“You bumped off Tim Waldron!” declared Madge. “Do the same to Durgan! He’ll make trouble for you, sure — if he finds out that you’ve been going around with me!
“There’s no use waiting, Cliff. Don’t give him a chance! He’s bumped off plenty of poor guys that way. He’s got it coming to him!
“His gang’s gone blooey — Ernie Shires is the only gunman he’s got now. Ernie don’t rate so high. He didn’t bother you after you knocked off Tim — and Durgan don’t mean any more to Ernie than Tim did!”
The logic in the girl’s speech was unassailable. Tonight — Monday night — Killer Durgan was going forth, unsuspecting of danger, into the bad lands that surrounded the Brooklyn docks. It was Cliff’s chance to settle old scores, and to clear the field that he might have Madge as his own.
Most important of all; Durgan’s proposed death would be attributed to others than Cliff Marsland; for Madge had learned that the Killer intended to make trouble for Bart Hennesy, king of the dock wallopers.
“Durgan’s meeting the truck down by the Hoosier Warehouse,” added Madge. “He’s leaving a car there. He’ll be alone.
“Let them find him when they get there — find him loaded with lead! He won’t be on deck to start the trouble between Hennesy and Larrigan.
“Bart’s had it in for Durgan, you know, ever since Big Ben Hargins was bumped off. Bart thinks Durgan had something to do with it.”
Cliff was silent. He could readily have given Madge the details of Big Ben’s death. The husky dock walloper had never regained consciousness from the blow in Pezzeroni’s.
That stroke, combined with the loss of his men in the New Era Garage, had weakened Bart Hennesy’s rule. He and his remaining lieutenant, “Spunk” Hogan, had been sticking close to the docks.