by Leroy Scott
CHAPTER XXXV
At the entrance of Joe Ellison instead of the expected Dick, Barney andOld Jimmie had sprung up from the table in amazement. Joe strode pastMaggie, hardly heeding his daughter, and faced the two men.
"I guess you know me, Jimmie Carlisle!" said Joe with a terrifyingrestraint of tone. "The pal I trusted--the pal I turned everything overto--the pal who double-crossed me in every way!"
"Joe Ellison!" gasped Jimmie, suddenly as ghastly as a dead man. "I--Ididn't know you were out."
"I'm out, all right. But I'll probably go in again for what I'm going todo to you! And you there"--turning on Barney--"you're got up enough likea professional dancer to be the Barney Palmer I've heard of!"
"What business is it of yours who I am?" Barney tried to bluster."Perhaps you won't mind introducing yourself."
"I'm the man who's going to settle with you and Old Jimmie Carlisle! Isthat introduction enough. If not, then I'm Joe Ellison, the father ofthis girl here you call Maggie Carlisle and Maggie Cameron, that you twohave made into a crook."
"Your daughter!" exclaimed Barney in stupefaction. "Why, she's JimmieCarlisle's--"
"He's always passed her off as such; that much I've learned. Speakup, Jimmie Carlisle! Whose daughter is this girl you've turned into acrook?"
"Your daughter, Joe," stammered Old Jimmie. "But about my making herinto a crook--you're--you're all wrong there."
"So she's not a crook, and you didn't make her one?" demanded Joe withthe calm of unexploded dynamite whose fuse is sputtering. "I left youabout twelve or fifteen hundred a year to bring her up on--as a decent,respectable girl. That's twenty-five or thirty a week. If she's not acrook, how can she on twenty-five a week have all the swell clothesI've seen her in, and be living in a suite like this that costs fromtwenty-five to fifty a day? And if she isn't a crook, why is she mixedup with two such crooks as you? And if she isn't a crook, why is she ina game to trim young Dick Sherwood?"
The two men started and wilted at these driving questions. "But--but,Joe," stammered Old Jimmie, "you've gone out of your head. She's not inany such game. She never even heard of any Dick Sherwood."
"Cut out your lies, Jimmie Carlisle!" Joe ordered harshly. "We've gotsomething more to do here, the four of us, than to waste any time onlies. And just to prove to you that your lies will be wasted, I'll layall my cards face up on the table. Since I got out I've been working forthe Sherwoods. Larry Brainard was working there before me, and got memy job. I've seen this girl here--my daughter that you've made into acrook--out there twice. Dick Sherwood was supposed to be in love withher. At the end of this afternoon some officers came to the Sherwoods'and arrested Larry Brainard. I was working outside, overheard whatwas happening, and crept up on the porch. Officer Gavegan, who was incharge, found a painting among Larry Brainard's things. Miss Sherwoodsaid that it was a picture of Miss Maggie Cameron who had been visitingthere, and I could see that it was. Officer Gavegan said it was apicture of Maggie Carlisle, daughter of Jimmie Carlisle, and that shewas a crook. Larry Brainard, cornered, had to admit that Gavegan wasright. I guessed at once who Maggie Carlisle was, since she was just theage my girl would have been and since you never had any children.And that's how, Jimmie Carlisle, standing there outside the window,"concluded the terrible voice of Joe Ellison, "I learned for the firsttime that the baby I'd trusted with you to be brought up straight, andthat I believed was now happy somewhere as a nice, decent girl, you hadreally brought up as your own daughter and trained to be a crook!"
Old Jimmie shrank back from Joe's blazing eyes; his mouth openedspasmodically, but no words came therefrom. There was stupendous silencein the room. Within the closet, Larry now understood that low, strangesound he had heard on the Sherwoods' porch and which Gavegan and Hunthad investigated. It had been the suppressed cry of Joe Ellison whenhe had learned the truth--the difference between his dreams and thereality. He could not imagine what that moment had been to Joe: theswift, unbelievable knowledge that had seemed to be tearing his verybeing apart.
Larry had an impulse to step out to Joe's side. But just as a littleearlier he had felt the scene had belonged to Maggie, he now felt thatthis situation, the greatest in Joe's life, belonged definitely to Joe,was almost sacredly Joe's own property. Also he felt that he was aboutto learn many things which had puzzled him. Therefore he held himselfback, at the same time keeping his hold upon Red Hannigan.
