"That's another lie," said he, less vigorously. "You can't scare me. If you have got them, which you haven't, you won't find my name on them." "No; you used your friend Morgan's name, which was a pretty low trick." "Look here, you detective," said Randal blusteringly, "I don't allow no man to abuse me. You can't talk that way to me. All this talk of yours is rot. That's what it is, rot!" [Pg 89] "Look here, Randal. Try to be sensible if you can. I have not yet made up my mind whether you are a scoundrel or a fool. Suppose you tell me the truth about those tickets. It will be safest, I assure you." [Pg 89] Randal looked at the detective and hesitated. Mr. Barnes continued: "There is no use to lie any longer. You were shadowed, and you were seen when you tore up the tickets. The pieces were picked up and put together, and they call for those rings. Don't you see we have you fast unless you can explain how you got the tickets?" "I guess you're givin' it to me straight," said Randal after a long pause. "I guess I better take your advice and let you have it right. One afternoon I saw Morgan hide something in one of the coffins in the shop. He tucked it away under the satin linin'. I was curious, and I looked into it after he'd gone that night. I found the pawn tickets. Of course I didn't know what they were for except that it was rings. But I guessed it was for some stuff he'd stolen from the corpse of somebody. For it was him took the other jewels I told you about, and I seen him with a screw-driver the match to the boss's. So I just slipped the tickets in my pocket thinkin' I'd have a hold on him. Next day I read about this man bein' found in the river, and I stopped to the Morgue, and, just as I thought, his rings was gone. I worried over that for an hour or two, and then I thought I better not [Pg 90] keep the tickets, so I tore them up and threw them away." [Pg 90] "That, you say, was the night after this affair was published in the papers?" "No; it was the same night." "That is to say, the night of that day on which I came here and had a talk with you?"
Prev.
Back
Top