Perhaps--who could tell!--all the way.
Between now and then there lay that package! If it were at Makoff's, at
Spider Jack's, if he could find it, get it--the Magpie as a temporary
custodian of the estate's money would at least preclude its loss by
flight if the Crime Club took alarm too quickly. Larry the Bat's eyes,
under half-closed lids, rested musingly on the Magpie's face. The Magpie
would not get very far away with it! On the other hand, if he failed at
Spider Jack's, if, after all, he was wrong, and the package had never
been there, or if they had forestalled him, turned the trick upon
him, already secured it, then--Larry the Bat's lips, working on his
cigarette, formed in a twisted smile--then, well then, that was quite
another matter! Perhaps he and the Magpie might not agree so far! A half
million dollars was perhaps not much out of eleven millions, but it was
a salvage not to be despised! Why did he say half a million! Well, why
not? If the Magpie knew of a single transaction of eighty thousand,
and there had been many transactions during the day, a half million was
little likely to prove an exaggeration--and the less likely in view
of the fact that, if those in the Crime Club were preparing for
an emergency, they would not stint themselves in the disposal of
securities.
The Magpie was keeping up a running fire of questions, as the Tocsin
toiled on with her pencil.
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