was the best plan: to find out more and then to send another message.
Leaving the wireless apparatus in place, he went back to the improvised roadway and approached the house. Bingham’s car was still standing there. Everything was silent in the gloom.
Harry circled the house at a distance. A glow appeared at the bottom of a window. The shade had not been fully drawn; the light of a lamp showed through.
Reaching the porch, Harry crept noiselessly forward and peered through the narrow space. The room within was furnished with plain chairs and a table, and was lighted by two oil lamps.
Ezekiel Bingham was seated in one chair by the table; opposite him sat a man whom Vincent did not recognize.
The two men were conversing, but Harry could not hear their words. He tried to follow the motions of their lips, but without success.
This was a vantage point, however, and as the darkness increased, Vincent decided to remain. The longer he stayed the safer would be his position, and the opportunity might arrive to learn something.
Time went by slowly as Harry held his gaze to the window. Then came the chance that he had anticipated.
Bingham’s companion, a short, dark-faced man, with a sharp-pointed mustache, came to the window and raised the shade.
Harry ducked in time. It was now quite dark, fortunately. A grating sound marked the raising of the window. The sound of the man’s footsteps indicated that he was walking back in the room.
Harry raised his head and looked in the window.
“Why open the window?” asked the old lawyer.
“To get some air,” replied the dark man with a curling smile that featured a gold tooth.
“The light will show outside,” protested the lawyer.
“Let it show. Nobody will see it except our men. Nobody else ever comes out here.”
“That’s true. Still, it’s wise to play safe.”
“Yes. When it’s necessary.”
“All right, Tony. It doesn’t matter. The others will be here shortly.”
“They’ll be here by eight, sure. They’ve been waiting for this night. It’s the biggest yet.”
“Yes, and they deserve it. They’ve done some good work in the past. Every one will get his correct percentage, and I can tell you that this will be by far the best.”
The dark-faced man licked his lips in anticipation.
“Well,” he said, “I deserve my share. I pulled the job.”
The old lawyer chuckled.
“Yes,” he said, “you pulled the last part of it - the easiest of all. You’re a great one, Tony, to take credit for the job.”
“Why did you pick me, then?”
“You know why. Because I have you like that.” The lawyer snapped his thumb and forefinger together with an emphatic gesture.
“You’re a wise man, Mr. Bingham,” he said. “You have the goods on everybody. You could make them work for nothing, and they’d have to do it. Instead of that you give every one of us a fair piece of the swag.”
“That’s what counts, Tony.”
“There’s only one thing that gets me, Mr. Bingham. How did you fix Burgess?”
The old lawyer looked suddenly about the room.
“Say nothing about that, Tony,” he ordered. “I only told you because you were afraid of the Laidlow house on account of the murder. I wanted you to be sure that I knew who did it.”
“I know that. I’m keeping quiet, you bet. I just wondered how you fixed a guy like that.”
“I don’t tell my affairs, Tony. But I’ll let you know about this one. You have a right to know, because you went there three nights ago and brought me the box.
“I had been watching Burgess. I knew what he was doing. He had the combination to the safe, but he did not know that it contained the information regarding the place where the gems were kept.
“Knowing what I did about Burgess, that he had been taking money that belonged to his employer, I met him one day and told him that he had only one way out - to work with me. That’s why he did it. The murder was his own idea. He was scared. I helped him out of it. Lucky for him I was waiting outside.”
“How did you know that there was a note in the safe, telling where to find the stuff?”
“You ask too many questions, Tony.”
“All right, chief. I won’t ask any more.”
“Well, I’ll answer the last one, then. I handled a case for Geoffrey Laidlow a few years ago. In discussing his affairs, he mentioned that he was the only man who knew where the jewels were kept, but that he had a message in his safe that would tell the place - only no one would ever be able to puzzle out the message. I think Laidlow forgot that he ever told me that much.”
“But you got the message and doped it out!”
“I learned its secret. That is sufficient.”
Harry could see that Tony would liked to have asked more questions, but the lawyer had leaned back in his chair and had closed his eyes, as though to shut off the questioning.
Tony rose from the chair and walked over to the window.
Harry slipped out of sight. The man in the room began to hum a tune in excellent voice. The melody was close to Harry’s ears and sounded loud, obscuring other sounds.
Then something fell heavily upon Harry’s back. It flattened him against the porch before he could even gasp!
A man had come upon him in the darkness.
With one hand free, Harry struck out at his antagonist. The man grappled in return. Then Tony jumped through the window and joined in the fray.
Harry rolled free and staggered to his feet. Battling in the darkness, his fist landed against a man’s face. The fellow went down upon the porch. It was Tony who had fallen.
Ezekiel Bingham, aroused from his nap, had arrived with the lamp. He was holding it at the window. Its feeble light illuminated the space where Harry was now meeting he who had attacked from behind.
The fellow’s hand was pushing Vincent’s chin upward. Then that hand slipped.
Hooking his wrist behind the man’s neck, Harry gained the winning hold and cast his antagonist to the porch. The effort made Harry lose his balance, but he caught himself against a post, and made ready for the leap to the ground.
Then his triumph ended. Something smashed against the back of his head. Harry turned, half stunned, and was met by a pair of strong fists that rebounded from his face. Tony had come back into the fight. His first blow had been delivered with a piece of wood that he had snatched from where it lay on the ground.
“Good work, Tony,” prompted Bingham. “Come on, Jake. Help him out.”
The man whom Harry had thrown joined his companion.
It was inevitable that Harry should go down under their flailing fists - they were at him from both sides. As he fell, both men jumped on Harry. Under the double pummeling, Harry at length lapsed into unconsciousness.
“Found him here on the porch,” panted Jake as he arose from Harry’s inert form. “Tony and I have fixed him proper. Fetch a rope.”
The old lawyer produced the required article. Harry’s motionless body was trussed in the coils of a long, heavy clothes line, his arms and legs doubled up together.
“Bring him in,” ordered Bingham. “Let me look at him.”
The unconscious man was laid on the floor of the room. The old lawyer held the lamp above his face, which was bleeding and distorted.
“Don’t know him,” declared Bingham tersely. “Never saw him before that I can remember. Put him over there in the corner.”
Jake and Tony obeyed. The motionless body of Harry Vincent was flung without ceremony on the spot that the old lawyer had designated.
CHAPTER XXXII
