“Sweeten! Ah, yes; I recall now that sweeten was the term you employed. A most extraordinary word for paying money. However,” and here young Morton again addressed the warden, tendering him at the same time a one-hundred-dollar bill, “here is a small present. Now let us have no more words, my good man.”
The warden, softened by the bill, went out and closed the door. I could see that he looked on young Morton in wonder and smelled upon him a mysterious authority. As one disposed to cement a friendship just begun, the warden, as he left, held out his hand to young Morton.
“You're th' proper caper!” he exclaimed, in a gush of encomium; “you're a gent of th' right real sort!” Young Morton gazed upon the warden's outstretched hand as though it were one of the curious things of nature. At. last he extended two fingers, which the warden grasped.
“This weakness for shaking hands,” said young Morton, dusting his gloved fingers fastidiously, “this weakness for shaking hands on the part of these common people is inexcusable. Still, on the whole, I did not think it a best occasion for administering a rebuke, don't y' know, and so allowed that low fellow his way.”
“Dave's all right,” returned Big Kennedy. Then coming around to me: “Now let's get down to business. You understand how the charge is murder, an' that no bail goes. But keep a stiff upper lip. The Chief is out to put a crimp in you, but we'll beat him just th' same. For every witness he brings, we'll bring two. Do you know who it was croaked th' Blacksmith?”
I told him of the Sicilian; and how I had recognized the knife as I drew it from the throat of the dead man.
“It's a cinch he threw it,” said Big Kennedy; “he was in the crowd an' saw you mixin' it up with th' Blacksmith, an' let him have it. Them Dagoes are great knife throwers. Did you get a flash of him in the crowd?”
“No,” I said, “there was no sign of him. I haven't told this story to anybody. We ought to give him time to take care of himself.”
“Right you are,” said Big Kennedy approvingly. “He probably jumped aboard his boat; it's even money he's outside the Hook, out'ard bound, by now.”
Then Big Kennedy discussed the case. I would be indicted and tried; there was no doubt of that. The Chief, our enemy, had possession of the court machinery; so far as indictment and trial were concerned he would not fail of his will.