“You’ll have to give them up anyway, you know. Miss Morrison can identify them. So can I. You don’t want to be arrested, I take it?”
“And how will Doctor Lang like having his part brought to light?” Carroll inquired ironically. “Burglary. Gambling with Morrison’s stock.”
“What I did was under Morrison’s orders. His daughter will testify to that. She’ll back up everything I say. I told her you’d probably refuse her offer, and she agreed to go the length of one thousand dollars, but that’s the limit. I advised calling the police at once.”
“Never in my life did I see a shark like you, Lang,” said Carroll earnestly. “I show you how to make ten thousand dollars and you hog it all. I tell you where you can make maybe a million, and now you try to hog that, too. I thought doctors were supposed to be an unselfish class! Now I tell you, you can’t hog this. I’ve told you my terms—one-third shares. Otherwise I’ll take it all. You can’t do anything without what I’ve got. But if you insist on cutting your own throat, why, go to it.”
“Well, you can consider whether your record will stand police investigation,” said Lang. “I’ve given you our terms, too. Will you make an offer, if they don’t suit?”
“I’ve told you—a third of the haul. You won’t consider that? Then do go away; you’re spoiling my breakfast.”
As he went, Lang was doubtful whether he had been diplomatic enough. He was unaccustomed to negotiations with criminals, and to big bluffs. It was really a bluff; the police could hardly recover what Carroll chose to hide; but he still expected the adventurer to come to terms. And then a consideration flashed upon him which he had overlooked entirely.
Carroll undoubtedly would have all the photos and other matter copied before he sold them. Thus he could sell them and still keep them.
Even so, however, Carroll would be badly handicapped by lack of capital. If it came to a race Lang felt confident that he could win. But this new consideration made him sure that, within twenty-four hours, Carroll would come to sell.
Going to the bank, he took out ten thousand dollars from the vault and deposited it in Eva Morrison’s name, reserving two thousand dollars for possible emergencies. He called at the public library, secured a large atlas and studied with some apprehension the tangle of islands and channels belting the south Chilean coast, and later he asked for Miss Morrison at the Iberville.