“Perhaps you would like to destroy this—for safety’s sake,” she observed complacently.
He took the paper mechanically, and mechanically tore it up.
“I do not know the Mole personally”—she was speaking almost more to herself than to him, as though feeling her way cautiously along a tortuous mental path—“I only know him as an exceedingly clever scoundrel, and as the head of a small, but very select, band of criminals. He is a sort of competitor of yours, I believe, and more than once has had the temerity to act as a thorn in the side of your own rapacious and diabolical crime trust. But I do know that this Vetter is an honest old man. It would be too bad”—her voice, still low, was suddenly vibrant with a significance that there was no mistaking—“if Vetter should lose his diamonds, wouldn’t it, Bundy?”
The spiral of cigarette smoke again occupied Billy Kane. It was quite true that his mind was already made up; but for the moment he was the Rat, and the Rat would not be likely to accede to her suggestion with any overwhelming degree of complacency.
“You are a little inconsistent, aren’t you?” he inquired sarcastically. “If you are so anxious to prevent this crime, why don’t you warn the police?”
“You can put down my inconsistency to the frailty of my sex again, if you like,” she answered quickly. “But you know quite well why. And, besides, one Bundy Morgan, having more at stake than the police, is more likely to accomplish the task successfully. Yes—Bundy?”
“But this isn’t my hunt!” he protested, with a snarl. “I can’t stop all the crimes in the world! This isn’t my crowd! I’m not responsible for the Mole. I don’t know his plans. How can I put the crimp in them? The game is to let the Mole go ahead, isn’t it, and then Red Vallon is to grab the chestnuts out of the Mole’s pocket? Well, that’s all right! But suppose I butt in, and, knowing nothing about the Mole’s plans, fall down, and he gets away with the goods, and is too sharp for Red Vallon so that I can’t even get the loot away from Red—am I responsible?”
“I’m not unreasonable,” she said—and smiled. “There is a good deal of truth in what you say. But there is a way to provide against both contingencies.”
The snarl was still in his voice.
“What is it?” he demanded.