“You know the man?”
“I know him!”
“He deserves no mercy?”
“None.”
“He is a disgrace to all the good crooks in the world—a coward and a hypocrite. He has served time—for usury. He got out of San Quentin by squealing on his pals. He is trimming suckers right and left. He makes suicides of widows. He fills the poorhouses. He is within the law—but far guiltier than you or I.”
Fay realized that he faced a very well-informed young woman. He moistened his lips and gazed over the golf-links. No one was within driving distance of the Nineteenth Hole.
“Briefly,” he suggested, “you believe me to be Chester Fay, an old friend of your father’s. You located this Chester Fay through the underworld. You want him to help you turn off a trick on ‘The Black Cougar.’ What would there be in it for him if this trick were successfully turned?”
“One hundred thousand for him and the same for me.”
“How is the goopher protected?”
“By every known electrical device. It is in the back of his office. It consists of three layers of vanadium steel and two layers of fireproofing. The circular door has two dials and a time-lock. The inner door has one dial. The day door has a flat-key lock.”