In the afternoon he had a consultation with the head of the Criminal
Investigation Department. Wenk said it was not a case of arresting one
man, but of getting rid of the whole gang, for here in Constance, as
one might say, there was but one division of the army whose general
headquarters was in Munich, and until one could lay hold of the leader
it was not worth while to secure a dozen or so of his accomplices.
Wenk advised their not making use of the announcement of a reward of
five-thousand marks for information (which had been drawn up contrary
to his wish), but rather that they should keep a close watch upon what
they now knew to be one of the haunts of the gang. That would be the
safest way of entrapping their leader, for if they seized the chauffeur
now, his master would receive emphatic warning. And this man, Wenk told
them, was undoubtedly one of the most daring criminals to be met with
in the last ten years. It was not only a money reward, but fame, that
might be looked for, and the constables all promised to do what they
could.
In the evening Wenk met the young man who was going to help him get rid
of the cars at a big profit. His friend had left the town, he said, for
things had gone badly of late. Switzerland was overdone with German
goods, and the German authorities seemed to be regaining their control
of the Lake. They might soon be starving, he said. But _he_ knew what
to do. He wasn’t going to starve, and sooner than be driven out of the
place by hunger, he would join the Foreign Legion. Then at least he
would be safe from the German authorities. He could fill his belly in
peace, and if he were shot down it would be as a free man, whereas if
he stayed here he was bound to end in quod.
Wenk asked what he had to do to get into the Foreign Legion.
“Oh, that’s easier than ever it was,” answered the man. “Before the war
you had to go to Belfort, but now that’s not necessary--you can join up
here.”
“Well, that’s a good thing to know. What’s the address of their
headquarters?”
“Oh, you only need go to the ‘Black Bull’ and ask for Poldringer, or
else come in the evening to the tavern we went to yesterday, for he
was sitting there. He had got a lot of them at his table, and I told
him I’d think it over. If our honk-honk business comes off, I shan’t
need to, though, but we can’t get hold of that d----d Ball; he’d want
to stand in with us, but I expect he’s got something good on somewhere
else. By the way, Poldringer was asking after you last night. You must
belong to his part of the country, eh? He said he thought he knew you,
but I told him you were from Basle and wanted to get two cars across,
and he said, ‘Oh, then it can’t be the man from Munich,’ but I thought
to myself a man might have been in Munich and yet be in Basle now, eh,
mate?”
“I’ve never been in Munich,” said Wenk; “he must have mistaken me for
someone else.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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