Room 13 quotes

At four o’clock the working-party fell in and marched or shuffled down the narrow road to the prison gates.

Johnny looked up and winked at the grim jest, and he had the illusion that the archway winked back at him.

At half-past four he turned into the deep-recessed doorway of his cell, and the yellow door closed on him with a metallic snap of a lock.

That was the worst exercise of all. He crossed the cell and took down the photograph. The mount had worn limp with much handling, and he looked with a half-smile into the big eyes of the terrier.

“It is a pity you can’t write, old Spot,” he said.

Other people could write, and did, he thought as he replaced the photograph. But Peter Kane never once mentioned Marney, and Marney had not written since … a long time. It was ominous, informative, in some ways decisive.

Marney to be married! His face was white, tense, his eyes dark with gloom. He stopped and poured out a mugful of water with a hand that shook, then raised the glass to the barred window that looked eastward.

“Good luck to you, Marney!” he said huskily, and drank the mug empty.

“It would be a very great liberty, sir,” he said.

“Not so great a liberty as I have had taken with me during the past year and nine months,” said Johnny.

As the cab came out into dismal Chapel Street, the greatly daring Parker asked:

“It has not been pleasant, Parker. Prisons seldom are.”

“I suppose not, sir,” agreed Parker, and added unnecessarily: “I have never been in prison, sir.”

Johnny’s flat was in Queen’s Gate, and at the sight of the peaceful luxury of his study he caught his breath.

I’ll tell him in a minute. He’s all right. All beans and bacon about the girl. That fellow adores the ground she walks on. It’s not natural, being fond of your kids like that. I never was.” He shook his head despairingly. “

There’s too much lovey-dovey and not enough strap nowadays. Spare the rod and spoil the child, as the good old poet says.

”

“He’s a liar,” said Peter calmly. “I wouldn’t shop my worst enemy. He shopped himself. Johnny, the police get a reputation for smartness, but the truth is, every other criminal arrests himself.

Criminals aren’t clever. They wear gloves to hide fingerprints, and then write their names in the visitors book.

Legge and I smashed the strongroom of the Orsonic and got away with a hundred and twenty thousand pounds in American currency—it was the last job I did. It was dead easy getting away, but Emanuel started boasting what a clever fellow he was;

It was dead easy getting away, but Emanuel started boasting what a clever fellow he was; and he drank a bit.

An honest man can drink and wake up in his own bed. But a crook who drinks says good morning to the gaoler.

”

“He’s a liar,” said Peter calmly. “I wouldn’t shop my worst enemy. He shopped himself.

Johnny, the police get a reputation for smartness, but the truth is, every other criminal arrests himself.

Criminals aren’t clever. They wear gloves to hide fingerprints, and then write their names in the visitors book.

“No, thanks. I’ve got out of the habit—you do in fifteen years. You can get into some, too.

Fifteen years is a long time out of a life.

”

“It is very likely,” said the other. “

Convicts invest their heroes and enemies with extraordinary gifts and qualities.

I only know what I have been told. At Dartmoor they say Reeder knows everything. The Government gave him carte blanche to find the Big Printer—”

“Peter’s got old Barney still—keeping honest, Barney?”

“I’m naturally that way,” said Barney sotto voce. “It’s not meeting policemen that keeps me straight.”

The hard features of the detective relaxed.

“What sort of time did you have—in the country?” asked Craig, and his companion grinned.

“Wonderful! My bedroom wanted papering, but the service was quite good.”

“Ah well, we live and learn,” he said heavily. “I was sorry about it, Johnny, very sorry. It’s a misfortune, but there’s no use grieving about it. You were one of the unlucky ones.

“We’re both men of the world,” interrupted the detective imploringly.

“Yes,” said Johnny Gray, “but not the same world, Craig.”

One last despairing effort the detective made, though he knew that, in angling for a squeak, he might as well have tried Peter himself.

“I promised Lila …” began the other, hesitant.

“Promise your Aunt Rebecca Jane!” Emanuel almost screamed.

