THE WHODUNIT COLLECTION: British Murder Mysteries (15 Novels in One Volume). Charles Norris Williamson

to get left anyhow. They were using you to pull the chestnuts out of the fire, but do you reckon you'd have been in at the share-out? I don't."

      "That's your word," persisted the other doubtingly. "You want me to squeal on 'em. You're some sleut'. Where do I come in if I put you wise?"

      "I get 'em anyway," answered Menzies indifferently. "You'd maybe save some time and trouble." He spread his hands out wide. "You're no chicken, Rufe. You know what you're in for. I can't help that, can I? I guess you'll take whatever's coming to you like a white man. But after the dirty way they've treated you you ought to get a come-back on them. Hadn't you now?"

      In point of fact Menzies had no knowledge as to whether Rufe was being treated fairly or not by his confederates. He was working on the line of least resistance. It is never at any time difficult to arouse in the mind of a crook a surmise that he is being doublecrossed by his associates. Rufe had neither the skill nor the wit to conceal in his features the fact that the seed Menzies had sown had fallen on fertile ground.

      "I guess dem gazebos ain't worrying about me any," he admitted. "But they're in it as bad as me, ain't they, chief?" He shot a cunning glance at Menzies.

      "Worse," agreed that individual. "Of course, there's that little job of Errol's, but I know you, Rufe. You wouldn't go for to do a thing like that without he properly asked for it."

      It was a long shot, but by no means a shot at random. The very character of Big Rufe had been sufficient to convince Menzies that here he held the most likely author of the knife thrust which had laid up Errol. He spoke casually, as though the fact was what lawyers call common ground, and he had his reward.

      "You're on to it," said Rufe eagerly. "Dat guy was too fresh. He took liberties, you understand, and when he pulled a gun on me he got what was coming to him."

      The chief inspector's face was immobile. He gave no sign of having scored another peg in his investigation. Leaning over against the door, Congreve, apparently more interested in his finger nails than in the conversation, jerked his head without looking up and Menzies knew that he had heard and appreciated the importance of the confession.

      "You know what you're saying, Rufe?" Menzies warned. "Of course, it isn't news to me, but I'll have to say you owned up. If you didn't mean it I'll forget it. Not that it will make much odds."

      "Sure I know," said Rufe with a definiteness that showed he had made up his mind. "I ain't blind. You guys have got it all fixed up for me an' I don't make any trouble see." He squared his shoulders. "Why should I be denying it? If it's me for it you bet I want Ling for company."

      There was no need to correct the crook's impression that his admission was a work of supererogation. It made things promise to go easier. So long as Big Rufe believed that things were utterly hopeless for him so long would he do his best to see that he wasn't lonely in the dock.

      "We'll pull him presently," said Menzies confidentially. "If he's inside our lines he can't get away."

      The gold fillings in Rufe's mouth flashed again. He was amused and made no attempt to conceal it. "You're off your bearings there," he said. "You don't really think you get Ling as easy as that, do you? He ain't inside no cordons. No, sir."

      For half a second Menzies wondered if he had underestimated Big Rufe. Was the man as simple as he seemed or was he trying to deftly confuse the trail? The reflection was swept away as swiftly as it had arisen. Rufe was not the person to get such a notion or to carry it out if he did. He would not so willingly have committed himself to save his dearest friend.

      "He had a private aeroplane waiting, I suppose?" he said with heavy irony.

      Rufe's wide-mouthed grin extended still further. "En she quay?" he said with deliberate mystery.

      "En she quay?" Menzies frowned. "Now what the blazes do you mean by that? You aren't trying to come the funny boy on me, are you, Rufe?"

      "Huh." Rufe was plainly disgusted. "You're a right smart Alick, ain't you, not to know what that means?"

      "My education's been neglected. Tell me."

      Rufe squinted cunningly sideways at his interlocutor. "I'm telling you nothing see? If any mutt says I squealed, I didn't see?"

      Menzies began to see daylight. "Of course, you didn't, Rufe. You wouldn't do such a thing. I get you."

      "Why," went on Rufe reminiscently but with an air of intense seriousness, "I got left for a sucker as you said just now, chief. I been hanging round a joint back o' this street with Ling lately. Wa could see Gwennie's place from the back window. There's a room there she didn't use and Ling framed it up wit' her only this morning. And if she wanted us around she was to put a handkerchief across one of the panes in daylight or light up a candle after dark."

      The chief inspector bit his lip. The possibility of a system of signalling had been so obvious that he had overlooked it.

      "Well, when that tin horn Cincinnati came nosing around Gwennie begins to smell something an' she tipped us the office. You better bet we came round and Ling and Gwennie fixed the show for fireworks. I didn't have any hand in that. I swear I didn't."

      "Get along," ordered Menzies sharply. "How'd they get away?"

      "Gwennie took her chance and beat it out the back in the yards before we put a light to the place. She's an active old lady for her age and she seems to have a sort of ruspect for you, chief kind as if she knew you'd block all bolt-holes from the front. She had a bit of an argument with Ling about it. He holds that there'd be time for a getaway from the front because we came that way and calls her down for a mutt giving the game away by climbing backyard walls. She wouldn't argue.

      ' If you've any sense, Stewart,' says she, ' you'll do what I'm going to. The bulls'll be waitin' outside for Cincinnati.' Dat woman's got some sense, chief; but Ling, he didn't see it. And I didn't reckon there was much to it till we got lit up. Ling, he stays behind.

      ' You go see if the old lady's got it straight,' he says.

      ' Day'se not looking for you anyway.' So I beat it and sees the cops holding everybody up just as the fireengines come. I lights back, but I didn't get the chance to get at Ling. But he must have tumbled to the racket because the next I see of him he came out and walked straight down the street and through your lines, boss, and not one of your guys was wise to him. He's some nervy is Ling."

      "You mean that Ling walked right through our men without being held up?"

      "Sure. If I'd have thought of the gag I'd have done it, too." His eyes twinkled. "Can you figure it out."

      Menzies bit hard at a mouthful of moustache. Even Congreve had lost all interest in his finger-nails. Suddenly the senior detective's face lightened. "Congreve," he said, "slip out and find what fire crews have gone away. If the divisional fire superintendent is still there ask him to have a roll-call taken."

      "You'se got it, boss at last," said Big Rufe.

Chapter XXIX

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      There was wailing and gnashing of teeth among the men of the C. I. D. as knowledge of Ling's escape spread. Yet the simplicity and audacity with which it had been carried out earned for it a chagrined admiration. Luck had attended the crook better than he knew. The district fire call had brought steamers from many stations and some of the firemen were strangers to each other a fact which had made the risk of detection infinitely small.

      Nevertheless, it must have needed an iron nerve to have waited as Ling had done in a back room of the blazing building till the moment was ripe for his expedient. He had reckoned astutely enough that the firemen would have their hands full at the front of the house at the commencement of operations and that at the most only one or two would penetrate through by the blazing staircase to the back to have a look at things. On that hypothesis he had acted and the first fireman to get through had never known what hit him as Ling dropped a sandbag