Finally Lannigan spoke in a tone made louder by his irritation. And his words fell quite distinctly on Nick’s ears. “What’s the use of going over that again,” said Lannigan. “You didn’t give it to me straight in the beginning. You gave me a stiff that the papers wasn’t of much value, of no value to the man that had them, but only to you, and that the best they would do if they were in your hands would be to save you time.” “Well, that is true,” said Seaman. “We were bound to get them by law, but it would take a year or more to do so.” “Stop it,” said Lannigan. “There’s no use of lying any more about it. You played me for a chump. You never came to me on the job until you found out there was no way in law by which you could get them. If there had been you wouldn’t have come to me at all.” “You have been misinformed,” said Elwell. “No, I haven’t,” said Lannigan. “I’ve got it all straight. And you lied to me about the money there was into the papers. There’s been a big race for these papers, and there’s more than one that’ll bid high to get them. I am on to it straight when I say that the man from whom they was took would put up fifty thou. to have them back.” “Oh, you’re wild,” said Seaman. “Wild nawthin’,” said Lannigan, angrily. “Yer tried to give me a gold brick, and if it hadn’t been for what I found out this morning you would. No thousand casenote is goin’ to get that thing from me.” “A thousand dollars for an hour’s work at your own trade, with six or eight thousand dollars of stuff besides that you took out, isn’t much of a gold brick,” said Seaman. “It’s the chances I took,” said Lannigan, “that puts the price on.” “You got away with the chances all right,” said Seaman. “No,” said Lannigan, so sharply that his voice rang. “Nick Carter is on the hunt at this minute. Do you know what that means?” “I suppose it means,” said Seaman, carelessly, “that he’s trying to find out who went into that house during the night.” “I’ll tell you what it means,” said Lannigan. “It means that the smartest man on earth is right at my heels, and that I’ll be lucky if I get out of town without being nabbed.” “But----” “It means that to get for you what will make you big rich, I may have to do time in the cage. And you can bet your bottom dollar that I’m not goin’ to do that for any little thousand casenote, now that I know how much those papers are worth to you and others.” “Lannigan,” said Elwell, “there’s a side to this that you don’t seem to look at. You are striking so high that the people I represent, and Seaman here, can’t reach it. Now, we will admit for the sake of argument that there are others that will pay well for those drawings, perhaps more than we will pay. But if you go back on the bargain that you entered into, there is no reason why, if we lose the papers, that we should keep our mouths shut about the thefts of those jewels and silver plate. The taking of them was all outside of our bargain.”