MRS1 The Under Dogs

by Hulbert Footner

  "In my stocking," she said dryly.

  "Anything more for me to do?" I asked.

  "No," she said. "We'll take the Broadway subway down, and you can drop off at Twenty-Third."

  As we turned the corner into Fifty-Ninth Street, we came face to face with Black Kate, who was evidently waiting there for us. She gave me a poisonous glance. Here was a pretty how-de-do!

  "What's she doing here?" she demanded.

  Now my mistress, faced by a sudden and unexpected situation, will always tell the truth. "She's been helping me," she said coolly. "If she hadn't taken the watchman out of the way, I wouldn't be here myself."

  "Why didn't you ask me for assistance," said Black Kate.

  "I've heard others ask you," said Jessie coolly.

  Black Kate was in a fix. Devoured by rage, she was afraid to exhibit it before a stranger. She didn't know how much I knew. "What does she expect to get out of it?" she snarled.

  "That's between me and her," said Jessie.

  "Well, come on home," said Black Kate.

  In the dark part of the block, under the wall of the Savoy Hotel, a dingy, inconspicuous car was waiting by the curb. Black Kate opened the door. "Get in," she said to Jessie.

  Jessie hesitated. As she explained to me afterwards, she didn't know Charley, the chauffeur; she had no influence over him. She suspected they might stop the car some place, and the two of them take the tiara from her forcibly, and thus destroy all her work.

  "Get in," Jessie said to me.

  "She can't come with us," said Black Kate blustering.

  "Unless she comes, I don't," said Jessie.

  There was a brief pause. Then Black Kate changed her tune. I suppose it suddenly occurred to her that this was the best way out of her difficulty, after all. "Get in! Get in! Both of you," she said with a hideous smile, which suggested to me that if she had her way, I would never get out of that house, once I got in. I knew far too much to suit Black Kate.

  So we all got in, and the car started.

  "Let me see the tiara," said Black Kate.

  "I will, when we get home," said Jessie.

  "You give it to me now!"

  Jessie made no answer to that. Black Kate started to curse her, then threw me a sidelong look, and fell silent. Finally she asked in a strangled voice:

  "What's the big idea?"

  "They say that bit of jewellery's worth near half a million," said Jessie coolly. "I ain't agoin' to hand it over till I'm satisfied what I get out of it."

  Black Kate started to laugh. It had a truly horrible sound. "All right, all right," she said. "We'll settle all that when we get home."

  I need not say how terrified I was by this unexpected turn of events. My whole body was damp with a cold sweat. But it was not so bad though, as one of those terrible situations where you have to make up your mind what to do. I had my orders, and there was no choice but to obey.

  Nothing more was said. We rolled rapidly through the streets, and in about ten minutes pulled up at the curb in a dark block of old-fashioned houses. The house before which we stopped was vacant, and advertised for sale. At one side was a narrow, arched opening, leading through to the rear, and of course I recognised the place as the masked entrance of the house on Varick Street.

  We three women got out, and entered the narrow passage. I heard the car drive on. We crossed the narrow court behind the front dwelling, and paused, while Black Kate opened the door of the rear tenement with a key.

  I whispered to my mistress: "I am not much disguised. Remember, two of the men of the gang know me."

  "They were outside men," she answered. "They do not come to the house."

  There were two rooms in this little tenement. Black Kate forced us to wait in the first, while she manipulated the secret door within. But her carelessness in revealing the entrance from the street was additional evidence of her determination never to allow me to leave the house again. I shivered. I had confidence in my mistress, but just the same it is staggering even to learn that somebody desires your death.

  She held the door or panel, or whatever it was, back, for us to pass through. It was too dark for me to see how it was contrived. I heard it slide shut behind us. We passed through the second little house, across the flagged yard, and down four steps into a dark room, that I knew must be the kitchen where so much had happened. As we entered, some one lit a flaring gas-jet and I beheld a meagre, ill-favoured youth with sandy hair, who could be no other than Skinny Sam.