During this moment of silence, while Larry was wondering what was goingto happen, his eyes also took in the figure of Maggie, all her powersof action and expression still paralyzed by appalling consternation. Heunderstood, at least to a degree, what she was going through. He knewthis much of her plan: that she had intended to cut loose in some wayfrom Barney and Old Jimmie, and that she had intended that her fathershould continue to cherish the dream that had been his happiness for solong. And now her father had come upon her in the company of Barney andOld Jimmie and in a situation whose every superficial circumstance wassuch as to make him believe the worst of her!
Joe turned on the smartly dressed Barney. "I'll take you first, youimitation swell, because I'm saving Jimmie Carlisle to the last!" wenton Joe's crunching voice. "I'm going to twist your damned neck for whatyou've helped do to my girl, but if you want to say anything first, sayit."
Barney's response was a swift movement of his right hand toward hisleft armpit. But Barney Palmer, like almost all his kind, was a veryindifferent gunman; and he had no knowledge of the reputation formasterful quickness that had been Joe Ellison's twenty years earlier.Before his compact automatic was fairly out of its holster beneath hisarmpit, it was in Joe Ellison's hands.
"I sized you up for that kind of rat and was watching you," continuedJoe in his same awful grimness. "I'm not going to shoot you, unless youmake me. I'm going to twist that pretty neck of yours. But first, outwith anything you've got to say for yourself!"
"I haven't had anything to do with this business," said Barney, tryingto affect a bold manner.
"You lie! I know that in this game against Dick Sherwood, in which youused my girl, you were the real leader!"
"Well--even if I did use your girl, I only used her the way I foundher."
"You lie again! I know how your kind work: cleverly putting crookedideas into girls' minds, and exciting their imagination, so they'll workwith you. Your case is closed." He turned to his one-time friend. "Whathave you got to say for yourself, Jimmie Carlisle?"
Old Jimmie believed that his last hour was come. He showed somethingof the defiant, almost maniacal courage of a coward who realizes he canretreat no farther.
"What I got to say, Joe Ellison," he snarled in a sudden rage whichbared his yellow teeth, "is that I'm even with you at last!"
"Even with me? What for?"
"For the way you double-crossed me in nineteen-one in that Gordonbusiness. You never gave me a dime--said the thing had fallen down--yetI know there was a big haul!"
"I told you the truth. That Gordon thing was a fizzle."
"There's where you're lying! It was a clean-up! And I knew you'd beencheating me out of my share in other deals!"
"You're absolutely wrong, Jimmie Carlisle. But if you thought that, whydidn't you have it out with me at the time?"
"Because I knew you would lie! You were a better talker than I was, andsince our outfit always sided with you, I knew I wouldn't have a chancethen. But I reasoned that if I kept quiet and kept on being your friend,I'd get my chance to get even if I waited awhile. I waited--and Icertainly got my chance!"
"Go on, Jimmie Carlisle!"
And Old Jimmie went on--a startlingly different Old Jimmie, his pent-upevil now loosed into quivering, malignant triumph; went on with thefeverish exultation of a twisted, perverted mind that has broodedlong over an imagined injustice, that has brooded greedily and long inprivate over his revenge, and at last has his chance to gloat in theopen.
"When you were sent away, Joe Ellison, and turned over your daughter tome with those orders about seeing that sh
e was brought up as a decentgirl, I began to see the big chance I'd been waiting for. I askedmyself, What is the dearest thing in the world to Joe Ellison? Theanswer was, this idea he'd got about his girl. I asked myself, What isthe biggest way I can get even with Joe Ellison? The answer was, to makeJoe Ellison believe all the time he's in stir that his girl is growingup the way he wants her to be and yet to bring her up the exact thing hedidn't want her to be. And that's exactly what I did!"
"You--did--such a thing?" breathed Joe Ellison, almost incredulous.
"That's exactly what I did!" Old Jimmie went on, gloatingly. "It waseasy. No one knew you had a daughter, so I passed her off as my own babyby a marriage I'd not told any one about. I saw that she always livedamong crooks, looked at things the way crooks do, and grew up withno other thought than to be a crook. I never had an idea of using hermyself, till she began to look like such a good performer this lastyear; and then my idea, no matter what Barney Palmer may have planned,was to use her only in a couple of stunts. My main idea always was, whenyou came out with your grand idea of what your girl had grown up to be,for you suddenly to see your girl, and know her as your girl, and knowher to be a crook. That smash to you was the big thing to me--what I'dplanned for, and waited for. I didn't expect the blow-off to come likethis; I didn't expect to be caught in it when it did happen. But sinceit has happened, well--There's your daughter, Joe Ellison! Look at her!Look at what I've made her! I guess I'm even all right!"
"My God!" breathed Joe Ellison, staring at the lean face twisting withtriumphant malignancy. "I didn't think there could be such a man!"
