spoke. The door opened, and I called to Ellis,
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: that dictionary man open it. Steve Ellis turned the book
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 1: and exposed the box. At the same moment, my intelligent
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: bell boy, with a hearty grin and an impudent and
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: you go, old top, shoved the reluctant man through the doorway.
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: The boy pulled the door shut and was gone. Mister
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: Daniel Cornwall, gentlemen, I said, bowing toward the frightened figure.
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: Still in his clerical sideburns and black clothes, he carried
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 1: a satchel in his hand. That satchel contained an enormous
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 1: amount of cash. But as a matter of fact, Daniel
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 1: Cornwall did not intend it for me. He had, in
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 1: thinking over the interview of the previous night, decided to
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 1: get together what money could and permanently disappear, or, perhaps
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: some time later, try to get his hands on his
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: fortune anyway. He had that afternoon purchased a ticket when
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 1: a little noiseless chinaman thrust a card into his hand.
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 1: The card, addressed to Cornwall, advised him that he would
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: be arrested if he took another step in any direction
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: except towards Sweet Sea the Treyborn Hotel. So it was
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: that surprise after surprise had broken in that room. Daniel
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 1: Cornwall shuffled furtively and turned toward the door, but realized
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 1: that he could not make a break. Joseph raised himself
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: out of his chair, then fell back, whispering hust Daniel
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: mister Parsons looked about, blinking and trying not to appear
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: as if he were dreaming, But it wouldn't have taken
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: much to convince him that he was fat well fed.
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: Lawyers do not believe that such things as were happening, then,
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: do happen outside of nightmares. Steve Ellis crouched slightly, and
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: hate leaped to his face. Governor Walsh stared incredulously, for
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 1: Daniel Cornwall would not have seemed so out of place,
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 1: so unreal in his winding sheet as in this clerical dress.
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: I had no time to waste. Dick Richmond would soon
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: be coming into the room. Mister Cornwall, I said, agreeably.
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 1: I have reason to believe that you haven't looked into
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: this box for some time. Will you open it? He
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: stared at me dully for a moment. Then anger came
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 1: to his eyes. He realized how completely he had been trapped.
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: I told him that he could not imagine a more
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: effective trap than the one which had caught him the
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: night before, and it was his own lookout if he couldn't. Oh,
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: perhaps you never found the key I flung from the window,
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 1: Governor Walsh. Was it not for some such emergency as
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: this that you were presented with a key? Will you
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 1: be good enough to use it? The Governor looked at
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: me hard, and his brain worked quickly. He jammed his
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 1: hand into his pocket and pulled a key ring out,
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: fingered the keys for a moment, and, selecting one, reached
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: toward the box with a determined air. Joseph Cornwall actually
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: sprang from his chair with two trembling feeble hands out thrust.
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: It's mine, everheart, mister Parson's please, officers. I paid for
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 1: this box, yes, I affirmed, and for its contents. You
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: see mister Parsons that here, in the presence of witnesses, gentlemen,
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: I spoke to the detectives, who had taken their hands
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: down but still held their places by the wall. I
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: call you to bear witness that mister Cornwall affirms the transaction.
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: So mister Parsons, you must change your mind about charging
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: me with blackmail. The key did not work easily. The
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: lock was a difficult one. As the Governor, a little
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: excitedly turned and wrenched. It was only a matter of seconds.
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 1: All drew nearer, craning their necks. The lid was lifted.
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: Daniel made a movement as if to snatch at the contents,
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 1: but his hands stopped, as though he had suddenly come
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: upon a snake. The Governor, too, drew back, amazed and
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: looked at me. Yes, yes, I said, it is empty.
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: But you see when I got my hands on it
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: five years ago, borrowed it one night from mister Cornwall.
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: Here Daniel, suddenly enlightened as to who had robbed him
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 1: of the box five years before, cursed under his breath.