  His eyes opened wide at the sight of me. Black Kate whispered something to him, and he quickly lowered his eyes. Black Kate led the way out of the kitchen; Jessie followed; I was behind Jessie; and Sam last. The narrow hall outside the kitchen was dark. I was half aware of a door being opened beside me, then I was seized and violently thrust through it. An instinct, quicker than a lightning flash, warned me that there were stairs on the other side of that door. I made a wild pass for the stair rail, and just succeeded in saving myself. Heavens! what a narrow escape! It turned me a little sick. The door was slammed shut, and a bolt shot.

  My impulse was to fling myself against the door and shout, but I restrained it, for fear of spoiling my mistress's game. She knew where I was, and she would take her own measures. It was a hideous moment. Listening with my ear pressed to the crack of the door, I heard a scuffle outside. I heard Black Kate's voice, low and excited:

  "Hold her arms! Hold her arms! It's in her stocking!"

  Then I heard my mistress's voice raised high:

  "Bill! Bill!"

  That gave me my cue. I added my shouts to hers.

  I had the unspeakable relief of hearing a heavy body come half tumbling down through the house. As it rounded the stairs a growling voice demanded:

  "What the hell's the matter here?"

  "Canada Annie," replied my mistress, panting. "They threw her down cellar."

  "That woman is a spy!" said Black Kate stridently. "She knows all about our affairs. It's a matter of life and death to us!"

  "She's no more a spy than I am!" said my mistress indignantly. "She helped me to-night. You wouldn't protect me."

  "You had no business to ring in an outsider!" cried Kate.

  Bill said to Sam, I suppose: "Get out of the way!" The bolt was shot back and the door opened.

  "You'll pay dear for this, you fool!" cried Kate to Bill, half beside herself.

  "Well, anyhow," he growled, "she don't go down cellar till there's been a proper inquiry."

  We all went upstairs in a confused manner. Bill had Jessie by the arm, and I pressed close behind them. We went into the room over the kitchen, and somebody lit the gas. A cheerless untidy room, with a dining-table covered with a hideously dirty red cloth. The light revealed Bill enveloped in a voluminous bathrobe, his hair standing on end, a figure at once comic and terrible. Black Kate's face was livid with rage. Other men came running downstairs in various states of undress. I recognised them all from my mistress's descriptions; the big lout, Fingy Silo; Pap, the decayed ex-convict; the neat little Abell; and finally the terrier-like figure of Tim Helder.

  All wanted to know what was the matter.

  "Matter enough!" cried Black Kate. "Jessie has let this stranger in on the secrets of the organisation. What am I goin' to do with her? Let her go so she can tell what she knows? I leave it to you, men."

  Old habit was strong with them. The thought of the "organisation" had entered into their very souls. All scowled at me and muttered—even Bill.

  Jessie saw that her influence over them was slipping. "You all know me," she cried. "I will answer for this girl as for myself!"

  But Tim Helder shook his head. "You took too much on yourself, my girl," he said.

  "I say—to the cellar with her," said Black Kate. "We can't afford to take any chances."

  "You're right!" cried Sam loudly.

  The others seemed half inclined to agree. If I had been a man, I expect I would have received short shrift at their hands. But in the eyes of all
of them, except Sam, I could perceive a certain reluctance to hurt a woman.

  "Who's goin' to do it?" muttered Fingy Silo.

  "I will," said Black Kate, with a gloating look at me that made my blood run cold.

  Fingy turned away with an indifferent shrug.

  My mistress was not at all dismayed. "She helped me bring in half a million to-night," she said coolly. "Is that nothing? I say, test her out, and if she makes good, take her in with us."

  "That's not for you to say!" cried Black Kate furiously.

  "No harm in givin' her a show," growled Bill.

  "No!" cried Tim Helder. "The more women, the more trouble!"

  "You all know the orders," cried Black Kate. "Strike instantly at anything that threatens the organisation. That's how it's always been preserved."

  "Put it up to the boss," said Jessie.

  Black Kate's expression changed. Staring hard at Jessie, she pulled down the corners of her mouth in a derisive and hateful smile. "I've no objection to doing that," she said. "I'll call him up first thing in the morning."

  "You ain't helpin' your friend none by that," said Bill uneasily to Jessie. "The boss, he picks his people wherever he has a mind to. He ain't goin' to stand to have one shoved down his throat."

