“What do you think of him for a busy?” asked Jeffrey contemptuously.
She did not answer. Contact with the man had frightened her. It was
not like Lila to shiver in the presence of detectives.
“I don’t know what he is,” she said a little breathlessly. “He’s
something like a… good-natured snake. Didn’t you feel that, Jeffrey?”
“Good-natured nothing,” said the other with a curl of his lip. “He’s
worse than Golden. These big corporations fall for that kind of man.
They never give a chance to a real clever busy.”
“Who was Golden?” she asked.
“He was an old fellow too. They fired him.” He chuckled to himself.
“And I was responsible for firing him. Then they brought in Mr. J.G.
Reeder with a flourish of trumpets. He’s been on the game three years,
and he’s just about as near to making a pull as he ever was.”
“Jeff, isn’t there danger?” Her voice was very serious.
“Isn’t there always danger? No more danger than usual,” he said. “They
can’t touch me. Don’t worry! I’ve covered myself so that they can’t
see me for overcoats! Once the stuff’s printed, they can never put it
back on me.”
“Once it’s printed.” She nodded slowly. “Then you _are_ the Big
Printer, Jeff?”
“Talk about something else,” he said.
When Emanuel returned, as he did soon after, Lila met him at the gate
and told him of Reeder’s visit. To her surprise, he took almost the
same view as Jeff had taken.
“He’s a fool, but straight--up to five thousand, anyway. No man is
straight when you reach his figure.”
“But why did he come to Jeff?” she asked.
“Doesn’t everybody in the business know that Jeff’s the Big Printer?
Haven’t they been trying to put it on him for years? Of course he
came. It was his last, despairing stroke. How’s the boy?” he asked.
“He’s all right, but a little touchy.”
“Of course he’s a little touchy,” said Emanuel indignantly. “You don’t
suppose he’s going to get better in a day, do you? The club’s running
again.”
“Has it been closed?”
“It hasn’t exactly been closed, but it has been unpopular,” he said,
showing his teeth in that smile of his. “Listen.” He caught her arm on
the edge of the lawn. “Get your mind off that shooting, will you? I’ll
fix the man responsible for that.”
“Do you know?” she asked.
It was the first time he had ever discussed the matter calmly, for the
very mention of the attack upon Jeff had hitherto been sufficient to
drive him to an incoherent frenzy.
“Yes, I know,” he said gratingly. “It was Peter Kane, but you needn’t
say anything about that--I’ll fix him, I tell you.”
“Jeff thinks it was----”
“Never mind what Jeff thinks,” he said impatiently. “Do as I tell
you.”
He sent her into the house to brew him a cup of tea--Emanuel was a
great drinker of tea--and in her absence he had something to say to
his son.
“Jeff, there’s a big call for your stuff,” he said. “I’ve had a letter
from Harvey. He says there’s another man started in the north of
England, and he’s turning out pretty good material. But they want
yours--they can place half a million on the Continent right away.
Jeff, what Harvey says is right. If there’s a slackening of supply
while you’re ill, the busy fellows are going to tumble to you.”
“I’ve thought of that,” said Jeffrey. “You can tell anybody who’s
interested that there’ll be a printing next week.”
“Are you well enough to go up?” asked his father anxiously.
Jeffrey nodded, and shifted himself more erect, but winced in the
process.
“Reeder’s been here: did she tell you?”
Emanuel nodded.
“I’m not worried much about Reeder. Down in Dartmoor he’s a bogey, but
then, they bogey any man they don’t know. And they’ve got all sorts of
stories about him. It’s very encouraging to get near to the real
thing.”
They laughed together, and for the rest of the day discussed ways and
means.
Jeffrey had said no more than was true when he had told the girl he
was well covered. In various parts of the country he had twelve
banking accounts, each in a different name, and at one of the safe
deposits, an enormous sum in currency, ready for emergency.
“You’ve got to stop some time, I suppose,” said his father, “but it is
mighty tempting to carry on with those profits. It’s a bigger graft
than I ever attempted, Jeff.” And his son accepted this respectful
tribute with a smirk.
The old man sat, his clasped hands between his knees, staring out over
the sea.
“It has got to end some day, and that would be a fine end, but I can’t
quite see how it could be done.”
“What are you talking about?” asked the other curiously.
“I’m thinking about Peter--the respectable Mr. Peter Kane. Not quite
so respectable in that girl’s eyes as he used to be, but respectable
enough to have busies to dinner, and that crook, Johnny Gray--Johnny
will marry the girl, Jeff.”
Jeffrey Legge winced.
“She can marry the devil so far as I’m concerned,” he said.
“But she can’t marry without divorcing you. Do you realise that, my
son? That’s the law. And she can’t divorce you without shopping you
for bigamy. That’s the law too. And the question is, will she delay
her action until Johnny’s made a bit, or will she start right in? If
she gives me just the time I want, Jeff, you’ll have your girl and
I’ll have Peter Kane. She’s your wife in the eyes of the law.”
There was a significance in his words that made the other man look at
him quickly.
“What’s the great idea?” he asked.
“Suppose Peter was the Big Printer?” said Emanuel, speaking in a tone
that was little above a whisper. “Suppose he was caught with the
goods? It could be done. I don’t mean by planting the stuff in his
house--nobody would accept that; but getting him right on the spot, so
that his best friend at Scotland Yard couldn’t save him? How’s that
for an idea?”
“It couldn’t be done,” said the other immediately.
“Oh, couldn’t it?” sneered Emanuel. “You can do any old thing you
want, if you make up your mind to do it. Or if you’re game to do it.”
“That wouldn’t get me the girl.”
Emanuel turned his head slowly toward his heir.
“If they found the Big Printer, they’ll have to find the big
printing,” he said deliberately. “That means we should all have to
skip, and skip lively. We might have a few hours’ start, and in these
days of aeroplanes, three hours is four hundred miles. Jeff, if we are
caught, and they guess I’ve been in this printing all the time, I
shall never see outside again. And you’ll go down for life. They can’t
give you any worse than that--not if you took the girl away with you.”
“By force?” asked the other in surprise. The idea had not occurred to
him.
The father nodded.
“_If_ we have to skip, that’s the only thing for you to do, son. It’s
no offence--remember that. She’s your wife.” He looked to left and
right, to see if there was the faintest shadow of a chance that he
would be overheard, and then: “Suppose we ask Peter and his girl _and_
Johnny Gray to dinner? A nice little dinner party, eh?”
“Where?” asked the other suspiciously.
“In Room 13,” said Emanuel Legge. “In Room 13, Jeff, boy! A nice
little dinner. What do you think? And then two whiffs of sleep
stuff----”
“You’re mad,” said the other angrily. “What’s the good of talking that
way? Do you think he’s going to come to dinner and bring his girl? Oh,
you’re nutty to think it!”
“Trust me,” said Emanuel Legge.