Gilly shouted, “Jeez, Fannon, you’re right!”
They ran down to the curb.
The chauffeur was a stocky, stolid-faced man they had never seen before. He opened the door as they came up, called out, “Get in.”
Gilly piled in, “X” after him. The driver slammed the door and stepped on the gas almost in the same motion. As the car jumped away from the curb, “X,” looking back, saw the policeman top the fence. He didn’t even notice the car, which was already rounding the corner into the river front street.
A FEW blocks down, the driver pulled up at the curb, and turned around grinning. “I bet you guys thought you was forgotten!”
Gilly said, “I hope to tell you, pal. I thought we would have to shoot it out with that dumb cop. How come you was there, pal?”
“Me? My name’s Gordon. I drive for the boss. He always has me around when there’s a job on the books, in case that nitwit, Binks, can’t get there to bring the boys in. Sort of insurance. We’ll drive around for a while, then go to another place an’ see if Binks is there.”
Gordon drove them around for an hour. At the end of that time, he stopped off and made a telephone call. When he came out he said, “Okay. We’ll meet Binks now. He says to come to entrance number seven.”
Number seven proved to be a pool parlor in a cheap residential section not far from Slocum. “X” and Gilly got out of the car. Gordon said, “Go through the pool room an’ you’ll find an alley in back, at the right. Go half-way up the alley to where you see a cellar door. Stop there till Binks comes.”
He drove off, and they followed his instructions. Binks was waiting for them, his head just above the open cellar door. “Too bad,” he crackled. “Too bad, boys. That was an awful flop. Well, come on, we might as well go back.”
They stepped down into the cellar, and Gilly closed the door over their heads at Binks’ direction. Then the halfwit gave them hoods to put on again, and led them through passage after passage, up and down flights of stairs. “X” was still carrying his black bag, and he had to hold on to Gilly with the other hand.
After what seemed an interminable time, they stopped and Binks said, “Take ’em off, boys.”
“X” put the bag down and removed his hood. He saw that they were in the same anteroom where he had waited for his instructions that morning. Binks picked up the bag, saying, “I’ll take it now. The Skull will want to keep that till the next time.”
“Look here,” the Agent protested. “That’s only borrowed. I have to return it to my friend.”
Binks paid him no attention, but shuffled out. “Tell it to the Skull,” he threw back. “His orders was to bring him the bag.”
“X” and the gunman were left alone. Gilly said, “Well, it looks bad for us, pal. The Skull don’t like guys that flop, no matter how come.”
“Flop?” the Agent asked.
“Sure. You was supposed to get them pearls. The guy busted in on you when he wasn’t supposed to even be around, but the Skull won’t take that for an excuse. He don’t take excuses.”
“Well, why did we come back then?” The Secret Agent did not tell Gilly that he had the pearls in his pocket.
Gilly laughed harshly. “Where could we go? In the first place, we’d both be picked up in no time wandering around the city. And in the second place, I’d hate to be on the lam from the Skull. Did you see what he did to Tyler? How’d you like to have the same thing happen to you?”
HE stopped as the door facing them started to open. The Skull’s voice came through it. “I will see Fannon first.”
Gilly looked at “X” and grinned. “Well, so long, pal. You was a good fellow while you lasted. What kind of flowers do you like?”
“X” paid him no attention, but walked in.
The door closed behind him, as before. The room was very faintly lighted, disclosing the Skull seated at a desk at the far end of the room. Once more “X” noted the four foot wide strip running across the floor.
The hideous death’s head of the Skull grinned at him out of the vermilion hood. The boss raised one vermilion-gloved hand, motioned him to remain where he was at the door. With the other hand, he indicated a short-wave radio set on the desk at his elbow. “Wait,” he said. “I am just getting the police calls on your job.”
“X” stood close to the door, measuring the distance between himself and the desk. He was tempted to make a quick leap, lock his hands about the throat of that repulsive figure, and throttle him to death. But he restrained the impulse. It looked too easy. So clever a man as the Skull had not left himself unguarded in this room. He waited. And soon the radio came to life.
“Calling all cars! Be on the lookout for Frank Fannon, ex-convict wanted for burglarious entry into the home of Harrison Dennett. Dennett reports nothing stolen, as he forced Fannon to replace the loot. Fannon escaped with one companion, identified as Jack Gilly, after gunfight with patrolman. Both are dangerous. Exert great care in stopping suspects. Fannon is forty, tall—”
With a vicious gesture, the Skull snapped off the radio. “So you failed?” It was more a statement than a question, low-voiced, ominous. The glowing death’s head brooding in the semi-dark seemed to be evolving some Satanic form of punishment “You know how failure is rewarded here?”
Again the Secret Agent measured the distance between himself and the desk. So far the breaks had been with him. With patience he would no doubt prevail. But patience was what he had little of today, with Betty Dale a prisoner in the hands of some unknown enemies. A slight rustling sound at his left diverted his attention for the moment, and he smiled to see that it was a large rat scampering across the floor from one hole to another. He turned back to the Skull.
“What makes you think I’ve failed?”
“Didn’t you hear the radio? Dennett stated to the police that you put the jewels back in the safe. That, my friend, is failure!”
“But you told me that Dennett would be away, that I would have a clear coast. Instead, he surprised me in the middle of the job.”
Slowly the Skull’s head shook from side to side. “It makes no difference. I make the best preparations for you that I can. Sometimes a little thing miscarries. Then you must use your own wits to save the situation. You thought more of escaping with a whole skin than of my orders. My men learn that it is no good coming back here with a whole skin and empty hands. They would be far better off to die on the job.” He paused. “I am sorry that I must treat you as I would treat any of the others, Fannon. I had hoped that you would make good, for you have possibilities. But now—”
He stopped, for “X” had put his hand in his pocket. “If that is a gun, Fannon, it’ll do you no good. Keep your hand in your pocket!” Accompanying the words, a blinding spot-light snapped on, no doubt in response to a button the Skull had pressed on his desk. It blared full in “X’s” eyes, blinding him, making it impossible for him to shoot even if he had had a gun.
“X” stood still in the light, and forced his lips into a smile. “It is not a gun,” he said calmly. “It is the pearls from Harrison Dennett’s safe. I got them after all; I wanted to spring them on you as a surprise.”
From behind the spotlight came the Skull’s vicious snarl. “You lie! You haven’t got those pearls. They’re in Dennett’s safe where he said he made you replace them!”
“X” shrugged. “If you will allow me to take my hand out, I will show them to you.”
“All right. Take your hand out. You are helpless under the spotlight anyway. I call your bluff, Fannon. Let me see the pearls, or you go to the chair! Like Tyler!”