  "I'll take my chance of that," said Jessie, boldly bluffing. "When he hears who she is and what she's done, he'll be glad to get her."

  Several of the men smiled rather pityingly at Jessie.

  "Get back to your beds," said Black Kate.

  There was no great haste to obey her.

  "Whadya mean, brought in half a million?" Bill Combs asked of Jessie with strong curiosity.

  By way of answer, Jessie retired into a corner of the room, and turned her back on them.

  "Get out!" cried Black Kate furiously, trying to shepherd them with her arms. "You all know you got no concern with each other's jobs."

  But Jessie already had it out. She whipped around, holding the tiara aloft in her two hands. "Look, boys, look! The Russian Crown jewels!"

  Black Kate made a vicious snatch at it, but Jessie coolly held it out of her reach. Kate collided with Bill, who thrust her indifferently to one side. "No harm to take a look," he growled.

  Meanwhile Jessie was crying: "Look! Look! Look," and exhibiting the treasure all around.

  The glittering bauble in Jessie's hands cast a spell on everybody in the room. All else was forgotten. Even I forgot my perilous situation when I looked at it. How can I describe it? It was as if dozens of particoloured little suns were rising out of Jessie's hands. The thing had a truly infernal beauty. But it was not its beauty which cast the spell. The hearts of these rough men were hard to beauty. It was the spell of immeasurable riches which lighted the shine of cupidity in their eyes, and caused their lips to part, and their breath to come quickly. Gleaming black pearls as big as sparrows' eggs; flashing diamonds; rubies like dragon's eyes, and the cold fire of enormous emeralds, greener than the sea. Broken, awestruck exclamations came from their lips.

  "My God! look at that!"

  "I never seen the like of that before."

  "Nor will you ever see its like again!"

  "God, Jess, you're a wizard!"

  "Put it in your hair, Jess! Nobody's got a better right!"

  Jessie put it in her hair, and turned herself about, smiling at them gaily. From across the room Black Kate and Sam watched the scene with bitter faces.

  Jessie cunningly sought to work up the men's cupidity. "The paper said it was worth half a million," she said. "And they said Walbridge Sterry got it at a bargain, because there wasn't half a dozen men in the world with the money to put into such a thing. Taken down and sold separately it would bring half as much again. That in the middle's the biggest emerald in the world."

  "Let me have it in my hand for once, Fuzzy-Wuz," begged Fingy.

  "And me.... And me!" from the others.

  "Sure," said Jessie, "I regard every one of us as having a share in it."

  It was passed around from hand to hand.

  "When you're ready to hand it over...." said Black Kate, from between tight lips.

  Jessie took it back into her own hands. "Half a million, at the least," she said to the men. "And I brought it in, with the help of Annie there. It's my job. And I guess it's a big job, even for this big organisation."

  "You're dead right!" somebody said.

  "Well," said Jessie meaningly. "Are we going to divide or stick? It's up to you, boys? Shall I hand it over to her on her say-so?"

  "No!" cried Abell and Fingy simultaneously. And "No! ... No!" Bill and Tim came in with a moment later. Pap said nothing, but at least he ranged himself on their side of the room.

  "What does this mean?" demanded Kate, white to the lips.

  "It means we're going to stick together hereafter," said Jessie.

  "Are you going to hand over that stuff, or ain't yeh?"

  "I'm willing to hand it over on certain conditions."

  "Yes, just a few reasonable conditions," said Tim Helder.

  "A conspiracy, eh?" cried Kate. "I said this girl was dangerous. You, Bill, this is where your craze for her peroxide hair has landed you. Anybody could see you're dippy about her. You're too old for love, Bill, your wits is softened."

  "That may be," said Bill undisturbed. "But I'm on'y one."

  "She's got you all locoed!" cried Kate furiously. "All of you's ready to let her twist you round her pinky. My God! what a set of fools you are, standin' there! You, Tim, and you, Bill, at least you are old enough in the organisation to know what will happen. What's this emerald crown to the boss? Less than nothing at all. But the organisation is everything. It's not the first time you have seen some fool operative try to make trouble amongst the others. What happens, eh? What happens?"

