“That seems logical.”
“Now,” the little man continued warmly, “the smart crooks who don’t get caught didn’t just get that way by accident. They figure everything out, they case all the angles and they don’t take no unnecessary chances. So they don’t get caught, get it.”
“It all seems to follow,” Larry said. “Pray, go on.”
“Okay, chum, listen good. From now on I’m playin’ it smart. I’m casing all the angles. I’m figuring all the details. I’m looking before I leap.”
Larry stood up and smiled.
“I think you are in the wrong pew, Mr. Rafferty. While I am naturally delighted with this ambitious attitude of yours, I fail to see how it concerns me. Possibly you could find a more sympathetic attitude at some reform school, where the inmates would probably be happy to absorb any little trade secrets you could pass along. As for me, I am on the right side of the law and I find my position comfortable. I am not a reformer by nature but I might suggest that you would do well to join me. It makes for better nerves and sounder sleep to know that the gendarmes are not sniffing on your trail. You are at liberty to correct me if gendarmes do not sniff, but it has been my opinion that they do.”
“I ain’t talking just to waste my breath, chum,” Buggy said quietly. “I got a very definite purpose behind this kind of rambling introduction. You and me, chum, is going into a partnership of sorts. I’ve got a little deal lined up and I need you bad.”
“That is going to make your disappointment more acute,” Larry said sadly.
“There ain’t goin’ to be any disappointment,” Buggy said. He was no longer smiling. “That dame that just left here has got a fortune in ice out at her Pineknoll estate.”
“Ice?”
“Ice. Diamonds, to you. She’s got one in particular that’s worth a striptease queen’s ransom. And I’ve had me eye on it for months, but I couldn’t figure any safe way of cracking into her joint. You see I’m figuring all the angles like I said. I’m playing it smart, waiting till I get a foolproof scheme worked out. And I got it now. But I need you, chum.”
“You have been walking in the sun too much and too long, I’m afraid,” Larry said. “What makes you think I’d help you steal Miss Manners’ valuables?”
“This,” Buggy said. He drew out a very large, very ugly looking gun from his pocket.
“My gracious,” Larry said, “you’d have to mount that before you could fire it.”
“I do all right with it in my hand,” Buggy said cheerfully. “Now are you goin’ to be nice, chum?”
“I don’t know,” Larry said truthfully. He thought a moment. “Would you really shoot me with that thing?”
“It would break my heart,” Buggy said, “but that wouldn’t stop me.”
“What do you want me to do?” Larry asked.
“That’s the spirit, chum. I been tailing Miss Manners for weeks trying to figure out an angle to get into her home without creatin’ no suspicions. I was listening outside when she proposed her little deal to you. Now you’re goin’ to have an assistant when you go down to do your little act.”
“But I don’t need an assistant,” Larry said reasonably.
“This time you do,” Buggy corrected him softly. “And said assistant is none other than Buggy Rafferty, late—”
“Of Atlanta and Leavenworth,” Larry finished the sentence with a weary sigh.
“That’s right, chum. That way I get into the house without any one suspecting a thing. I find this hunk of ice, cop it and blow. Before it’s missed I’ll be in South America bein’ a good neighbor to some of them Pampas patooties with plenty of chicken feed to feed the chickens. Now, how does it sound to you?”
“Terrible,” Larry said.
“That’s just an amateur viewpoint,” Buggy said equably. “Anyway, what you think of the idea ain’t so important. All you got to do is cooperate.”
“Supposing I would go immediately to the police and tell them all that you have told me,” Larry said thoughtfully. “What would happen then?”
“A lot of things.” Buggy said cheerfully. “All of them would be unpleasant and all of them would happen to you. But what good would it do you to squeal? Who’d believe you? You got any witnesses?”
“I have an honest face,” Larry said, clutching at straws.
“So have most of the mugs in Alcatraz,” Buggy said, grinning.
Larry sighed despairingly. He looked at the big gun in Buggy’s hand.
“I can’t think with that cannon in my face,” he said moodily. “Sight it on something else, will you?”
Buggy slipped the gun back into his pocket.
“Anything to oblige,” he said. “But don’t forget it’s within easy reach.” Larry thought for several minutes and got nowhere. There was nothing he could do about the situation immediately. The only possible course was to string along with Buggy and hope to turn the tables on him before he went south with the beautiful girl’s diamonds.
And that course wasn’t the best of all possible courses, by a darn sight.
“Okay,” he sighed, “get yourself a social security number. You’re working for me now. And be ready to leave Friday afternoon for Pineknoll.”
“I been packed for weeks,” Buggy grinned. He opened the door. “Don’t do anything foolish, chum. You wouldn’t look nice on a slab.”
“You have a good point there,” Larry said moodily.
The door closed on Buggy Rafferty. Larry sighed. In spite of all his trouble, he still wished he knew who had manipulated those damn puppets!
Chapter III
Colonel Marmaduke Manners’ estate was a vast sprawling affair covering several dozen acres of choice wooded land, replete with formal gardens, elaborate fountains and bird baths.
The home was built on the crest of a sloping hill. Winding lanes led from the road, through avenues of stately trees, and up to the majestic porticos of the house.
Seen for the first time, the home and grounds were an impressive sight.
Larry and Buggy Rafferty were duly impressed.
They were seated in the rear of a shining oak-paneled station wagon which was driven by an elderly Negro, who had been with the colonel’s family for two generations.
Buggy leaned back and sighed expansively.
“Nifty, ain’t it?”
The car was winding through stately parks and gardens that surrounded the colonel’s home, and in the distance the majestic gables of the house were visible above the tops of the trees.
Larry looked distastefully at his companion. Buggy was wearing a wildly designed sports coat over a mauve turtle neck sweater. A mangled cigar jutted from his mouth.
“‘Nifty’ is just the word I was thinking of,” Larry said dryly.
The Negro driver brought the car to a stop at the side door of the palatial home and Buggy and Larry climbed out. Larry had shipped his puppet booth down earlier in the week and he was anxious to find out whether it had arrived safely.
The wide, paneled door opened and Gloria Manners appeared. She smiled a welcome to him. She was wearing a trim sports suit and low-heeled oxfords. Her honey-colored hair was carelessly wind-blown.
Larry sighed. Never in his life had he seen anything more exquisite.
“Hello,” she said. “Your apparatus got here yesterday. I had one of the gardners unpack it and set it up in the sun-room. I hope that was all right.”
“That’s fine,” Larry said. “Saves me a job.”
The girl was looking rather curiously at Buggy, who stood beside Larry twisting a red jockey’s cap in his big hands.
“Oh, this is my helper, Mr. Rafferty,” Larry explained hastily. “I forgot to tell you about him.”
“How do you do?” Gloria said. Her eyes were moving in polite astonishment over the little man’s incredible clothes.