All Story Magazine, December 1913 — page 43: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A THIEVES’ longer he lived, the longer he would pay. ee * And that’s all you need know about it,’ Campbell finished abruptly. ‘I have protected Rollins’s worthless life for a year and kept Beans from—mur- der.”’ I think I shrank a little. “ Aye—it’s an ugly word, but Beans and his kind haven't much’ method in their madness. They are gathered from the ends of the earth, the ragged ends mostly—born behind the bars al- most—and their manners are crude. They dig great holes in their enemies and scatter gore about shamefully; but, man, they're bairns when you handle them right—just bairns.” “ T suppose so,” I said, and waited. “ Rollins would sell me to-morrow, if he dared,” he continued heavily. “ But he is afraid; not so much of me as of my people.” There was something akin to pride in that ““my people.” In that moment I felt that somewhere in his life was a sorrow that gnawed; one for which Rollins might have been responsible, and of which he did not care to speak. “In this city it would take months to prove anything against me—if any- thing were ever proved at all, and Rol- lins is afraid of what might happen in the interval. ‘“ But he is a constant menace—you can appreciate that—hating me_ in- tensely for my knowledge. My idea is that, when he finally goes to England, he will leave a message with Detective Parks before he sails.”’ “You don’t mean to say that he would—” “Why not?” Campbell questioned. “ He is quite capable of it if he thought he would’be safe in England. I[ tell you the man is small and he is afraid of me. “To make it worse, he thinks I am so afraid of him that I am likely to put Beans on his track at any time, and he has not forgotten the night when I pictured to him what would happen if the girl’s brother ever found him. It was pressure of that sort that brought 28 yy \ v COMEDY. 753 from him the promise he made the girl and me, and I suppose the same pres- sure induced him to take the first boat to Europe.” - “But when he got back, couldn’t you—” ‘A few weeks before I heard of Nessie Borrowman’s story,” he inter- rupted and as if I had not spoken. ‘I went to him on another matter—never mind why—and I told him to buy the Didderington estates, kill you, and be- come an earl all by himself, if he want- ed to, but, for Heaven's sake, to give his daughter a chance to grow up and choose a husband for herself.” I sat up a little straighter in my chair. ; “ He told me to go to the devil,” Campbell continued easily. ‘* And after the exchange of a few compli- ments [ left. “After he had crawled back! from Ikurope we avoided each ‘other for a while. If I thought he was to be at the Van Huysens’, I would not go there, and he never appeared while I was on the scene. I think he was afraid of what-I might do if I met him and so was I. Then—he came to mie.”’ Rollins had declared that it was a friendly call; to bury the hatchet and so forth. As he spoke he fumbled nervously with his hands, as if he did not know what to do with them. He took a chair by the table under a lamp, the light of which made the round bald spot on the top of his head glisten like a billiard-ball. Host and guest were in evening clothes, and the latter was constantly casting slanting glances of apparent understanding to- ward several newspapers that had fallen beside Campbell’s chair. A prominent banker had been shot and killed in the Bronx the evening before. The papers said uncomplimentary things about the police, and spoke of the baffling, Machiavelian, demoraliz- ing—all those adjectives, mind you— effectiveness of organization among a COMNIG Ookks2conn