tantaliz (23 page)

"Employ me?" he asked.

"Yes," said Lester Leith. "I have been strolling around here all afternoon looking for a good pickpocket" Tm not a pickpocket," said the man.

Lester Leith paid no attention to the man's protestation of innocence.

"I am," he said, "running a school for young detectives. I want to employ you as an assistant instructor. I have an idea that the ordinary training of police officers and detectives is exceedingly haphazard. I am looking for someone who can give my students an education in picking pockets."

"What's the pay?"

"Well," said Lester Leith, "you can keep the watch that you got from the tall thin man, the scarf-pin which you nipped from the fleshy man, and you can keep the roll of bills which you cut from my trousers pocket In addition to that, you will draw regular compensation of one hundred dollars a day, and if you feel like risking your liberty, you can keep anything which you can pick up on the side."

"How do you mean, 'on the side'?"

"By the practice of your profession, of course," said Lester Leith. The pickpocket stared at him.

This," he said, "is some kind of a smart game to get me to commit myself."

Lester Leith reached to his inside pocket and took out a well-filled wallet He opened the wallet, and the startled eyes of the pickpocket caught sight of a number of one-hundred-dollar bills.

Gravely Lester Leith took out one of these hundred-dollar bills and extended it to the pickpocket

"This,'' he said, "is the first day's salary."

The man took the one-hundred-dollar bill, and his eyes followed the wallet as Lester Leith returned it to his pocket.

"Okay, boss," he said. "What do you want me to do?"

"Just meet me," said Lester Leith, "at certain regular times and places. Your first job will be to meet me here at nine thirty tonight I will write a bunch of instructions on a piece of paper, and put that piece of paper in my coat pocket. You can slip the paper out of the coat pocket and follow instructions. Don't let on that you know me at all, unless I should speak to you first"

The pickpocket nodded.

"Okay," he said. "I'll be here at nine thirty. In the meantime, I'll walk as far as your taxicab with you and talk over details. My name is Sid Bentley. What's yours?"

"Leith," Lester Leith told him.

"Pleased to meet you."

After they had finished shaking hands, Lester Leith started toward the taxicab and Bentley walked on his right side, talking rapidly.

"I don't know how you made me, Leith," he said, "but you can believe it or not, it's the first time I've ever been picked up by anybody. I used to be a sleight-of-hand artist on the stage, and then when business got bad, I decided to go out and start work. I haven't a criminal record and the police haven't got a thing on me."

"That's fine," beamed Lester Leith. "You're exactly the man I want. I'll meet you here at nine thirty, eh, Bentley?"

"Nine thirty it is, Captain."

Lester Leith hailed a taxicab. As it swung into the circle in front of the depot he turned casually to the pickpocket

"By the way, Bentley," he said, "please don't use that knife. You've already ruined one good suit for me."

As Lester Leith spoke, his left hand shot out and clamped around the wrist of the pickpocket The light gleamed on the blade of a razor-like knife with which Bentley had been about to cut Lester Leith's coat

Bentley looked chagrined for a moment, and then sighed. "You said that it'd be all right for me to pick up anything I could on the side, Captain," he protested. Lester Leith grinned.

"Well," he said, "I had better amplify that. You can pick up anything you can on the side, provided you leave my pockets alone."

Bentley matched Lester Leith's grin. "Okay, Captain," he said. "That's a go."

Lester Leith climbed in the taxicab and returned to his apartment

A vision of loveliness greeted him as he opened the door. Dixie Dormley had adorned herself in garments which looked as though they had been tailored to order in the most exclusive shops.

She smiled a welcome to Lester Leith.

"I kept the cost as low as I could," she said, "in order to get the effect that you wanted."

"You certainly got the effect," complimented Lester Leith, staring at her with very evident approval. "Yes, I think you have done very well, indeed, and we will all go to dinner tonight—the four of us. You, Miss Dormley, Mr. Vare, and, Scuttle, I'm going to include you too."

The spy blinked his eyes. "Yes, sir."

"By the way," said Lester Leith, "did you have the imitation ruby made?" The spy nodded.