  "Same old line of talk!" interrupted Jessie. "And all designed to split us up."

  Black Kate essayed to laugh. "Suppose there are a half dozen of you in this! What do you count against the whole power of the organisation?"

  "We count this much," said Jessie. "All these dozens of other operatives are just scouts and runners-up for us. We're the principals of the show. And if the boss steps on us, his business stops, see? If it breaks, it will be his doing, not ours. We're strong for the organisation. We on'y ask to be treated like human beings."

  All the men signified their approval.

  As the discussion went on, Black Kate cooled off. From the first day she had hated Jessie with all the power of her soul, and up to this time Jessie had always succeeded in putting her in the wrong. Now Black Kate felt that her feeling was justified; Jessie was giving her a handle to use against her, and the older woman had a sweet foretaste of triumph.

  "Well, what are your conditions?" asked Kate.

  "A fair division of the stuff," said Jessie. "So much to the one that brings it in, and so much to a general fund for all of us."

  "How you going to secure those conditions?" asked Black Kate, with a sneer.

  "This is a business organisation, isn't it?" said Jessie. "You're always telling me so. It ought to be run on business principles then. We want a contract with the organisation."

  Black Kate laughed outright; nevertheless, Jessie's word was cunningly chosen. "Contract," was a slogan, a rallying-cry. Every one of the men took it up.

  "We want a contract. We want to know what we can expect!"

  One by one Kate tried to detach them. "It's no use talkin' to you, Bill; you're cracked about the girl. But you, Tim, I never saw a skirt come around you before. For your own good, I ask you to keep out of this. Let them run their heads into a noose if they want."

  "I want a contract," said Tim obstinately.

  Kate turned to the next, who was Fingy. "You're a young man," she said, "with your future before you. What you want to queer it like this for? This girl's got nothing for you. When there's mutiny in the air like this, that's the time for a young fellow to get on, by sticking to the organisation."

  "Nothin' doin
'," said Fingy.

  "You, Abell," she went on to the next; "the boss was talkin' to me about you a couple of days ago. 'Abell's done well,' says he; 'he's entitled to a vacation.'"

  "You're lying!" said Abell contemptuously.

  "And you, Pap," said Kate, with a curling lip; "what you want, a contract for cooking? You ain't entitled to any percentages nohow. There's nothing in this for you. You must have set your heart on dying behind the bars."

  Pap, livid and sweating with terror, was incapable of answering her. However, he made no move to desert his associates. They gathered close around him to give him courage.

  Kate shrugged. "Well, I done my best to keep you from committing suicide," she said. "You're bent on it. All right. I'll call up the boss. I guess this is important enough to wake him out of his sleep." She paused at the door of the room and turned. "If any one of you wants to save himself from the general clean-up, let him speak now.... It's your last chance."

  There was complete silence in the room.

  With a laugh, Kate went on out.

  Sam was still in the room, and the others gathered in a close group in the corner by one of the windows. The feelings of solidarity and defiance had roused all the men to a pleasant state of excitement. Jessie worked amongst them to stimulate it, and keep them up to the mark.

  Kate returned to the room, smiling still. "He's coming right over," she said. "You ought to be flattered. He'll be here inside ten minutes."

  A significant silence fell on Jessie's followers. She was aware of a shiver of apprehension passing through them. On the other hand, Kate and Sam were gleeful. It was nothing to Jessie. She had gained her point. A great satisfaction filled her.

  CHAPTER XXV

  THE BIG BOSS

  The atmosphere of the dining-room in the house on Varick Street was tense. The five were gone from the room a few minutes to dress. Jessie had given them the tiara to keep. When they returned, the two parties in the household waited and watched each other from opposite sides of the room. I must say that the morale of the larger party, that is, Jessie's party, suffered most under the strain of waiting. Only two of the men, Bill Combs and Tim Helder, had ever seen the Boss, and the others seemed to be filled with a sort of superstitious terror at the thought of being brought face to face with this mythical personage. This was of small moment to Jessie; however, she kept up a decent pretence of trying to hearten them. Observing that little Abell's face was growing whiter, and his lips more tense, she said: