It was a strange game the men were playing, something far less quiet and
controlled than poker, or any of the other American games that Lawrence
was accustomed to see played by the men working round the planes. There
was much slapping down of cards and a great deal of laughter from three
of the players, while the fourth poured forth a steady stream of abuse
and profanity. Strangely enough, while Lawrence was sure that they were
foreigners, they all spoke English with no more accent than a slight
twist of the syllables.
The game went on, and Lawrence gathered that one man was losing
steadily.
Luck fluctuated between the others and they accepted gains or loss with
careless unconcern. Not so the fourth man. He lost money as painfully as
a man loses his very blood. It put him in a sort of wild panic, yet he
could not leave the game. He kept hoping for a turn in the bad luck
which pursued him and played on, cursing his luck, the cards, the
unsteady light, and his partners themselves. Finally his evil temper
commenced to grate on the mood of the other three. They too commenced to
be faultfinding, until the dealer swept the cards together and announced
that the game was over.
The men did not trouble to rise; they merely kicked the table over, and
leaned back in their chairs.
"What of the night?" said one of them, peering out the crack of the big
door.
"Clear as a bell," said another, "and the moon big as the dial of the
clock at Nuremberg. I say we take the two planes and go out."
Lawrence felt a small chill travel down his spine. He held his breath
for the answer, while all his muscles tautened for a quick retreat.
"Not tonight," answered the oldest man. "The machines both need tuning
up. I have worked on that dirigible so constantly that I have neglected
all else. But there is no haste. No haste whatever, with their broken
dirigible and what happened last night." He commenced to laugh, and in
response the man who had lost at cards began to swear again.
"Yes; what happened last night?" he said. "A knock-out staged by a pair
of fools!"
"It was an accident," said another man sulkily. "Fifteen minutes before
I saw him at the Army and Navy Club. Then I opened the door, after
seeing that every servant in the place was sleeping sweetly, and there
he sat and he _saw_ me. There was nothing else to do. The Chief had
forbidden a fight. I gave him a good knock. Wonder if I killed him!"
"I don't think so," said the oldest man. "I stepped on his leg as I was
going around the table, after we had looked over his papers, and there
was a live feel to the flesh. You should have struck to kill. Then there
would have been a hue and cry and we could have worked so much better.
He is the master mind."
"We have nothing to do with him, of course, but it galls me to think any
man can be so close. Not a soul knows what he will do next, that
Ridgeway; no one knows where he will turn. I cannot understand why he
was so careless with that dirigible, leaving it there in that hangar for
all the world to see. And advertising it for traffic! Now as soon as it
is in shape again, I must deface our dirigible with just the same marks
and mends. It must be so similar that not even the driver of the
Ridgeway machine, after we kidnap him, will feel the least hesitation
about taking our dirigible where he has been ordered to go."
"When will we see the Chief?" asked the loser at cards.
"I have been expecting him since yesterday," said the oldest man, "but
he won't take the chance of coming out in daylight now."
They sat smoking, and Lawrence, whose chances seemed to be getting
slimmer every moment, wondered how he could escape before the men made a
move. He was not sure that his feet were not sticking out at the other
side of the plane, and although the hangar was pitch dark except where
the dim light above the group of men made it possible for them to see,
Lawrence did not like to feel that they might at any moment make a move
toward the small door back of him, and trip over him. But there was not
a chance of moving while they sat silently smoking. If they would _only_
commence to talk!
As they sat engrossed in their pipes a current of air fanned Lawrence
and he knew that the big door of the hangar had silently swung open. He
heard the four men spring to their feet as a soft voice said, "Good
evening!"
"Good evening, Excellency," said the four, and the newcomer replied in
an irritated tone:
"Not that! How many times have I told you not to call me Excellency?
There are no longer any Excellencies. I am plain Mr. Smith. Such a good,
honest name and a good, honest man! You know I travel for a book
concern, and all my anxiety is for the number of copies of their book I
sell. Do you understand?"
"Yes, your--Mr. Smith," said the men, and Mr. Smith sat down on the
nearest chair.
"Shut that door," he ordered. "Why do you infernal blockheads leave it
open with all this light streaming out?"
"It was closed until you came in, Mr. Smith," said the oldest man in an
apologetic, submissive tone.
"Then all the more reason for shutting it!" said the newcomer.
He felt in his pocket and drew out a silver cigarette case. One of the
little tubes fell out as he fumbled for it, and selecting another, the
man lighted it and commenced to smoke. His back was squarely toward
Lawrence, and even his figure was not discernible in the poor light.
Lawrence settled himself for whatever was to come. He knew somehow that
a single move on his part would be detected by a pair of ears far keener
than those others. In fact, there was something so sinister about the
carriage and tone of the man who called himself Mr. Smith that Lawrence
was not at all sure that he would not turn at any moment and say, "Come
out of your hiding place, Lawrence Petit!" He felt himself grow cold all
over. Once a rattlesnake had crawled over his foot and he had stood like
a statue waiting for the deadly thing to creep away without being
stirred to anger, and the same feeling of oppression chilled him now. He
knew instinctively that he was in the presence of the most deadly and
merciless human being he had ever encountered. Yet all he could pin his
feeling to was the dim shadow of a form and the sound of a voice which
was certainly soft and agreeable to the ear.
The cigarette which had fallen out lay on the ground and added to the
boy's danger. If Smith or one of the others should stoop to pick it up,
they might easily discover him. As the oldest man commenced to talk,
Lawrence made a cautious movement backward. That instant Smith held up a
hand and whispered, "Silence!"
