“No,” said Lannigan, so sharply that his voice rang. “Nick Carter is on the hunt at this minute. Do you know what that means?”
“I suppose it means,” said Seaman, carelessly, “that he’s trying to find out who went into that house during the night.”
“I’ll tell you what it means,” said Lannigan. “It means that the smartest man on earth is right at my heels, and that I’ll be lucky if I get out of town without being nabbed.”
“But——”
“It means that to get for you what will make you big rich, I may have to do time in the cage. And you can bet your bottom dollar that I’m not goin’ to do that for any little thousand casenote, now that I know how much those papers are worth to you and others.”
“Lannigan,” said Elwell, “there’s a side to this that you don’t seem to look at. You are striking so high that the people I represent, and Seaman here, can’t reach it. Now, we will admit for the sake of argument that there are others that will pay well for those drawings, perhaps more than we will pay. But if you go back on the bargain that you entered into, there is no reason why, if we lose the papers, that we should keep our mouths shut about the thefts of those jewels and silver plate. The taking of them was all outside of our bargain.”
“You mean,” said Lannigan, “that you would peach on me?”
“If you go back on your word and your bargain, there is no reason why we should have any friendship for you. This game isn’t all your own.”
There was a moment’s pause in the conversation, and then Lannigan said, in a most threatening tone:
“There are sharp knives and straight-shooting revolvers, and all the undertakers are not dead.”