The man snapped to quick attention as he felt the touch of Lester Leith’s finger. His right hand started toward his left coat lapel.
Lester Leith said easily, “You’re Mainwaring’s chauffeur?”
The man’s thin, hatchet face was without expression as he said, from one side of his mouth, “What’s it to you?” His right hand was held hovering over the left coat lapel.
“I have the cane that Mainwaring ordered,” Lester Leith said. “He told me to deliver it to you, and to show you the secret compartment.”
“Secret compartment?” Deekin said. “Say, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Leith said: “Well, I don’t give a damn whether you do or not. You don’t need to be so short about it. I’m a working man, same as you are, and a damn good cane maker. I’m carrying out instructions, that’s all. Now, here’s the cane for Mainwaring. You tell him when he wants to get at the hidden receptacle, all he has to do is unscrew the top.”
“What does he want a receptacle in a cane for?” Deekin asked, his voice more friendly.
Lester Leith smirked and said: “Probably to carry liver pills in. How the hell do I know? I have about a dozen clients who give me orders like this, and I’m paid enough to keep my mouth shut. Do you understand?”
Slow comprehension began to dawn on Deekin’s face. The right hand which had been hovering near his chest moved away to rest on the steering wheel.
“What’s this about unscrewing the head of the cane?” he asked.
Leith said, “Let me show you.”
With deft fingers, he unscrewed the head of the cane, showed a cotton-lined receptacle on the interior. He pushed two fingers down into the cavity to show its depth. “There you are,” he said. “Four and a half inches deep as ordered, and I defy anyone to look at this cane and tell that there’s anything phony about it. Here it is.”
“What’s that other cane you’ve got?” Deekin asked.
“One I’m delivering to another customer,” Leith told him.
“Say, what do you want me to do with this?”
“Just give it to Mr. Mainwaring, that’s all,” Leith said. “It’s all paid for. Mainwaring will understand. He told me to be at the Explorers’ Club, but not to ask for him, that his car would be waiting outside, and I was to leave the cane with his chauffeur. Don’t be so damn dumb.”
“I’m not so damn dumb,” Deekin said, inspecting the cane with approval. “Say, buddy,” with increasing friendliness, “that’s a neat job.”
“You’re damn right it’s a neat job,” Leith said. “You ain’t telling me anything... Say, I wonder if Mainwaring is interested in knowing that they’ve caught the guy that robbed him.”
“What do ya mean, robbed him?” Deekin asked.
Leith laughed scornfully. “I wasn’t born yesterday,” he said. “That story about the priests of Hanuman who showed up to avenge the monkey-deserter from the temple is a lot of hooey that might go with some people, but you can save your breath as far as I’m concerned. They cut that monkey open to get at the smuggled gems. If your boss had had this cane with him, they wouldn’t— Oh, well, never mind.”
“What’s this about catching the robber?” Deekin demanded.
“Well, they’ve just as good as caught him,” Leith said. “They found out he wasn’t a fat man at all. That was just a disguise. The guy stole a car just to pull the stickup, then he ran the car down to the Ninety-third Street Station, went in the men’s room and took off his clothes. He had a specially constructed rubber-lined suit. All he had to do was put an air hose on it and blow it up so he looked as though he weighed about three hundred pounds. He stuck that suit in the suitcase, bought a railroad ticket to Beacon City, and checked the suitcase on the ticket. He figured no one would pay any attention to it there, and he’d have a chance to pick it up sometime later.”
“Say, how about this?” Deekin interrupted. “Who did it?”
“I don’t know who did it. I heard this other stuff come in over the radio just a little while ago,” Leith said, “and I thought Mainwaring would probably be interested.”
“How long ago?” the chauffeur asked.
“Oh, I don’t know; ten or fifteen minutes ago. The police said they were working on some hot clues and expected an arrest to be made before midnight. You know how it is, the news announcers don’t hand out too much information over the radio in a crime like that until the police tell them it’s O.K. to release it. Well, buddy, I’ve got to be going. Be sure Mainwaring gets this cane. So long.”
“So long,” Deekin said.
Lester Leith walked down the street, swinging the other cane behind him.
The chauffeur mopped cold perspiration from his forehead. He looked apprehensively up at the Explorers’ Club, then apparently seized with a sudden inspiration, jumped out of the car, pulled up the front seat, and attacked the body of the automobile with a screwdriver. A few moments later, he had lifted up a cleverly concealed plate and removed two blazing green stones from a hidden receptacle. He unscrewed the head of the cane, dropped the two emeralds into the cotton-lined hollow, and screwed the head of the cane back on. He replaced the front seat in the automobile, jumped out, and started walking rapidly toward the corner, swinging the cane casually in his hand.
He heard running steps behind him.
“Hey,” Lester Leith called. “I’ve made a mistake in that cane.”
Deekin stopped, bracing himself ominously. His right hand once more sought the vicinity of his necktie.
Leith, drawing closer, said, “Gosh, I entirely forgot about the difference in length. The colonel is a long-legged guy, and the long cane is for him. I think I gave you the long cane, instead of the short one.”
Deekin said ominously, “Well, what you think, don’t count. I think this is the cane that Mainwaring wanted.”
“By gosh,” Leith said, with relief in his voice, “I guess you’re right. That is the short cane after all.”
Deekin clutched the cane firmly in his left hand, but appeared somewhat mollified as Leith made the announcement.
“Just a minute,” Leith said; “let’s measure them, just to be sure.”
Still holding his cane firmly in his left hand, his right hand ready to dive under the lapel of his coat, Deekin stood perfectly still while Leith compared the canes. The one which Leith was holding was a full inch longer than the other.
Leith heaved a sigh.
“By gosh,” he said, “I didn’t realize that I was as long-legged as I am. You know, after I left you and started out to deliver this cane to the colonel, I swung it around a couple of times and damned if it didn’t almost fit me. So then I got scared and—”
“Well, it’s all right now,” Deekin said.
“I’ll say it is,” Leith told him, twisting the ferrule of the cane in his gloved hands as though to polish it. “What were you doing, taking a walk?”
“Yes,” Deekin said shortly.
“Well,” Leith told him, “I’ll go with you as far as the corner.”
Deekin hesitated a moment, then said shortly, “All right, as far as the corner.”
The two men walked side by side. Lester Leith took out his handkerchief and polished the glass surface of the cane which he held in his hand.
Deekin, after a hundred feet, surreptitiously turned to cast an apprehensive glance over his shoulder.
At that moment, Lester Leith shoved his cane down and to the left. It caught in between Deekin’s legs just as the chauffeur was taking a long step forward.
The cane was wrenched free from Leith’s grasp. Deekin fell heavily forward, losing the grip on his own cane. At the same time, an ugly blue-steel automatic shot from its holster under his left armpit and slid for a foot or two along the sidewalk.