“Great heavens, what a bluff to try and pull! I think I see you turning any of it in to the creditors! Want to put it in safe-keeping? I guess not. I’m not a fool. Come now, split that cash, fifty-fifty, or—well, it’ll never do you any good. Do you hear, damn it?”
He had raised his voice, his temper out of control. Several men turned to look. A uniformed bank guard, who had been watching, moved over to them.
“Now, gentlemen!” he said.
“I want to rent a safe-deposit box,” said Lang, seizing this opportunity. “Please show me the wicket.”
“You can’t put that across——” began Carroll furiously, then stopped and followed Lang and the porter to the vault office, where he again began to protest. The clerk looked dubiously at the two of them.
“It’s trust money that I want to put away,” Lang explained. “This gentleman here has some claim on it, but I’ve no authority to pay any of it. I’m a customer of this bank. Here’s my card.”
The clerk surveyed them both again—Lang immaculate in a freshly pressed suit and white linen, Carroll still in the faded sweater and shapeless trousers that he had worn through the wreck, wrinkled and stained with sea water. He looked both alarmed and threatening and evil, while Lang had assumed his utmost professional dignity of manner; and appearances carried the day, as usual.
“We can’t refuse to rent boxes,” said the clerk to Carroll. “It’s not our business what’s put into them. If you want to, you can leave your name; and you can get an order from the courts to have the box sealed and your claim adjusted. Please sign this, doctor.”
Lang went back into the vault, and delayed as long as possible in stowing away the twelve thousand dollars, but when he came out Carroll was awaiting him on the steps of the bank. He had calmed his temper, but his voice was hard and menacing.
“Don’t you touch any of that money, Lang,” he said. “Leave it where it is. Don’t think of sending it to Rockett’s creditors. You don’t know what you’re monkeying with. I tell you, it’ll fly up and hit you. You’ve no idea of the inside of this business yet, and don’t you do anything foolish till you get your eyes open.