"It's rather a swell affair," he said, "so far as the ruby is concerned. The gold setting is rather cleverly done too. The jeweller insisted upon doing it in a very soft gold. He said that the Indian gold was very yellow and very soft, without much alloy in it He's duplicated the border design very accurately."

"Quite right, Scuttle," said Lester Leith. "The man knows what he is doing. Let's see it"

The spy handed Lester Leith a little casket, which Leith opened.

The girl exclaimed in admiration.

"Good heavens," she said, "it looks genuine!"

Lester Leith nodded. "It certainly does," he said. "They are able to make excellent imitations of rubies these days."

He lifted the imitation jewel from the case and dropped it carelessly in his side pocket

"All right, Dixie," he said. "If you'll dress for dinner, we'll leave rather early. I have an important appointment at nine thirty. By the way, I don't want either of you to mention to a living soul that this ruby is an imitation."

At dinner that evening Lester Leith was in rare form. He was suave and courteous, acting very much the gentleman, and discharging his duties as host. It was when the dessert had been cleared away that Leith gravely surveyed Harry Vare's countenance.

"Vare," he said, "you have had your first lesson this afternoon. Do you think that you have profited by it?" Vare flushed.

"Ill say one thing," he said, "no pickpocket will ever get near you again as long as I'm around." Lester Leith nodded.

"That's fine," he said. "Now then, I have a rather valuable bauble here that I want to have guarded carefully. I am going to ask you to put it in your pocket."

And Lester Leith slipped from his pocket the imitation ruby and passed it across the table to Vare.

Vare gave a gasp, and his eyes bulged.

"Good heavens," he said, "this is worth a fortune!"

Leith shrugged. "I am making no comments, Vare," he said, "on its value. It is merely something which is entrusted to you for safekeeping, as a part of your training in detective work."

Vare slipped the gem hurriedly into his pocket.

Lester Leith caught the eye of the waiter and secured the check, which he paid.

"I want you folks to take a little walk with me," he said. "Vare is going to have another lesson as a detective, and I would like to have all of you present"

The spy was plainly ill at ease.

"You want me there also, sir?" he asked.

"Certainly," said Lester Leith.

"Very well, sir," said the spy.

Leith helped the young woman on with her wraps, saw that she was seated comfortably in the taxicab, and told the driver to take them to the depot

The spy stared at him curiously.

"You're leaving town, sir?" he asked.

"Oh, no," said Lester Leith. "We're just going down to the depot, and Fm going to walk around the way I did this afternoon. Vare is going to see that my pocket isn't picked."

There was not as large a crowd in the depot at night, and Lester Leith had some difficulty in finding a crowd of sufficient density to suit his purpose. In his side pocket was a note:

"The young man who is following me around has an imitation ruby in his pocket. He is watching me to make certain that no one picks my pocket See if you can get the ruby from him, and after you have, return it to me later."

Bentley, the pickpocket, stood on the outskirts of a crowd of people who were waiting in line at a ticket window, and gave Lester Leith a significant glance. Leith gestured toward his pocket

Leith pushed his way into the crowd, and, as he did so, felt Bentley's fingers slip the printed instructions from his pocket

Thereafter, Lester Leith wandered aimlessly about the depot until suddenly he heard a choked cry from Harry Vare.

Lester Leith turned and retraced his steps to the young man, who was standing with a sickly gray countenance, his eyes filled with despair.

"What is it?" asked Lester Leith.

Vare indicated a gaping cut down the side of his coat and through his vest.

"I put that gem in the inside of my vest," he said, "where I knew that it would be safe from the pickpockets, and look what happened!"

Lester Leith summoned the undercover man.

"Scuttle," he said, "will you notice what has happened? This young man whom I was training to be a detective has allowed the property with which I entrusted him to be stolen."

The valet blinked.

"I didn't see anyone, sir," he said, "and I was keeping my own eye peeled."

"Scuttle," Lester Leith said, "I am going to ask you to take Vare back to his apartment. Let him sit down and meditate carefully for two hours upon everything that happened and every face he saw while he was here at the depot. I want to see if he can possibly identify the man who is guilty of picking his pocket."

Vare said humbly: "I'm afraid, sir, that you picked a poor student."

