“Say, look here!” Horton showed traces of alarm. “I told you in confidence, old scout! For the love of Pete, don’t mention it! It would mean my job if the company heard that I had been flashing the payroll! They must never get onto it that I stopped off in town; no one must know! You’ll keep it a secret that you met me?”
“Of course.” Storm nodded. “You don’t know how well I can keep a secret, Jack!”
“You’re the only living soul who knows where I am this minute!” The other chuckled, reassured. “Not that I’ll be missed for these few hours. The company don’t check me up on time nor keep tabs on me; they know I’m honest, and the money is as safe in my care as though it were still in the bank.”
“The only living soul who knows where I am!” The words rang in Storm’s ears with the insistence of a tolling bell, and a tremendous, sinister idea was born. Nothing stood between him and the money there before his eyes, within reach of his hand, but this cocksure fathead! If he could get it away from him, secretly, without the other’s knowing——But that was impossible! The fool knew his business too well to be tricked; he had learned it in the roughest, wildest parts of the country, and here they were in the midst of the crowded city, where a single outcry would bring immediate investigation. Jack Horton would guard that bag while he lived. While he lived!
“No one will ever learn from me that I saw you to-night,” Storm said slowly. “You needn’t worry about that.”
Horton nodded.
“Knew I could trust you, old scout! You know, now that I’m here, though, I’m damned if I wouldn’t like to telephone a certain party.” He turned speculative eyes on the instrument on the desk. “She needn’t know where the call came from; I could tell her I was in Trenton or Scranton or Altoona, and she wouldn’t get me in a million years. I’d kind of like to hear her voice——”
“You’re crazy!” Storm interrupted in rough haste. “This wire is listed! Don’t you know a call can be traced? Suppose this woman, whoever she is, thinks of something else she wants to tell you after you have rung off, and gets Central to call you back on the wire? It isn’t always possible for them to do it, but they have been known to. It is nothing to me, of course, but you know how women talk; if you want her to know that you spent the evening here in town——”
“Not on your life, I don’t!” ejaculated Horton. “She’s all right; greatest little kid in the world, but I’m not giving anybody anything on me; especially when I’m in charge of the company’s money.”
Storm nodded acquiescence. No plan was as yet forming itself in his mind, but the sinister idea was becoming a resolution. He must have that money! Fate, after robbing him of his own, had replaced it twofold within his grasp. If Horton would not surrender it—and that was not worth considering—then Horton must be eliminated. He had done it once and gotten away with it; why not again? But he must feel his way carefully, he must learn just where Horton stood, what his ties were. He must know from what quarter to expect inquiries if—he tried to say it to himself calmly, but his senses reeled at the immensity of it—if Horton disappeared.