Lawrence stilled his very heart beats. For an interminable time there
was not a sound, then Smith lowered his hand and said, "Go on! I was
sure I heard something, but I must have been mistaken. If I lose my
sense of hearing I will be out of luck."
The men laughed in a guarded way. "If you lose nine-tenths of it and
nine-tenths of your eyesight, you will be about like the rest of us,"
said the oldest man.
"Thanks!" said Mr. Smith dryly. "Now for a report. Did you discover
anything at all at the Ridgeways? I presume you went, as I ordered."
"Yes, we went all right," someone answered out of the gloom. "It came
near being a good deal of a mess. We got in the house all right. I had
been there for two days looking over the electric wiring for the city,
and had seen to it that all the servants went to bed with just enough
dope in their food to insure them a good night's sleep. Then we went
outside to look things over, and I went downtown and ran right into the
gentleman. So I dogged him, and he went into the Army and Navy Club, and
I came back. I walked, and he must have taxied because when we opened
the door from the hall, there he was sitting in the library in the dark.
I can't imagine what he was doing that for. He was wide awake and when I
opened the door he turned round. Of course I had to hit him."
"Well, what next?" asked Smith as the other paused.
"It was a good one," said the man. "He fell like a sack of sand, and we
switched on a light and went through everything in two minutes. There is
not a thing there. Not a thing, and no wall safe, and no secret
drawers!"
"Well, that is odd," mused the newcomer. "You left him unconscious?"
"Yes, but he was alive," said the man.
"I don't understand," said Smith. "There was not a thing in the morning
paper about this, and no mention of illness or anything else. I remember
especially noticing that Hamilton Ridgeway would lay the cornerstone for
a new orphanage or something of the sort this morning. I don't believe
you hit him at all!"
"He did!" said the third man. "It was such a crack that I was sure he
had killed him."
"Well, it is strange," muttered the man called Smith. "We must find out
more about this. Are you through with your electrical job?"
"Yes. I was careful to finish that up yesterday. That was why the butler
asked me to supper in the servants' hall. I made a hit with all of them
belowstairs."
Smith sat for a long while thinking. "All right," he said finally. "I
will have a look at things. You had better go back to your old job at
the Ridgeway field. Say you have been off because you were sick. And put
down a note of every scratch and dent and seam on that dirigible of
theirs so you can reproduce it. Remember one thing. There are powerful
forces back of us, but all they want is the papers that will sooner or
later go across in that dirigible.
"What _we_ want is money, and I tell you, men, if this thing goes
through, it will bring us millions. Just that: millions!"
A sort of stifled groan of covetousness went up from the listeners.
"If we succeed there will never be a time when we will any of us have to
do another stroke of work. If we fail, it will mean death. Fail? Why,
you won't _dare_ to fail! I will kill any man of you with my own hand if
he shows the white feather."
He laughed, and Lawrence thought he heard the rattles of the coiled
snake ready to spring. The men listened in silence. Lawrence wondered if
his face carried the same chill as his words and voice.
After a pause, one of the men spoke. "I think we are all taking big
chances," he said. "All I object to is working in the dark. Here we are
working and plotting, killing if necessary, all on the promise of
immense rewards, yet you will not tell us where these rewards are
hidden. It all rests on your word."
"Did I ever fail you?" asked Smith violently, striking his hand on his
knee. "What about the jewel robbery in Paris? The diamonds in New York?
Did I even send them to Amsterdam for recutting before showing them to
you, and weighing them up? Was there not a fair division when the job
was done? You thankless dogs, you would be picking pockets if I had not
taken charge of you!"
"That is all right, Chief," said the big man, "but it would give us a
good deal more interest if we could know where all this money is being
kept."
Smith laughed. "I suppose you want to know so if I should get a tap on
the head myself some night you could go after it. Isn't that about it?"
"No," said the man, "but part of it is true. What if anything _should_
really happen to you? Where would _we_ be?"
"And suppose I should tell you on my word of honor that the riches are
buried here, right here in this hangar, where would _I_ be?"
Somehow Lawrence sensed a straining forward of the four listeners.
"Sit still, sit still!" said Smith. "It is not here, so it won't pay you
to dig a nice hole in search of it, and incidentally bury me after you
have finished. No, the treasure--ah, _such_ treasure, glittering,
golden, jewelled treasure such as you have never dreamed of, is not
here. It is quite safe elsewhere. Quite, quite safe!"
Again he laughed.
"Where is it?" asked the oldest man again. "We want to know!"
"Perhaps it is only fair," said Smith, shrugging his shoulders. He took
out another cigarette and lighted it leisurely. "Perhaps it is only
fair," he repeated. "Besides, you might like to go and look at the
beautiful strong old casket that holds the jewels and treasure. Well,
then if you must know," he blew a cloud of smoke tantalizingly toward
them. "Your treasure, and mine, is in the United States Treasury."
"You, you--" sputtered the oldest man.
"Don't tell me I _lie_," warned the smooth voice. "I do occasionally,
but no man dares to _tell_ me that I do. And this is the truth. Your
treasure and mine is in the Treasury Building. Until it is taken out, we
must wait. Even I cannot offer to break into that stronghold."
"I don't understand," said the loser at cards.
"Of course you don't!" said Smith. "You don't have to! Only one head is
needed on a body. _I_ am the head. Do my bidding, you hands and feet,
and all will be well. Millions, remember; _millions_, and one-fourth to
be divided amongst you. I am going," he said, abruptly dismissing the
topic. "Come!"
He rose, and before Lawrence could gather himself for the shock of
discovery, the group, led by the rattlesnake, passed out the big door of
the hangar, and Lawrence heard the lock snap loudly.