"
Jimmie Dale laughed again--still unpleasantly. So Stangeist had taken
the plunge at last and branched out into a wider field, had he? Well,
there was nothing surprising in that--except that he had not done it
before! The irony of it lay in the fact that at last he had been TOO
clever, overstepped himself in his own cleverness, that was all. It was
Australian Ike, The Mope, and Clarie Deane that Stangeist had gathered
around him, the Tocsin had said--and there were none worse in Larry the
Bat's wide range of acquaintanceship than those three. Stangeist had
made himself master of Australian Ike, The Mope, and Clarie Deane--and
he had driven them a little too hard on the division of the spoils--and
laughed at them, and cracked the whip much after the fashion that the
trainer in the cage handles the growling beasts around him.
A dozen of the crimes that had appalled and staggered New York they had
committed under his leadership; and then, it seemed, they had quarrelled
furiously, the three pitted against Stangeist, threatening him,
demanding a more equitable share of the proceeds. None was better aware
than Stangeist that threats from men of their calibre were likely to
result in a grim aftermath--and Stangeist, yesterday, the Tocsin said,
had answered them as no other man than Stangeist would either have
thought of or have dared to do.
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