He slowly turned upon Maggie. This was the first direct recognition hehad taken of her since his entrance.
"I don't suppose you can guess what your being what you are has meantto me," he began in a numbed tone which grew accusingly harsh as hecontinued. "But I'd think that a daughter of mine, with such a mother,would have had more instinctive sense than to have gone into such a gamewith such a pair of crooks!"
"It's true--I have been what you think me--I did go into this thingagainst Dick Sherwood," Maggie responded in a voice that at first wasfaltering, then that stumbled rapidly on in her eagerness to pour outall the facts. "But--but Larry Brainard had kept after me--and finallyhe made me see how wrong I was headed. And then, this afternoon, beforeI spoke to you, Larry told me that you were my real father. WhenI learned the truth--how I had been cheated out of being somethingelse--how I was the exact opposite of what you had wanted me to be andbelieved me to be--I felt about it almost exactly as you feel about it.I--I made up my mind to clear up at once all the wrong I was responsiblefor--and then disappear in such a way that you'd never have your dreamof me spoiled. And so--and so this afternoon, after I left Cedar Crest,I confessed the whole truth to Dick Sherwood--about our plan to cheathim. And like the really splendid fellow he is, Dick Sherwood offered tohelp me set straight the things I wanted to set straight. Particularlyto clear Larry Brainard. And so my being here as you find me is partof a plan between Dick Sherwood and myself. It's really a frame-up. Aframe-up to catch Barney Palmer and Jimmie Carlisle."
"A frame-up!" ejaculated these two in startled unison.
"How a frame-up?" demanded her father, no bit of the accusing harshnessgone out of his voice.
"Our plan against Dick Sherwood was to have him propose to me, then forme to confess that I was really married to a mean sort of man I didn'tlove--the idea being that Dick would be infatuated enough to pay a bigsum to a dummy husband, and the three of us would disappear as soon aswe got Dick's money. Dick offered to go through with the plan asBarney Palmer and Jimmie Carlisle had shaped it up--go through with itto-night--and then after money had passed, we'd have a criminal caseagainst them. By reminding him that Larry Brainard knew just what wewere up to, and might spoil everything if we didn't act at once, I gotBarney Palmer worked up to the point where he was going to pose as myhusband and take the money. Dick Sherwood was to come a little later,after he'd first telephoned me, with a big roll of marked money."
There were stuttered exclamations from Barney and Old Jimmie, whichwere cut off by the dominant incisiveness of Joe Ellison's words to hisdaughter:
"I think you're lying to me! Besides, even if you're telling the truth,it's a pretty way you've taken to clear things up! Don't you see that byletting Dick Sherwood come here and play such a part, you'd be dead sureto involve him and his family in a dirty police story that the papersof the whole country would play up as a sensation? It's plain to any onethat that's no way a person who wanted to square things would use DickSherwood. And that's why I think you're lying!"
"I had thought of that--you're right," said Maggie. "And so I wasn'tgoing to do it. He was going to telephone me--just about this time--andwhen he called up I was going to fake his message. I was going to tellBarney Palmer and Old Jimmie that Dick had just telephoned he wasn'tcoming, because one of the two had just sold him a tip for ten thousanddollars that this was a crooked game. I thought this would have starteda quarrel between the two; they are suspicious of each other, anyhow.Each would have accused the other, and in their quarrel they would havebeen likely to have let out a lot of truth that would have completelygiven each other away."
"Not a bad plan at all," commented Joe Ellison. He tried to peer deepinto his daughter for a moment, his inflamed face relaxing neither inits harshness nor its doubt of her. "But since you are the clever crookI actually know you to be from your work on Dick Sherwood, and sinceJimmie Carlisle says he has trained you to be a crook, I believe thateverything you've told me is just something you've cleverly invented onthe spur of the moment--just so many lies."
"But--but--"
She broke off before the harsh, accusing doubt of his pale face. Fora fraction of a moment no one spoke. Then the telephone bell began toring.
"Dick!" breathed Maggie, and started for the telephone.
"Stay right where you are!" her father ordered. "I'll answer thattelephone myself, and see whether you're lying to me about DickSherwood!... No, we'll do this together. I'll hold the receiver and hearwhat he says. You'll do the talking and you'll answer just what I tellyou to, and you'll keep your hand tight over the mouthpiece while I'mgiving you your orders. You two"--to Barney and Old Jimmie, with asignificant movement of Barney's automatic--"you'd better behave whilethis telephone business is going on."