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: I took the liberty of destroying certain criminal evidence against
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 1: a gentleman. It is needless to mention how did I
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: know what had been put into that box since or
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: how valuable was its contents? Mister Cornwall there, I indicated,
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: Joseph offered me a very handsome price, and his brother
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 1: has also pledged himself to give me. I cast significant
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 1: glances at the satchel. Unfortunately I never got any of
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 1: the money he had there. That was one place where
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 1: my scheme fell down. But I was somewhat compensated by
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: the expressions on the faces of the men about me.
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: For five years, the man who was the Governor of
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: Utah had lived in fear and trembling of an empty
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 1: box at any moment of that time. Had he, as
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 1: he eventually did, do, let his conscience get the better
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: of his judgment, he could have smashed the corn walls
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 1: and come off unscratched. For five years, the two cunning
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: brothers had nursed an empty box as their talisman. So
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 1: sure had Daniel been that none could open it without
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 1: a key, that he had not taken the trouble of
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: having another key maid to investigate its contents. He had
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 1: seen me close the box with the papers in it.
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 1: I explained to the Governor in as few words as
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: I could, how I had stolen the box to whom
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: I had given it, and why five years before. When
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: I had finished, he was silent, staring at me. Then
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: he said that he had heard of me, but he
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 1: had doubted a great deal of what he had heard.
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: He believed now that he had been wrong to doubt.
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 1: I felt sorry for Steve Ellis at that moment, for
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: he had listened, and listening he understood a great deal
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 1: that possibly he would not have believed had he heard
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: it at any other time, under any other conditions. His
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: face was an apology, His lips trembled. He said nothing.
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: The atmosphere of the room was so tense that no
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: one had noticed that the door stood open, nor who
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: stood there listening waiting. I kept a watchful look out
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: from the corner of my eye on Daniel Cornwall, though
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 1: he stood perhaps some ten feet from me. But at
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 1: that he came near to fooling me, because he had
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: his gun in the side trousers pocket instead of in
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: the hip pocket. He jerked it out and leveled it
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 1: not at me, but at the Governor. Perhaps he intended
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: the next shot for me, perhaps a third even for Ellis.
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: The bursting roar of two guns exploding almost at once
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: filled the room, detonating through the hall, and set the
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: hotel into a commotion. I had shot with nothing more
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: than split seconds to work on. But the gun went
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 1: from his hands just as he pulled the trigger, and
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: his hand was shattered by one of those odd chances
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: of luck. The bullet struck the little steel box and
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: ricocheted into the dictionary. If you had pointed it at
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 1: your own head, I wouldn't have interrupted you, I said, coldly,
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: glancing past him to the doorway to the detectives. I said,
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: there is some work for you. Arrest him for the
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: murder of missus Stephen Ellis. That's a lie, Joseph screamed,
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 1: starting up at that moment of crysis. Brotherly love, family, blood,
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: and sharing of loot on dirty deals stood stronger in
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 1: him than his pretended love for the dead woman. Joseph
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 1: was an adroit scoundrel, ten times more adroit, though less
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: aggressive and daring than his brother. He had at one
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: time practically convinced me that he had believed Steve Ellis
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 1: had murdered her. That's a lie, he cried, who accuses him? You?
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 1: He glared contemptuously at me. I pointed toward the doorway.
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: There a little pale, rather thin, but tense, determined Corrus
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: stood with Jack beside her, looking as if he was
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: ready to fight the world. Yes I do, she said,
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 1: almost in a whisper, but a whisper that carried yes.
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: I heard everything you and he a finger went out
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 1: toward Daniel Cornwall said. That night, when you quarreled over
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: what it was best to do, since Quiller had told
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: you who mister Everhart was, you thought it would be
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 1: easy to keep mister Everhart fooled by not running away,
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: by devising some story to tell him. You said, he
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 1: couldn't possibly know that Taggart had been sent by Daniel
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 1: to rob my mother. I heard all you said, Both
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 1: of you said. End of chapter thirteen, Chapter fourteen of
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: Rich Crooks by Gordon Young. The Sliverrivox recording is in
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Chapter fourteen. That's about all there is
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 1: to tell. Everybody in the hotel seemed trying to get
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: into the room. Two house detectives did, and between them
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 1: and the detectives of the private agency, they carried the trembling, shivering,
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 1: protesting Daniel Cornwall off to jail. He might beat the
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 1: murder charge but there was no doubt that he had
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: tried to kill the Governor of Utah, and there are
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 1: some things that not even a multi millionaire can do
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 1: with impunity. I didn't get anything out of that satchel.
