“Not them stones,” he said a little uneasily. “Some others. I got orders.”
Billy Kane’s face hardened.
“Orders!” he echoed shortly. “Didn’t I tell you last night that everything else was piker stuff? A half million in rubies, that’s what we’re after—to the limit! Understand? To the limit! Orders! Who gave you any orders except to stick to the game?”
“You know,” said Red Vallon, and pushed a sheet of paper across the table. “Tear it up when you’re through. It’s no good to me any more. I just wanted to show it to you, so’s you’d know I wasn’t side-stepping on my own.”
Billy Kane did not tear it up. His face, still set hard, showed no other signs of emotion, as his eyes studied the paper, but inwardly there came a sort of numbed dismay. It was a code message. It meant nothing to him in one sense, in another it meant a very great deal. He was supposed to know what this jumble of letters signified. Red Vallon expected him to know. To arouse Red Vallon’s suspicion for an instant was simply and literally equivalent to bringing down the underworld upon him—and the underworld would be as gentle and merciful as a pack of starving wolves! The jumble of letters seemed to possess a diabolical leer all their own, as he stared at them.
zidu6vesfuu6fwefwjf8dfsuofnIIohjtopdteop8nbje3ofueobt8v
piutsb7mmpez5bepun4psgnb9esfutnbf4wbiopjubIInspgoj3fiuf
m4p2ntjho6jzbImbuo5bm2qpuu3fhnf4iuuih7jopuoff7xufcu5ih
j3feobf4ojold6pmd3peobu6sfwjeopjd9jqtv2tpuf4np3tfopf4tm
3fov3sf4iufmp2npui5usb3fe4obflb3nn5jiih2vpdqv.
Was it a code that, with the key in one’s possession, one could read at a glance? He did not know. Was it a code that required elaborate and painstaking effort to decipher? He did not know. Did Red Vallon, sitting there across the table watching him, expect him to give instant indication that the code message was plain and intelligible to him? He did not know. There was only one course to take—the middle course. He laid the paper on the table, and laid his clenched fist over the paper, as he leaned farther over, truculently, toward Red Vallon.
“I tell you again that everything else is piker stuff,” he said angrily. “Do you get me? What have you done, you and Birdie, and the rest? Have you got anywhere to-day? Do you know where that secretary guy, Billy Kane, is? Do you know where those rubies are?”
“No,” said Red Vallon hurriedly, “we haven’t turned anything up yet, but——”
“But you’re going to—by nosing around after something else!” snapped Billy Kane. “Do you think I’m going to see the biggest thing that was ever pulled slip through my fingers? If you do, you’ve got another think coming! Things have changed since I’ve been away—eh? How long since there’s been any monkeying with what I dope out?”