He lost no time in getting into touch with Gorilla Dave, who was under arrest at the station house. From him he learned the story of the killing of Collins. One whispered detail of it filled him with malicious glee.
"The boob! He'll go to the death chair sure if I can frame him. We're lucky Bromfield ran back into the little room. Up in front a dozen guys might have seen the whole play even in the dark."
Durand spent the night strengthening the web he had spun to destroy his enemy. He passed to and fro among those who had been arrested in the raid and he arranged the testimony of some of them to suit his case. More than one of the men caught in the dragnet of the police was willing to see the affray from the proper angle in exchange for protection from prosecution.
After breakfast Durand went to the Tombs, where Clay had been transferred at daybreak.
"You needn't bring the fellow here," he told the warden. "I'll go right to his cage and see him. I wantta have a talk with him."
CHAPTER XXXII
MR. LINDSAY RECEIVES
Between two guards Clay climbed the iron steps to an upper tier of cages at the Tombs. He was put into a cell which held two beds, one above the other, as in the cabin of an ocean liner. By the side of the bunks was a narrow space just long enough for a man to take two steps in the same direction.
An unshaven head was lifted in the lower bunk to see why the sleep of its owner was being disturbed.
"I've brought you a cell mate, Shiny," explained one of the guards.
"You want to be civil to him. He's just croaked a friend of yours."