My purpose was to be serious with Mr. Tescheron. I had fooled him quite enough. He recognized me, and as he was so cool, surrounded by his cracked ice, I did not give him the chance to refuse a hand-shake.

"I came to apologize to you, Mr. Tescheron," I began. "It seems that you can't take a joke and that you flew to Hoboken--"

He reached into a drawer and brought forth a small photograph of Hosley, which he handed to me.

"Yes, I know you seemed to think it was all a joke," he said. "But what do you think of that picture, taken from the Rogues'

Gallery?--look on the back."

Sure enough, it was a familiar photograph of Hosley, and I knew the photographer who took it. But this picture was on a small card with no photographer's name on it. It might have been cut down from a larger photograph. At any rate, it was the usual size of the Rogues' Gallery police portraits, and was stamped and written upon the back like the official pictures of criminals. It made Jim look like a thief, and the plate must have been carefully retouched to order. You can buy anything in New York, thought I.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "I CAME TO APOLOGIZE TO YOU, MR. TESCHERON."--_Page_322.]

"Do you believe that is a real Rogues' Gallery picture?" I asked.

"Certainly. Here's a dozen of 'em from as many different cities. If you'd gone to the expense I did to get them, you would think they were genuine. Oh, there's no question about it. Strange, how you could be fooled like that! Lived with him for ten years, didn't you, and all the while he was married to that woman down-stairs and was kiting around the country for months at a time, raising h.e.l.l in Michigan and Arizona along the Mexican border. I think he was planning to do away with you the same as he did with her. It's lucky I broke in when I did and knocked his little plans in the head, so far as my family was concerned." The murder of myself, of course, was a small matter.

"All of these pictures are forgeries," I interrupted. "The photographer where Hosley had his picture taken probably has his price."

"What? You still doubt? Well, you are a crazy man. That fellow Hosley was a great hypnotizer of women and weak men."

I did not become angry at this sneer. No, I was resolved to be patient. I wanted to get him in a frame of mind where he would turn on himself and say, "There's no fool like an old fool."

"This thing was about to come out through the coroner's office, but I settled as soon as I read the first newspaper item--here it is."

He handed to me a clipping which Smith had used to clinch the payment of what he (Smith) called bribe money.

"Anybody could make one of those on a small printing-press as easy as they can make a camera lie or lie themselves. That clipping was manufactured, just as that woman in the flat below ours was made to order." I didn't lose my temper as I made this statement.

"But the death notice was in the papers giving the name and proper address. See, here it is, Browning, and your number. Oh, you are hypnotized yet!"

I was indeed surprised at the cleverness with which the Smith conspirators, including Obreeon, had planned to land this big fish--for such he truly was. He never sold a bigger one than himself. They had worked in the dark and could fool him every time by clouding his judgment with fear.

"You spoke of expense, Mr. Tescheron. Would you mind telling me, to satisfy my curiosity, just how much this thing has cost you?"

"Why, you are not thinking of paying it, are you?"

"No, I am sorry to say I cannot, although partly guilty, because I haven't so much money. But really I would like to know. I am amazed at your gullibility--simply amazed."

"Amazed, eh? Just look at these figures and you'll get some idea of the work we have been doing in this Hosley matter." He handed his neatly kept memorandum, which I scanned in wonder, and as we went over it, item by item, I could see the work of craftsmen shaping their clay. It all figured up, including board for his family at the Stuffer House, the payments for Smith's expenses and services, and the "settlement with Flanagan," to about $5,000.

"Mr. Tescheron," said I, "take the advice of one who wishes you well. Do a little investigating for yourself. I did not notify the coroner--I was only joking. Here is the address of Collins; see him, and get the particulars concerning the party at our old home, and then take a run up to this place and see what you think of it."

I handed to him the memorandum from Collins and left, saying:

"This is Wednesday. Think it over for a week and I'll arrange to see you next Wednesday. Then I shall expect to hear, if you are not convinced, that the sharks swallowed you like a porgy."

CHAPTER XXV

When I got away from Mr. Tescheron that afternoon, it was after three o'clock, and I had to see Flanagan.

Luckily I found the coroner at his office and was received by him with that warmth of greeting and cordiality which springs from a political genius, said to be derived by contact with the Blarney Stone. At any rate, it makes its successful appeal to human nature and const.i.tutes the capital of Tammany leaders holding their own against all reformers who fail to take into account the hearts of the poor. There wasn't anything in the world he wouldn't do for me.

You may be sure that Jim and I had long ago changed our politics enough to vote for Flanagan, and he knew it. His handshaking, sympathetic attention and practical philanthropy kept him in power, and his record for square dealing in and out of office placed him apart from some of the crew he trained with. As another Irishman, Mr. Burke, has remarked you can't indict a nation, this countryman of his proved to me that it would not be possible to indict an entire political organization outside the broad scope of campaign oratory.

I laid the whole case before honest Tim Flanagan.

"And they were to have been married a week from to-day, you say?

Whew! You come with me to see Tom Martin; he'll do anything I say."

It is wonderful how a Tammany Hall leader can help pull a case of complicated love out of the mire of despair, if the villainy runs counter to the law.

Tom Martin was the captain in charge of the detective bureau at police headquarters. If anybody had suggested concerning him that it was possible for a Tammany district leader to obtain a favor in that office involving what might technically be called the compounding of a crime, Martin's icy official rejoinder would wither his antagonist; but this ice could be cut by certain men.

Tim Flanagan was one of them. When he and Tom Martin got together on this thing wheels within wheels began to work.

"Certainly, Tim," said Captain Martin. "We'll give Smith a shake-down right here. I know him well. He is rich and will cough it all up when we put on the screws. You and your friend take seats. I'll have him here in a few minutes. Say, that's a lot of money, though--over five thousand dollars, you say?"

I handed Tescheron's exact figures to Captain Martin. We waited about twenty minutes, as I recollect, when a Potsdam giant from County Kildare, the site of extensive greenhouses for the raising of New York cops, brought in the trembling Smith. The startled little rascal looked at me, but did not appear to recognize me. He had been scared to a point I could see where he would give up his last cent for freedom.

"You're at the old game again, Smithy," said Captain Martin. "How much did you get out of Tescheron? I have the figures here; just look it up and tell me--see if we agree."

Smith did not dodge.

"About ten thousand dollars, Stuffer and all," he said.

Stuffer! Five thousand more than Tescheron had admitted to me!

"How much does the interest amount to at six per cent.? Just figure that up on all the payments, and put in Stuffer," directed Captain Martin, not in the least surprised at the admission of another five thousand.

"You'll square me against him?" asked Smith.

"Yes; you bring him here to-morrow, and I'll tell him--see?"

Captain Martin had never heard of Stuffer, but he played his meagre hand with a winning bluff. The boundary line between detectivism and poker is shadowy.

"I meant to pay Stuffer to-day," said Smith, "but I guess he got tired waiting and came to you and squealed."

Smith figured for a few minutes with a small notebook in his left hand, and then wrote on a slip of paper the following summary:

Services and expenses $2,040.00 Stuffer's fake bird collection 5,000.00 Fee to my man for apprais.e.m.e.nt of birds 50.00 Payment for safe return 3,000.00 Interest on above for two months at six per cent 100.90 __________

$10,190.90

Captain Martin did not approve the summary.

"Smith, don't try to dodge me," said he, sternly. "Put that Obreeon $1,000 item on there, and add the board bill of the Tescheron family in Hoboken for six weeks at $63 per week, making $378--add interest--your subpoena servers kept them over there as your guests, remember."

Smith did not whimper. He took the paper and in a few minutes added $1,391.78, making the total $11,582.68.