The next moment Larry was hearing, or rather witnessing, the strangesttelephone conversation of his experience. Maggie was holding thetransmitter, and Joe had the receiver at his ears, grimly covering thetwo men with the automatic. Maggie obediently kept her palm tight overthe mouthpiece during Joe's brief whispered directions, and no one inthe room except Joe, not even Maggie, had the slightest idea of what wasreally passing over the wires.
What Larry heard was no more than a dozen most commonplace words in theworld, transformed into the most absorbing words in the language. Joeordered Maggie to answer with "hello" in her usual tone, which she did,and Joe, after a startled expression at the first words that came overthe wire, listened with immobile face for four or five seconds. Then henodded imperatively to Maggie and she put her hand over the mouthpiece.
"Ask him how much, and when he wanted it to be paid," he ordered.
"How much, and when does he want it to be paid?" repeated Maggie.
Again Joe listened for several moments; and then ordered as before: "Say'Yes.'"
"Yes," said Maggie.
Another period of waiting, and Joe ordered: "Say, 'I've got a muchbetter plan that supersedes the old.'"
"I've got a much better plan that supersedes the old."
There was yet another period of waiting, then Joe commanded: "Tell himhe really mustn't and say good-bye quick."
"You really mustn't! Good-bye!"
The instant her "Good-bye" was out of her mouth Joe clicked the receiverupon its hook, and stood regarding the breathless Maggie. His pale,stern face was not quite so severe as before. Presently he spoke: "Iknow now that you really were sick of w
hat you'd been trying to do--thatyou'd really broken away from these two--that you'd really confessed toDick, and are now all square with him."
The word "Father!" struggled chokingly toward her lips. But she onlysaid:
"I'm glad--you know."
"And you were shrewd in that guess you made of what one of these twowould do." Joe crossed back to Barney and Old Jimmie. "You two musthave been almighty afraid, because of Larry Brainard, that your game wassuddenly collapsing, and each must have been trying to grab a piece forhimself before he ran away."
"What you talking about?" gruffly demanded Barney.
"Perhaps I'm talking about you. But more particularly about JimmieCarlisle. For just now Dick Sherwood said when he telephoned, that anhour or two ago Jimmie Carlisle had hunted him up, had hinted that hewas going to lose a lot of money unless he was properly advised, andoffered to give him certain valuable information for five thousandcash."
Barney turned upon his partner. "You damned thief!" he snarled, tensedas if about to spring upon the other.
Old Jimmie, turned greenishly pale, shrank away from Barney, his everyexpression proclaiming his guilt. Then Maggie again found her voice:
"And at about the same time Barney was trying to double-cross JimmieCarlisle, Barney proposed to me that, after we'd got Dick Sherwood'smoney, we'd tell Jimmie Carlisle we'd got very little, and divide thereal money fifty-fifty between just us two."
"You damned thief!" snarled Old Jimmie back at his partner.
The next moment Barney and Old Jimmie were upon each other, strikingwildly, clawing. But the moment after Joe Ellison, his repressed ragenow unloosed, and with the super-strength of his supreme fury, had tornthe two apart.
"You don't do that to each other--that job belongs to me!" he cried.His right arm flung Barney backward so that Barney went staggering overhimself and sprawled upon the floor. Joe gripped Old Jimmie's collar,and his right hand painfully twisted Jimmie's arm. "And I finish you offfirst, Jimmie Carlisle, for what you've done to me and my girl! But forLarry Brainard you, Jimmie Carlisle, would have succeeded in your schemeto make my girl a crook! I'd like to give you a thousand years of agony,you damned rat--but that's beyond me!" His right hand shifted swiftlyfrom Old Jimmie's arm to his throat. "But I'm going to choke your rat'slife out of you!--your lying, sneaking devil's life out of you!"
Old Jimmie squirmed and twisted with those long fingers clampedmercilessly around his throat, his eyes rolling, and his mouth gapingwith voiceless cries. He was indeed being shaken as a rat might beshaken.
"Don't!--Don't!" cried the frantic Maggie, and started to seize herfather to pull him away. But she was halted by her arm being caught byBarney.
"Let Jimmie have it!" he said fiercely to her, and flung her to thefarthest corner of the room. And grimly exultant over what seemed to beOld Jimmie's doom, he started for the door to make his own escape.
Up to the moment of Joe Ellison's eruption Larry had felt bound toremain a mere spectator where he was: long as the time had seemed tohim, it had in fact been less than half an hour. He had felt bound atfirst by his promise to Maggie to let her work out her plan; and boundlater by his sense that this situation belonged to Joe Ellison. But nowthis swift crisis dissolved all such obligations. He sprang from hiscloset to take his part in the drama that was so swiftly unfolding.