“Lila! That trash, and you the big man, too—what are ye running? A girls’ refuge society? Get!”

The razor-pointed rapier flickered from face to face, and the men stumbled back, getting into one another’s way. One of the men felt something wet on his cheek, and put up his hand. When it came down it was wet and red.

“Beast, you have my brand!” said Johnny with deadly pleasantry. “Come when I call you.”

He clicked the sword back in its wooden sheath and strode away. His indifference, his immense superiority, was almost as tremendously impressive as his cold toleration.

“You mean you was boozed?” said the man. “You can trust me.”

The angel who drove him to London was not a talkative angel.

Beyond expressing the wish that something drastic had happened to him before he went racing, and the advancement of his view that all racing was crooked and all jockeys thieves, he contributed little to the entertainment of his passenger, and the passenger was glad.

Fortunately, a warder had seen the act, and his shout saved the intended victim from mutilation. The assailant had only one excuse. The man he had attacked had slighted him in some way.

In the hearts of these men lived a cold beast.

Johnny often pictured it, an obscene shape with pale, lidless eyes and a straight slit of a mouth.

In the hearts of these men lived a cold beast.

Johnny often pictured it, an obscene shape with pale, lidless eyes and a straight slit of a mouth.

He had seen the beast staring at him from a hundred distorted faces, had heard its voice, had seen its hatefulness expressed in actions that he shivered to recall. Something of the beast had saturated into his own soul.

She sat down and covered her face with her hands, and Jeffrey, watching her, thought at first that she was crying. When she raised her face, her eyes were dry. And, more extraordinary to him, the fear that he had seen was no longer there.

“Johnny will kill you,” she said simply.

“He wouldn’t let me go … like that … if he knew. It isn’t reasonable to suppose that he would, is it?”

He was too old a criminal to be under any illusions. Sooner or later, the net of the law would close upon Jeffrey, and the immunity which he at present enjoyed would be at an end.

To every graft came its inevitable lagging.

Emanuel, wise in his generation, had decided upon taking the boldest step of his career. And that he did so was not flattering to the administration of justice; nor could it be regarded as a tribute to the integrity of the police.

Emanuel had “straightened” many a young detective, and not a few advanced in years. He knew the art of “dropping” to perfection. In all his life he had only met three or four men who were superior to the well-camouflaged bribe.

A hundred here and there makes things easier for the big crook; a thousand will keep him out of the limelight; but, once the light is on him, not a million can disturb the inevitable march of justice.

Emanuel was working in the pre-limelight stage, and hoped for success.

Legge; or your dear boy may have given you another three thousand as a sort of wedding present—I forgot, though, a bridegroom doesn’t give wedding presents, does he? He receives them. How foolish of me!

Put away your money, Mr. Legge. This room is very draughty, and it might catch cold.

Do you ever go to the Hilly Fields? It is a delightful spot. You must come to tea with me one Sunday, and we will go up and hear the band. It is a very inexpensive but satisfactory method of spending two hours.

“

Parker, do not let us discuss my general shabbiness. I didn’t even know I had a hat of French shape.

” He took off his hat and looked at it critically. “It is a much better shape than the hat I was wearing a week ago, Parker, believe me!”

“Barney,” said Peter. “He has a distressing habit of wearing slippers. You can hear him miles away. He’s opening the door to somebody—one of your people, perhaps. Or he’s taking your chauffeur a drink.

Barney has an enormous admiration for chauffeurs. They represent mechanical genius to him.

”

“But who was it went to your flat?” asked the bewildered Craig.

“My double. I’ve always contended that I have a double,” said Johnny serenely.

He stood in the centre of the astounded group. Into Marney’s heart had crept a wild hope.

Craig hung up the receiver and turned away from the instrument, shaking his head.

“Any other alibi would have hanged you, Johnny. But Flaherty’s the straightest man in the C.I.D.”

In view of what followed when Johnny reached his flat in the early hours of the morning, this testimony to the integrity of Inspector Flaherty seemed a little misguided.