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 1: The officers took charge of it, and so far as
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: I know, it was eventually reverted to the Cornwall estate.
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: I had a very hard time prying ten thousand dollars
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 1: loose from doctor Collins. He could absorb a lot of
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: reasons and argument without being in the least affected. But
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 1: finally he was persuaded to write out a check for
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 1: that amount to Steve Ellis, to whom it was given
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: as a little nest egg to try new fortunes in
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: the mining camps. As for Cora and Jack, anyone who
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 1: can't guess what happened don't deserve to be told. Joseph Cornwall,
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 1: through the very respectful and polite mister Parsons, appealed to
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 1: me to refund the money. The old miser couldn't sleep
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 1: well more on account of that money, I do believe,
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: than because of his brother or the revelation that the
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: Governor of Utah made concerning Cornwall's bribery, thievery forging of
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: records and general crookedness, and stealing mining claims and getting
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: them recorded. I listened quite respectfully to Miss Parsons and
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: referred him to doctor Collins. It would take a crowbar
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: in dynamite to get money intended for the Star of
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: Hope Hospital out of his pockets. That Daniel Cornwall had
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 1: tried to employ me as a gunman to dispose of
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: Steve Ellis in New York was entirely in keeping with
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: the way he had tried to settle his personal troubles
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: in Utah. Not knowing how to get in touch with
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 1: city crooks and find some of those people who will
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 1: cut a throat for a dollar or shoot a man
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 1: for five, he had thought to buy me for a
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: few hundred, and probably would have paid the few hundred.
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: More likely he would have helped the police get evidence
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 1: to prove that I did it. Many people have got
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: into trouble with me because I am not a crook
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: in just the ways that they think, if indeed I
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 1: am a crook at all. It was highly probable that
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: Daniel would have been acquitted of murder for money as
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 1: magic and criminal courts, and he was clever quiller who
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 1: showed more loyalty to Cornwall than the man deserved. Told
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 1: how they had, with great difficulty, under pretense of being physicians,
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 1: got hold of a suitable body from the morgue, dressed
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: it in Daniel Cornwall's clothes, and thrown it in the water.
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 1: I say it is highly probable that Cornwall would have
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 1: been acquitted, but he killed himself by jumping from the
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: train while being taken to Salt Lake for trial. Joseph,
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: the wily, clever, plausible legal member of the firm, had
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 1: kept himself pretty well in the background of the Cornwall affairs.
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: There was really no way of proving that he had
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 1: meddled with even documents and records. The federal government took
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 1: a hand, however, and snatched back some of the holdings
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 1: that the Cornwalls had acquired. Joseph, though his miserly soul
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 1: must have been dreadfully pained by the financial losses, never
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 1: got into prison. He retired to some obscure place and
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 1: was eventually forgotten. I have a beautiful little steel box
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 1: wherein to keep valuable papers if I ever acquire any.
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: I have a key, too, and the key has a
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 1: little gold case with a rather large diamond in it.
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 1: The case is a miniature copy of the steel box,
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: and has a little inscription showing that it was presented
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 1: to me by the Governor of Utah. Though the Governor
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: spoke to me a little reproachfully for not letting him
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: know five years earlier that I had done him such
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 1: a service, I did not say so. But I had
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 1: done him a greater service. I had let his own
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: conscience finally rouse itself to defy the men whom he
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: thought could ruin him. Though in the wash bowl of
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 1: that cheap, little salt Lake rooming house, I burned the
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 1: evidence that they thought they had. End of chapter fourteen
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 1: an end of Rich Crooks by Gordon Young, read by
• 1:45:26
  Speaker 1: Ben Tucker,