“Suppose you tell me about the hold this man, Herman, has on you?” I suggested.
Again she shook her head.
“There’s nothing you can do. If you want to work for my own best interests you’ll go ahead with the thing.”
I sat silent for a moment, thinking what it meant to the kid, thinking what a dirty dog Herman was to have got her in such a trap. I couldn’t offer to help her with those notes unless she told me about ’em, though. She misunderstood my silence.
“Come on, Ed,” she said with a smile, “I’ll make you a good wife, won’t burn the toast, bring your coffee in bed and all that.”
There was just a touch of ironic mockery in her tone.
I let her have it in bunches.
“Helen, I’m a crook, known from one end of the country to the other, wanted in several states. I know why you’re doing this thing, in part, anyway. It won’t add to the standing of your family if you marry a crook.”
She considered the toe of her shoe for a second or two, then looked up.
“I know all about that, Ed. One thing you want to remember is that you’re a gentleman. Being a gentleman is something that’s inside of one. It’s different from polish, manners or environment. It’s sort of an instinct. It’s being a good sportsman, a thoroughbred. I don’t think anyone will ever know about your criminal record, and I’m relying on you to save me all of that you can.”
The conversation was getting too squishy for me.
“Look here,” I told her. “I’m a man, a man who’s batted around from hell to Halifax and back again. You’ve kept referring to the fact that I’m a gentleman. The whole damned conversation is getting too highbrow to suit me. Why I should be running around trying to save girls from their own folly is more than I know. I’m a crook, and I’m not working for Don G. Herman, or anybody else, neither am I running any institution for brokenhearted flappers. You’ve got your chance to spill the beans and give me the lowdown on the thing. Otherwise, if you want to keep the lead it’s your move.”
She got up, smiling brightly.
“Then that’s settled. You’ll marry me this afternoon.”
Take it from me, the bird that said you can’t argue with a woman knew ’em like a book.
“You come back at eight o’clock tonight,” I told her.
“Maybe you’d better take me to dinner,” she said. “Now that we’re engaged I don’t feel backward about asking.”
“You go to thunder,” was my gentlemanly retort. “I’ll meet you here at eight o’clock, and I’m going to be busy between now and then.”
“Be sure and have the license,” she called back from the doorway. “Bye bye… be a good doggie, Bobo.”
Cheerily, lightly her voice rang back from the hall and she was gone. Bobo looked up at me his tail wagging slowly from side to side. I guess he’d caught the ring of decision in my voice, and knew there was action ahead. Me, I was mad. Don G. Herman had taken up too damned much of my time. I’d warned the man twice, and he’d kept on trying to double-cross me. Now he could take the consequences.
I clamped on my hat, took up my walking stick that had a regular burglar’s kit concealed in it, to say nothing of a small, finely tempered blade, and went down into the wholesale jewelry district.
Big Front Gilvray was in on the thing, and that meant one thing and one thing alone — jewels, big jewels, probably one or more jewels of rare value.
Down there in the district where crooks are not supposed to be welcome there is a big wholesaler who knows Ed Jenkins, and his reasons to remember the Phantom Crook. I’d had some professional dealings with him, dealings that were on the square, also I’d given him a few tips. He was a big man, and he’d do a great deal for me. It isn’t often that I ask favors, but when I do I ask ’em right.
I went into his office, and, after one glance at my face he dismissed his secretary and turned around to me.
His name doesn’t make any difference. He was and is a big man, one who stands high in the business world of San Francisco, a man whose name is one to juggle with in the jewelry game.
“I want to know the lowdown on Loring Kemper,” I told him.
He looked up thoughtfully. “Why, he’s a mighty fine fellow, one of the leaders of the social element here, one might say the head of the four hundred, he and his wife. They have lots of money, and he’s a square shooter.”
“I waved my hand.”
“Nix on that stuff. I’ve had that drummed into me so much lately that I know it by heart. What I want to know is what jewels he’s got, rather what particular jewel he’s got that’s worth a small fortune.”
The man seated at the desk before me jumped a bit and surveyed me through the tops of his glasses. For a long minute he studied my face. If he saw anything there he was welcome to it.
“Loring Kemper’s a client of mine, Jenkins,” he said at length. “I know you for a crook, a master crook. I am under some personal obligations to you, but my professional duty comes first and foremost. However, I know you are a man of honor, strange and inconsistent as it may seem when I say that I know you for a master criminal. Now tell me, on your word of honor, would I be violating the spirit of my professional ethics if I answered that question?”
I got mad.
“Listen, I’ve heard more highbrow talk in the last two days than I’ve ever heard in my life before, and I’ve had more people tell me what a highly moral, gentlemanly crook I was. For God’s sake quit using this highbrow language and cuss a little bit, and then answer my question. I’ll promise you that I won’t abuse the confidence to the detriment of your client.”
He still hesitated a minute, then relaxed.
“Well, Jenkins, the truth of the matter is that we recently purchased a very valuable jewel for Mr. Kemper. The thing was stolen some time ago from one of the collections of royal gems. You can guess the name of the nation. Further than this I can’t make any disclosures. The whole thing is very much of a secret, and I can’t tell you more without violating a very sacred confidence. However, you can see my position, also that of my client. Right at present it mustn’t be known that Mr. Kemper is the owner of the jewel in question, or rather that he has it in his possession. Right now it’s stolen property. Of course, it’s a case where possession is nine points of the law. Within a short time there should be an opportunity to purchase the legal title for a nominal consideration. The man who has actual possession of the gem can probably secure a confirmation of title for a fraction of its value. Until then it is, one might say, anybody’s property.”
I shook my head.
“That isn’t what I want to know. I want to know what sort of a gem this is, and what it looks like, and where it’s kept. Can you give me that information?”
“No, Jenkins, absolutely not,” his tone was firm and final. Knowing my man as I knew him, I knew that he meant it.
“Not even if I should tell you that it was imperative that you give me the information in the best interests of your client?”
He drummed for a moment on the desk, then again shook his head.
“I’m sorry, but it can’t be done. I must hold inviolate the confidences of my client.”
I gave him a once over, cold, calm, careful.
“If I became a client of yours would you protect my confidences to the same extent?”
“Why certainly.”