One afternoon Big Kennedy of the suddenest broke upon me with an exclamation of triumph.
“I have it!” he cried; “I know the party who will show us every paper in that safe.”
“Who is he?” said I.
“I'll bring him to you to-morrow night. He's got a country place up th' river, an' never leaves it. He hasn't been out of th' house for almost five years, but I think I can get him to come.” Big Kennedy looked as though the situation concealed a jest. “But I can't stand here talkin'; I've got to scatter for th' Grand Central.”
Who should this gifted individual be? Who was he who could come in from a country house, which he had not quitted for five years, and hand us those private papers now locked, and fast asleep, within the Comptroller's safe? The situation was becoming mysterious, and my patience would be on a stretch until the mystery was laid bare. The sure enthusiasm of Big Kennedy gave an impression of comfort. Big Kennedy was no hare-brained optimist, nor one to count his chickens before they were hatched.
When Big Kennedy came into the sanctum on the following evening, the grasp he gave me was the grasp of victory.
“It's all over but th' yellin'!” said he; “we've got them papers in a corner.”
Big Kennedy presented me to a shy, retiring person, who bore him company, and who took my hand reluctantly. He was not ill-looking, this stranger; but he had a furtive roving eye—the eye of a trapped animal. His skin, too, was of a yellow, pasty color, like bad piecrust, and there abode a damp, chill atmosphere about him that smelled of caves and caverns.
After I greeted him, he walked away in a manner strangely unsocial, and, finding a chair, sate himself down in a corner. He acted as might one detained against his will and who was not the master of himself. Also, there was something professional in it all, as though the purpose of his presence were one of business. I mentioned in a whisper the queer sallowness of the stranger.
“Sure!” said Big Kennedy. “It's th' prison pallor on him. I've got to let him lay dead for a week or ten days to give him time to cover it with a beard, as well as show a better haircut.”