The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-10-14


SO ! did, Cassidy. and 1 thought he
pacify his companions manifest resent
n1ent But he wants to meet YOU
wnere its safer, with no chance of he
Ing overheard. so stow your kick and
come along You'll quit no loser. Cas-
sidy, on my word
don't fancy taking any mans
word. Mr.. Doyle, when my own head
may be threatened growled Boyd less
suiienly "Mebbe it's all right. as you
say, but IL doesn't look it,
Tneres nothing TO fear, I tell YOU"
On. don't fear. SO much as / don't
like IT. You said he'd come here. and
ne ought to have come. Where's the
place m to meet him."
I'll take you there"
You will, Ell? Harkee Mr.. Doyle,"
ana Boyd now leaned across the table.
With an ugly glare In his threatening
eyes, and showed q revolver under his
hearers nose, adding quickly: IF any
game Is tried on me where we're to go.
II make 1t point to plug you full of
lead at the first sign of it."
That's good enough for me. Cas-
SOY. declared Doyle readily.
Come on. then. I'll go along with
YOU
Not that way! Wen leave by the
back door,"
An odd gieam iurked in Boyd's eyes
as he followed the mason into the
gloom OF the side alley There was a
shadow there darker than the night.
and as silent and stealthy.
INTO dark court, then through a
labyrinth Of foul alleys. Doyle con-
Quoted his companion; and finally led
him into covered passage terminal
ing at flight of wooden stairs where
ne took Boyd's arm 70 guide him
through the Egyptian darkness. Pres
entity he raped significantly on a door,
which was quickly opened; and a mo-
lneDt later Boyd was ushered out of a
dark entry, through which he had been
lco, and into quite q large room, lighted
by single oil lamp in a wall bracket.
Boyd glanced sharply about There
were three occupants OF the room A
man stood at either side of the door
by which he and Doyle had entered.
At an uncovered deal table In the mid
die Of the room sat the third; and in
him Boyd again beheld for the second
time, the man he first had seen in the
secret SubterTanean chamber TO which
he once had been lured-that obscure
master criminal known only as the Big
Finger, whose operations below the
deadline had for months been a con-
slant menace, and whom Boyd long
had vainly striven to locate and arrest
His hard, smoothly shaver face wore
threshold, and he raised one OF his
hands from under the table and signed
him TO a chair directly opposite
Boyd heard the door closed and
locked. yet he gave no sign that he
observed IT. He took the chair indi-
Gated, whereupon the man opposite
said. with a voice as hard as his feat
ures and as cold as the gleam in his
narrow, gray eyes:
Welcome. Mr.. Cassidy. have been
told that your name is Cassidy. Did
your friend object to coming, Mr.
Doyle?"
NO. not overmuch. Mr.. -"
Silence! My name is not for his
ears"
The interruption came quick and
sharp. with one venomous. look; and
Boyd now shrugged his shoulders, and
srimly growled:
1T strikes me you fellows are infer
nally skittish. Dye think I've come
here TO queer any game OF yours?"
The cold. gray eyes again sought his,
with a cynical smile.
Not AT ALL Mr.. Cassidy was the re-
ply Understand nett is not in your
power to queer any game of minep
I'm not so sure Of it, retorted Boyd
blunt1y.
THAT 7 am sure OF il, Cassidy, is
quite sufficient
well, let it go at that"
IT have been told by my friend
Doyle whose acquaintance you have
been cultivating during the past month,
that you know. or claim to know. in
eliminating facts bearing upon a muir
der case of recent date.
Boyd grimly nodded.
Possibly you know, or think you
know, by whom the crime was COM
rnittedr"
"Mebbe so.''
Suppose. Mr.. Cassidy, that you
name the guilty parties?"
Suppose that L do nothing Of the
kind, Mr.. -"
"Gluck will serve for a name, If you
desire one" was supplemented, with
a broader smile, the fnsinuating and
treacherous character of which lent a
1feDdish assurance to the speakers
hard features.
well, then, Mr. Gluck," declared
not here TO tell you what know of that
crime, leastwise not yet
''For what, then, Mr.. Cassidy2'
I'm here TO learn what can get for
not telling others"
TO adjust a price for your silence,
chr"
'SThat's what sir"
Not once had the gaze Of either d.
verted from that OF the other The
two sat at opposite sides of the table.
Chuck with his hands beneath it, and
Boyd with his thumbs hooked through
the arnnholes Of his vest.
In the momentaryr silence following
his last remark, Boyd heard faint
sound like that of a pebble dropped
on a board-it was a pellet of lead on
the stairs in the adjoining passage.
Yet the sound was so slight that it was
lost to ears not expecting II.
That something more was due to drop
already was becoming decidedly obvi-
GUS.
81 think, Mr.. Cassidy" said Gluck
with cynical asperity, that we shall
not find II easy to come to terms. I'm
derstand mel am not the sort Of man
who buys cat in a bag"
well. I'm not selling a cat" re-
terted Boyd bluntly.
Much the same, Cassidy. You ask
me 10 buy your silence before 1 know
what you can disclose"
'Oh, ] know enough, as I've told
rNotyla----'