“I’ll tell you my opinion and my plan,” said Nick. “You know that Helstone’s gang holds its plunder till it shifts its quarters. Then it turns loose upon some ‘fence.’
“When the gang was driven out of East Tenth Street, you remember, its plunder was turned over to old man Abrahams.”
“Yes,” said the inspector, “my men got a tremendous lot of it.”
“The stuff, you will remember,” said Nick, “was all turned in the night before Abrahams’ place was raided.”
“True.”
“And Abrahams maintained that at least a dozen persons had brought it.”
“Yes.”
“Well, I conclude from that that Helstone’s gang does not intrust its plunder to any one person. When it is to be disposed of the whole gang is present.
“There’s no other way of understanding Abrahams’ story which was as near the truth as anything he ever said. It was all right except his descriptions of the men. They were drawn from his imagination.”
“Yes,” assented the inspector, “he was too shrewd to put his customers in quod. He may need them when he gets out himself.”