Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-19
CHAPTER XIV.

Durkin, with an officer at either elbow,
tried to think far ahead and to think fast.
Yet try as he might, his desperate mind
could find no crevice in the blind wall Of his
predicament. Nothing, at any rate, was to
be lost by talking.
Whats this for, boys, anyhow he asked
them, with sadly forced amiability.
Different things" said Doogan's man
O'Reilly, noncommittally.
But who made the charge-who laid the
complaint 1 mean?'
90 an old friend of yours!" chuckled
O'Reilly, thinking of other things.
Durkin looked at the man studiously. Not
ROBINSON"
and who's Robnson?-better try another
guess!'
Nor the Postal Union people?"
and what have you been dom to them?"
retorted the officer, as he gnawed at the
corner of his tobacco plug and tucked it
away in his vest pocket again.
''They tried to soak me once, without
cause" lamented Durkin. Indignantly. But
his hopes had risen. After all, he felt, it
might be only some old, unhappy far-off
thing.
who the devil was it, then?'
Twas MacNutt!' said O'Reilly, watch
ing him. "MacNutts turned nice and good
He's stool-pigeon nowr'
MacNutt!' echoed Durkin, and be-
the sound of the very name.
Hope withered out of him, but he gave no
sign. He wondered what, or just how much
MacNutt dare reveal, even though he did
stand in with the central office.
1t was a dark minute or two for him, as
his mind still leaped and CROPPED at the old
blind wall. Then suddenly into the depths
of his despair swayed and stretched single
slender thread of hope.
1t was Custom House Charley's saloon.
There the second bartender was Eddie
Crawford-the same Eddie Crawford who
had worked with him on the Aqueduct pool
room plot, and had been discharged with
him from the Postal Union.
1t seemed cons and cons ago, that poor
little Inflated plot with Eddie Crawford!
Eddie had struggled forlornly on as an in
spector of saloon stockholders had presided
over a lunch counter, and had even
polished rails and wiped glasses. But now
he mixed drinks and drew beer for Custom
House Charley.
If Eddie was there
Look there, you two' cried Durkin de-
cisively, coming to full stop to gain time.
I've struck it heavy and honest this time,
and, as you people put it, I've got the goods
on me. l can make it worth five thousand
In spot cash to each of you, just to let this
thing drop while you've still got the
chance!'
The central Office man looked at O'Reilly.
Durkin saw the look, and understood it.
One of them, at any rate, if it came to
pinch, could be bought off. But O'Reilly
was different. Look here, you two" said
Durkin, showing the fringe of his neatly
banded packet of notes.
The central office man whisted under his
breath. But OReilly seemed obdurate.
Double that, young man, and then double
it again, and maybe I'll talk to you,' Doo-
CAMS detective said easily as he started on
again with his prisoner.
And if 1 did," demanded Durkin.
Talks cheap, young fellow! You know
what they're doing to us boys, nowadays,
for neglect of duty? Well, I've got to get
up against more than talk before l run that
risk
BY heaven-I can do it, and 1 will!' said
Durkin.
O'Reilly wiped his mouth with the back of
his hand The prisoner could feel the two
officers interrogating each other silently be-
hind his back.
Step in here. then. before you're spotted
with me- said Durkin. Come in, just as
though we were three friends buying a
a move to break awayv'
''Oh, you'll not break away" said the
man with the steel grip. confidently, still
keeping his great handful of loose coat
sleeve. But he stepped inside the bar room,
none the less.
Durkin's heart beat almost normally once
more. There stood Eddie Crawford. lei
surely peeling lemon, with his lips pursed
was taking a hurried and belated free lunch
from the cheese-and-cracker end of the
counter.
Durkin stared at his old friend. with a
blank and forbdding face. Then he dropped
one eye-lid. momentarily. 1t was only the
insignificant little twitch of a minor muscle.
and yet the thought occurred to him how
marvellous it was that one little culver of
an eyeld could retranslate a situation.
could waken strange fires in ones blood,
and countless thoughts in ones head.
What will you have, gentlemen?' he
asked, easily, briskly.
I;,l,, III, 4 <S IT..
"Give me gin rickey,'' said the officer on
his left.
"A silver fizz," said Durkin, between them.
That, he knew, would take a little longer
lence.
Durkin's long, thin fingers were drum
ming anxiously and restlessly on the pol
ished wood of the mahogany bar.
The busy bartender, with nervous little
up-jerk of the head, gave these restlessly
tapping fingers a passing glance. Some
thing about them carried him back many
n onths to his operating-desk at the Postal
down over his glass, for he was mixing the
slI er fiZZ first.
1t was the telegraphers double app that
he had heard repeated and repeated by
those carelessly tapping fingers, and then
further phrase that he knew meant "at-
tehtion!
Yet he worked away, impassive. unmoved,
while with his slender little sugar-spoon he
SlSnaleQ BACK MS answer, On the rim OF
his mixing-glass.
Get a move on, boss said O'Reilly, i'm
patiently
Sure" said the bartender. abstractedly.
quite unruffled, for his was a little out
of practice, and he wanted to make sure
just what those finger-nails tapping on the
mahogany meant.
And this is what he read:
neutrality-suspicious.
-each-of-these-two!'
"Too-expensive!' answered the sugar
spoon on the tumbler, as it stirred the mix
ture. ld-have-to-mgrate.
"Then-make-it-a-thou answered
the mahogany. "I'm-pinched.'
Done" said the spoon. as the silver fizz
was put down on the bar Then came the
gin rickey and the highball
ey'll-get-it-strong!" drummed the
idle bartender on the faucet of a beer-pump.
A moment later the three glasses that
stood before Durkin and his guardians were
taken up in three waiting hands.
well, here's to you,' cried the prisoner,
as he gulped down his drink-for that-melo-
dramatic little silence had weighed on his
nerves a bit. Then he wiped his mouth,
slowly and thousttfully, and waited.
But here's table in the corner" he said
at last meaningly. Suppose I count out
that race money that's coming to you two?"