“He asked me to, Mr. Carey. I was going to wait until after supper, just to be on the safe side, but you may as well know now. You see, there wasn’t much time. We’ve been all fixed up to go for days. He made the final arrangements yesterday and just came back to ask her if she wanted to go too.”
“And she did?”
“Like a shot. Can’t keep her hands off him. Proper case it is.”
“Isn’t he afraid she’ll try and turn him in again?” Arthur laughed. “Don’t be silly, chum. She’s been waiting for a man like that all her life.” “I still don’t get it.”
“I expect you’re like me,” Arthur said consolingly. “I like it a little more on the quiet side myself. But about the money-”
“Yes, about the money.”
“We talked it over, him and me, Mr. Carey, and we came to a conclusion. He couldn’t have claimed it. You see that, don’t you? You talked about extradition and all that, but that’s not the point. Extradition or not, everything would have had to come out. That’d be no good. He’s going to start a new life under a new name, with all this behind him. He hasn’t got half a million dollars or anything like, but he’s got enough to go on with. If he claimed that money he’d be a marked man. You know that as well as I do.”
“He could have told me this the first time.”
“He only wanted his family papers, Mr. Carey. You can’t blame him for that.”
“And he just had me stringing along so that I wouldn’t make trouble. I get it.” George sighed. “All right. What’s his new name going to be? Schneider?”