town that night I take a thousand that Granworth had in the drawer of this desk an' I graft the watchman to keep his trap shut. I thought then that Granworth had bumped himself off an' I didn't see why she should be brought into it. He'd caused her enough trouble anyway.
'All right. Everything works out swell an' the inquest finishes an' that's that. But a few months afterwards you come along an' you say that Mrs Aymes has tried to pass a phoney bond down at the bank at Palm Springs. You ask me a lotta questions before I have time to think this thing out, so I give you the same story as I handed out to the coroner at the inquest. But after you went I got down an' I did a little thinkin'. I knew durn well that the bonds that Granworth's lawyer handed over to Henrietta Aymes was the real stuff. They was got outa Granworth's safe deposit where they had been kept. I started thinkin' that if she had tried to pass a phoney bond then she musta got it from somewhere an' knew it was phoney.
'Another thing. I looked in the drawer of this desk where Granworth had put those three letters. They was gone, an' I remembered that when she came down from Connecticut after the inquest I found her at this desk one day. I begin to get a screwy idea in my head. I get the idea that maybe I have been a mug, that maybe she did bump Granworth after all; that she was the woman the nightwatchman saw, an' that's why she wanted the letters.
'Well, I may have sympathised with her in the first place, but I don't hold with murder an' I began to get a bit uncomfortable. Especially with you muscim' around because you have got a hot reputation, Mr Caution, an' I start wonderin' what is goin' to happen to me if you find out the truth. I was right here because the first thing you do is to go an' grill the truth outa the watchman, although I didn't know that at the time.
'So I sit down at the typewriter an' I send you that letter, without any signature, because I work it out that way. If you get down to Palm Springs an' get them letters, well you can do what you like about it. If you think she bumped Granworth you can set out to pin it on her, or you can leave it alone, just as you think. I thought that you might not worry about who wrote the letter providin' you got the information, an' I also thought that if you did pin that letter on me I would come across with the whole works. Well, there it is. That's how it was, an' I'm sorry if I've caused you any trouble by bein' a mug an' not tellin' the truth first go off.'
I get up an' I hold out my hand.
'Fine, Burdell,' I tell him. 'I reckon you're a wise guy to come clean. I'm beginning to think that this Henrietta bumped Granworth all right, an' if she did, well she'll have to fry for it.
He shakes hands with me an' I scram.
I say so- long to the dame with the french heels outside, an' I take the elevator down. I ease along pretty quick to the caretaker's office on 'the entrance floor an' flash my badge an' grab the telephone. I get chief operator at the telephone exchange.
I tell the chief operator who I am an' I also tell him that I have just left Burdell's office an' that I have got an idea that Burdell will be puttin' a long-distance call through to somebody at Palm Springs pretty quick. I say that they are to listen in to that call an' take a note of it an' who the guy is at the other end who takes it. I say that they are to keep this shorthand note for me to call for an' that they can check up on my authority in the meantime.
The chief operator says OK.
I then go back to my hotel an' give myself a swell cigar. First of all it is quite plain to me that this second story of Burdell's is not so hot either. I'll tell you why.
Supposin' he did know that Henrietta had taken the letters outa the desk drawer because they proved she'd seen Granworth on the night he died. Well, wouldn't it have been sensible for Burdell to think that she took 'em to destroy 'em, not to carry 'em about with her? How did be know they was at Palm Springs? There's only one way he coulda been certain of that an' that was if somebody dovin at Palm Springs had told him that she still had 'em an' had 'em in the rancho where she was stayin'.
So I reckon that after I have got out of his office he is goin' to telephone through to this guy an' say that I have blown in an' tell him that I have fallen for this story an' that everything is OK, an' that the job has been played the way this Burdell bird wants it played.