Lester Leith smiled.

Tut, tut, Vare," he said, "that's something for me to determine. I told you that I was going to give you an education, and I am. You're getting a free scholarship as well as wages. So don't worry about it. Go on to your apartment, and sit down and concentrate."

Vare said: "It certainly is wonderful of you to take the thing this way."

That's all right, Vare."

As the undercover man took Vare's arm and piloted him toward a taxicab, Lester Leith turned to Dixie Dormley with a smile.

"I've got to meet a party here in a few minutes," he said, "and then we can go and dance."

They continued to hang around the depot for fifteen or twenty minutes. Lester Leith began to frown and to consult his wrist watch. Suddenly Sid Bentley, the pickpocket, materialized through one of the doorways and hurried toward them.

"It's okay," he said.

Leith frowned at him.

"You took long enough doing it," he said.

Tm sorry I kept you waiting," Bentley said, "but there was one thing that I had to do. You should have figured it out yourself, Chief."

"What was that?"

"I had to go to a good fence and make sure that the thing I had was an imitation," said Bentley.

"Well," Leith said, "there's nothing like being frank."

That's the way I figure it, Chief," he said. "You know, I've got a duty to you, but I've got a duty to my profession, too. I certainly would have been a dumb hick to have had my hands on a fortune and let it slip."

Lester Leith felt the weight of the jewel in his pocket. He nodded and turned away.

That's all right, Bentley," he said. "You meet me here tomorrow night at seven o'clock, and in the meantime there won't be anything more for you unless I should get in touch with you. Can you give me a telephone number where I can get in touch with you if I should need you?"

The pickpocket reached in his pocket and took out a card.

"Here you are, Chief," he said. "Just ring up that number and leave word that you'll be at some particular place at some particular time. Don't try to talk with me over the telephone. Just leave that message. Then you go to that place, and I'll be hanging around. If the thing looks safe to me, 111 be there. And if I don't hear from you 111 be here tomorrow night at seven."

"Okay," said Leith.

"Dixie," he said, "I've got something for you to do which is rather confidential. I am going to take you to a night club where there's a chap by the name of Bob Lamont He makes this night club his regular hangout He will probably have a companion with him, but, from what I've heard, he has a roving eye. I want you to see to it that his eye roves your way, and that you dance with him. After that, we'll try and make a foursome if we can. If we can't, you can date him up for tomorrow night Think you can do it?"

"Brother," she said, "in these clothes, if I can't stop any roving masculine eye, I'm going out of show business."

Sergeant Arthur Ackley banged upon the door of the apartment Bolts clicked back as Harry Vare opened the door and stared stupidly at Sergeant Ackley.

Sergeant Ackley pushed his way into the apartment without a word, slammed the door shut behind him, strode across the room to a chair, and sat down.

"Well, young man," he said, "you've got yourself into a pretty pickle."

Harry Vare blinked and started to talk, but words failed him.

Sergeant Ackley flipped back his coat so that Harry Vare's eyes could rest on the gold badge pinned to his vest

"Well," he said, "what have you got to say for yourself?"

I—I—I don't know what you're talking about"

"Oh, yes you do," said Sergeant Ackley. "You're teamed up with this super-crook and you're hashing up a scheme to assist in hijacking a big ruby."

Vare shook his head.

"No, sir," he said, "you're mistaken. I had a big ruby which was given to me to keep but somebody stole it."

Sergeant Ackley let his eyes bore into those of Harry Vare. Then he got to his feet, reached out and thrust a broad hand to the collar of Vare's coat, twisting it tightly.

"Well," he said, "It'll be about ten years for you, and you'd better come along."

Vare stared at Sergeant Ackley with pathetic eyes.

"I haven't done anything," he said.

Sergeant Ackley eyed the man shrewdly.

"Listen," he said, "did you ever hear of George Navin?"

"You mean the man who was murdered?" asked Harry Vare.

Ackley nodded.

"I read something about it in the paper," said Vare.

"All right," said Sergeant Ackley. "Navin was murdered for a big Indian ruby: Bob Lamont was his secretary. Does that mean anything to you?"