Gangsters -- New York (State) -- New York -- Fiction; Mystery fiction
Rhoda Gray looked quickly about her. On the corner ahead she saw a drug
store, and started briskly in that direction. Yes, there was a way! The
idea had first come to her from the Pug's remark to Shluker that, after
they had secured the money, Pinkie would return with it to the Pug's
room, while the Pug would go and square things with Danglar. And also,
at the same time, that same remark of the Pug's had given rise to a
hope that she might yet trace Danglar to night through the Pug--but the
circumstances and happenings of the last few minutes had shattered that
hope utterly. And so there remained the money. And, as she had walked
with Pinkie and the Pug a little while ago, knowing that Pinkie would,
if they were successful, carry the money back to the Pug's room, just
as was being done now precisely in accordance with the Pug's original
intentions, she had thought of the Adventurer. It had seemed the only
way then; it seemed the only way now--despite the fact that she would be
hard put to it to answer the Adventurer if he thought to ask her how, or
by what means, she was in possession of the information that enabled
her to communicate with him. But she must risk that--put him off, if
necessary, through the plea of haste, and on the ground that there was
not time to-night for an unnecessary word. He had given her, believing
her to be Gypsy Nan, his telephone number, which she, in turn, was to
transmit to the White Moll--in other words, herself! But the White
Moll, so he believed, had never received that message--and it must
of necessity be as the White Moll that she must communicate with him
to-night! It would be hard to explain--she meant to evade it. The one
vital point was that she remembered the telephone number he had given
her that night when he and Danglar had met in the garret. She was not
likely to have forgotten it!
Rhoda Gray, alias Gypsy Nan, scuffled along. Was she inconsistent? The
Adventurer would be in his element in going to the Pug's room, and in
relieving Pinkie Bonn of that money; but the Adventurer, too, was
a thief-wasn't he? Why, then, did she propose, for her mind was now
certainly made up as to her course of action, to trust a thief to
recover that money for her?
She smiled a little wearily as she reached the drug store, stepped into
the telephone booth, and gave central her call. Trust a thief! No, it
wasn't because her heart prompted her to believe in him; it was because
her head assured her she was safe in doing so. She could trust him in an
instance such as this because--well, because once before, for her sake
he had foregone the opportunity of appropriating a certain diamond
necklace worth a hundred times the sum that she would ask him--yes, if
necessary, for her sake--to recover to-night. There was no...
She was listening in a startled way now at the instrument. Central had
given her “information”; and “information” was informing her that the
number she had asked for had been disconnected.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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