All that Bill Sikes and Nancy stuff never did impress me. I’m no clinger. If you got really rough with me, I’d bat you, and that’s a fact. It may not be womanly, but it’s wise.

I never did believe in the equality of the sexes, but no girl is the weaker vessel if she gets first grip of the kitchen poker.

”

It may be a foolish kindness, because, born and reared in captivity, it may not have the necessary qualities to support itself amongst its wilder fellows. But

I like letting rabbits loose; other people like putting rabbits in cages.

” He shook his finger in Jeffrey’s face. “Never be a rabbit in a cage, Mr. Jeffrey—or is it Mr. Legge? Yes, Mr. Legge.”

But I like letting rabbits loose; other people like putting rabbits in cages.” He shook his finger in Jeffrey’s face. “Never be a rabbit in a cage, Mr. Jeffrey—or is it Mr. Legge? Yes, Mr. Legge.”

“I am neither a rabbit, nor a chicken, nor a fox, nor a skylark,” said Jeffrey. “The cage hasn’t been built that could hold me.”

“I remember another gentleman saying that some years ago. I forget in what prison he was hanged. Possibly it was Wandsworth—yes, I am sure it was Wandsworth. I saw his grave the other day. Just his initials. What a pity!

“His treble perhaps,” murmured the other. “Who knows?

Humanity resembles, to a very great extent, the domestic fowl, gallus domesticus.

One man resembles another—it is largely a matter of plumage.”

“I should not squeak,” said Peter with emphasis, “because that is not the way.

A squeak is a squeak, whether you do it in cold blood or in the heat of temper.

”

“At any rate, you do not look like a detective, Mr. Reeder,” smiled the girl.

“I thank you,” said Mr. Reeder gratefully. “I should not wish to be mistaken for a detective. It is a profession which I admire, but do not envy.”

He took from his pocket a large notecase and opened it. Inside, fastened by a rubber band in the centre, was a thick wad of banknotes. Seeing them, Peter’s eyebrows rose.

“You’re a bold man to carry all that money about with you, Mr. Reeder,” he said.

“Not bold,” disclaimed the investigator. “I am indeed a very timid man.”

He slipped a note from under the elastic band and handed it to his wondering host. Peter took it.

Do you think my boy would have married the daughter of a man who twisted his father? Is it likely, Peter? However, it’s done now, and what’s done can’t be undone. The girl’s fond of him, and he’s fond of the girl—”

“When you’ve finished being comic, you can go,” said Peter. “I never laugh before lunch.”

“Don’t you, Peter? And not after? I’ve come at a very bad time, it seems to me. Now listen, Peter. Let’s talk business.”

He hung up the receiver and smiled.

The simplicity of the average criminal always amused Emanuel Legge.

“I never thought you were a mug,” said Stevens in the same voice.

“Any man who has been in prison is, ex officio, one of the Ancient Order of Muggery,” said Johnny, adjusting his bow in the mirror by the porter’s desk.

“What’s going?”

“Now sit down, everybody,” said Emanuel, bustling around, pulling out the chairs. “You sit here, Johnny.”

“I’d rather face the buffet; I like to see myself eat,” said Johnny, and, without invitation, sat down in the position he had selected.

Not waiting, Peter seated himself on Johnny’s left, and it was Emanuel himself, a little ruffled by this preliminary upset to his plans, who sat with his back to the buffet. Johnny noticed the quick exchange of glances between father and son;

“When did you come in, Mr. Reeder?”

“Nobody has ever seen you come in, but lots of people see you go out,” said Reeder good-humouredly.

“On the other land, there are people who are seen coming into this club whom nobody sees go out. Mr. Gray didn’t pass this way, or Mr. Kane?”

He was preparing to give a list of the clothes that Johnny had been wearing, but Reeder cut him short impatiently.

“Try to think of Mr. Gray as a human being, and not as a tailor’s dummy,” he said wrathfully.

“You realise that he is in very grave danger?”