“The indictment charges you with burglary and attempted murder, and if you will remember you never stood trial for it,” the detective said.
“I had forgotten all about it, and would not have been around with that gang from Astoria if I hadn’t.”
“Then you are, or have been, associated with that gang, have you?” asked Nick.
“I have done some work for them, but I have kept out of such things as would lead me to the penitentiary.”
“From whom did you get your orders? Was it from Jack Weeden?”
“No, I never saw Weeden. I got my orders through a man that perhaps you never saw. His name is Hall.”
“It seems to me that I have heard that name before,” commented Nick. “He is the leader of a gang that has been making the trouble over in Astoria, I believe?”
“Well, he has been given credit for having done some things over there that perhaps are not exactly on the level, but he is not the man that you are after, I am sure.”
“Who is the man that you think that we are after?” asked the inspector.
“Oh, I think that you are after the fellow that may be one man, and then again he may be another man. You know that you can’t always tell who a man is by looking at him once; he may be a business man, or a common scoundrel. I have known of people that looked like one man, and the next instant they were identified as somebody else.”