“You’re a liar,” snarled Billy Bungey.
“Leave this to me, Billy,” ordered Larry peremptorily. He addressed Labar. “I think you are lying myself. If you are not you can depend upon it that they’ll never get me alive. Who will be in charge when they fail to find you?”
The detective shook his head. “That I can’t tell you. I don’t know who will be down from the Yard. But if you think you can bluff them out of this district you’ll be disappointed. They’ll stick. Better make the best of a bad job, Larry.”
“Make no mistake, Labar. You will never live to give evidence against any of us.”
“Then you’ll hang,” retorted the other amiably. “Not only you, Larry, but all of those here.” He raised his voice. “Do you hear me, you people. Some of you may get away with light sentences as it is. But if you let this man—”
A hand was clapped roughly about his mouth and he was forced to his knees. But he had said what he wanted. Desperate though many of those under the sway of Larry Hughes were, not all of them would face with composure the probability of being hanged for murder. There were subdued mutterings and he could distinguish the voices of Mrs. Gertstein and Sophie Lengholm. It was the latter who came forward.
“Don’t be a fool, Larry. The man’s right. It can’t do us any good to kill him. If we’re in the cart, we’re in it.”
Larry swore fiercely at her. “When I want your advice I’ll ask for it.”
The man who held the detective broke in. “He’s got the whole business in hand. Let me do him in. Who’s to know? Whatever they think we can put him somewhere where they’ll never find him. Likely as not things will break down without him. I’m for taking the chance.”
“Sophie’s got the strength of it,” said another voice. “Time enough to croak him if we’re forced to it. As it is we can afford to wait and see what happens. No good risking our necks until we have to.”
“I won’t have any of you swine telling me what to do or what not to do,” declared Larry with cold fury. “I’m the big noise here. If anyone’s got any different ideas about it now’s the time to have it out.” He paused for a moment as if waiting for someone to take up his challenge. It was met with a dead silence. He had reasserted his ascendency. He made a gesture of ineffable contempt. “Huh, you squealing lot of rats. Let that split up, Bill. If he opens his mouth again fetch him one across the jaw.”
As Labar got awkwardly to his feet Larry wheeled upon him. “And you, you big spawn, I mean what I say. All the chance that you’ve got is that we get clear away. So put your thinking cap on.”
“That’s the stuff,” ejaculated Bill Bungey, “I’m with you.” He poked a forefinger stiffly into Labar’s ribs. “O-u-t spells out and out you go.”
Larry’s burst of temper cooled down. He was in perfect possession of himself when next he spoke. “I’m going to call your bluff, Labar. I’m going to see if your people have blocked every way out. You’d better hope for your own sake that they haven’t. Come on Tom—and you Billy. The rest of you keep an eye on this man.”
He crept away accompanied by the two men he had designated farther along the tunnel. By straining his ears Labar heard another steel door creak back. Apparently the tunnel towards its seaward end was also guarded.
Larry and his two companions guided by the gleam of an electric torch moved swiftly along the damp tunnel. The leader was thoughtful.
“Billy,” he said, “I’m not sure that we haven’t overplayed our hand. If that fellow’s telling the truth we’re booked for trouble.”
“I begin to wish we hadn’t snaffled him,” said Billy. “He might not have run across that panel. If he’d overlooked it we were OK. We’d simply have had to wait till they made up their minds we had cleared off.”
“I know the breed,” retorted Larry with a shake of his head. “Once he got the idea in his head he was bound to go on with it. Some of these Johns may not have any brains, but they stick to an idea. He’d have pulled the house down to make sure. We may not be out of the wood, but we’ve got a breathing spell.”
Billy grunted uncertainly and Larry emitted a sharp order for quiet beneath his breath. The tunnel was rising at a sharp angle and narrowed so rapidly that they were compelled to take single file and crawl. Rough timbers supported the top for the last twenty yards or so and then for about the length of a man the way finished in an acute angle of about forty-five degrees. Larry, who was leading, stretched himself at full length and, stealthily withdrawing some bolts, raised a trapdoor of about two feet square a matter of inches, and peered without. Satisfied with his preliminary scrutiny he pushed the trap higher and crawled to the outer air.
He emerged into a depression in a waste of shingle sheltered by a high bank which shut off the sea. Stooping low he clambered up the bank, and laying on his stomach scrutinised the surroundings. A couple of hundred yards away the sea lapped monotonously on a lonely shore. Far out at sea there were one or two ships obviously on their lawful occasions. Nearer in there was a fleet of fishing boats. On the dim horizon something that had been at first obscured by the sail of one of the smacks came into Larry’s angle of vision. He uttered a low curse as he recognised the silhouette of a destroyer. If Labar had been speaking the truth in that particular he might have done so in others.
His gaze swung to the beach. Far as he could see that
