"You're crazy! He hasn't the nerve."
"Maybe not--make him do it anyway."
It was the lame man's turn to take a hand. "And why should Mr. Harry Perkins be so entrusted?"
"To keep his mouth shut."
"I'm afraid I don't understand you."
"And I didn't think you could be so dense. Look here, Doctor. I haven't been one of your crowd long, but I'd never have joined up at all if I'd known I was getting in with such a bunch of nitwits!"
"You are forgetting yourself, I think," the Doctor's tone was cutting.
"No. I ain't. Listen--Perkins only came into this because he was up against it proper. How you found out he had speculated, first with his own money and then with the bank's, is none of my affair. What I do know is that when Wall Street put him into a tight place, you put up the extra margin with his brokers upon an assurance from him that he would do--just what he's done!"
"You are very well informed, Mike. And what then?"
"Just this: the bank has been robbed, but it was a crude job at best. Why the bulls haven't fastened on Perkins already on account of that time-lock business, is beyond me. Then, for once in your long and successful career, you were careless, Doctor. You allowed your paternal feeling to out-weigh your natural caution. The result is that the cops got Sadie's fingerprints and a description of you, of her and of Tony. I am simply bringing all this up to show you that we are not out of the mess yet--not by a long shot."