An' this brings me to another little thing. What about that picture of me cut out of the Chicago Times an' sent down to somebody at the Hacienda Altmira at Palm Springs? Don't it look like Burdell sent that too? An' the reason he sends it is easy. When he has sent me the anonymous letter he knows I will scram out to Palm Springs so he gets 'em good an' ready for me. He searches around until he finds a newspaper that has gotta picture of me in it an' he cuts it out, writes 'this is the guy' on it, an' sends it down to the Hacienda.
An' this Burdell bird is goin' to slip up plenty in a minute. Mind you, the guy has got brains - plenty brains. He knows that I can figure out that it was him that wrote the anonymous letter to me, an' St he has a swell story all ready for me when I blow in; but what he don't know is that I am wise to that picture business, an' that is just where he is goin' to slip up.
I reckon that you will agree that this bezusus is gettin' good an' interestin'. It is beginnin' to get me interested-almost!
I stick around till it is six o'clock, an' then I get another idea. I think that I will ring through to the New York 'G' Office an' ask 'em if they have despatched them pictures of the Aymes' servants, the butler, the chauffeur an' the maid, that they was goin' to send to me at Palm Springs. I am lucky. They tell me that they have sent off one lot but they have got a duplicate set an' they fix to send these around to me at the hotel. I also ask 'em to send somebody around to the main exchange office an' see if they have gotta transcript of the shorthand notes of any telephone conversation that Burdell has had since I went outa the office, an' they say they will do this.
After which I give myself another shower to pass the time an' change into a tuxedo just so's I can feel civilised for one night anyhow.
At seven o'clock things begin to happen. An agent comes round from the 'G' Office with a note of a conversation that Burdell has had with Palm Springs. He leaves this an' he leaves the packet of duplicate pictures an' after he has had a little rye with me he goes. I read the note of the Burdell conversation, and do I get one big kick outa it. Here it is:
New York Central Exchange Time: 5.24 pm
Report of long-distance telephone conversation from office of Langdon Burdell Central 174325 and Hacienda Altmira, Palm Springs, Calif.
Call from Burdell Office 5.24
Burdell Office: - Hello. Long-distance call please. This is Central 174325, office of Langdon Burdell, calling Palm Springs 674356.
Operator: - You are Central 174325 Langdon Burdell calling Palm Springs, California. Palm Springs 674356. Hang up please I will call you.
Time: 5.32
Operator: - Hello, Central 174325. Here is your Palm Springs number. Take your call please.
Burdell Office: - Hello, hello, Hacienda Altmira?
Hacienda: - Yes, who are you? What do you want?
Burdell Office: -This is Langdon Burdell. Is Ferdie there?
Hacienda: - Sure. I'll get him. How you makin' out, Lang-don? Hang on, I'll get Ferdie.
Hacienda: - Hello, Langdon?
Burdell Office: - Is this you, Ferdie?
Hacienda: - You betcha. What do you know?
Burdell Office: - Listen kid. Get an earful of this an' don't make any mistakes. Are you listenin'? OK. Well, this afternoon this goddam Caution comes bustin' around here askin' plenty questions. He has fell for this business an' he is on to me for writin' the anonymous letter to him an' startin' him off after the letters at Palm Springs. I tell him the works. I tell him how I tried to cover up for the Aymes dame until this counterfeitin' business starts an' then I get a screwy idea that after all she has probably bumped Granworth an' that I do not want to be a party to a murder rap so I am cashin' in with the truth. The big mug listens with his ears flappin' an' then shakes me by the hand an' scrams. I have also wised him up to the fact that the original bonds that was given to Henrietta was OK an' that she musta got the phoney ones herself. Now listen, Ferdie, I reckon that he is comm' back to Palm Springs plenty quick an' that he is lyin' to pinch Henrietta just as soon as he can get his hooks on her. Because if he can pin the murder thing on her an' she gets the chair, the Feds are goin' to take it for granted that she pulled the counterfeitin' too because that will be the easiest way to close the case down. You got all that?
Hacienda: - Swell, Lan gdon. Okie doke. An' 1 play it the way we said.
