Another reason--and this is something I forgot to tell you awhile ago--when I broke down and confessed everything to Dick Sherwood, I told Dick that Old Jimmie was really my guardian; and we both agreed that he should be present as a witness to any agreement, and to protect my interests. Still another reason is that since we had to work so fast, the thing to do was to split the money on the spot in three ways, and then each of us shoot off in a different direction to-night before any bad luck had a chance to break. In fact, Barney, this present minute is when you and I say our good-byes."
He forgot his scheme to defraud Old Jimmie in the far greater concern aroused by her last words. He leaned across the table and tried to take her hand, an attempt she deftly thwarted.
"But listen, Maggie," he asked with husky eagerness, "you and I are going to have an understanding to join up with each other soon, aren't we? You know what I mean--belong to each other. You know how I feel about: you!"
This was the principal point Maggie had been maneuvering toward.
Before her was the most difficult scene of the many which she had planned, on her successful management of which the success of everything seemed to depend. Within she was palpitant with the strain and suspense of it all; but on Barney she held cool, appraising eyes.
In this splendid composure, her momentary withdrawal from him, she seemed to Barney more beautiful, more desirable, more indispensable, than at any time since he had discovered back at the Duchess's that Maggie was a find.
"Of course I know exactly what you mean, Barney," she responded with deliberation, bewitchingly alluring in her air of superiority. "I've known for a long time you and I would have to have a real talk. Are you ready for a straight talk now?"
"As straight as you can talk it!"
"I'll probably fall for some man and marry him. Every woman does. But if I marry him, it'll be because I love him. But my marrying a man doesn't mean I'm going to go into business with him. I'm not going to mix love with business--not unless the man is the right sort of man.
Of course it would be better if the man I marry and the man I take on as a business partner were the same man--but I'm not going to take any risks. You understand me so far.
"Surest thing you know. And every word you've said proves that your head isn't just something to look pretty with. Let me slip this over to you right at the start--I'm the right sort of man!"
"That's exactly what I want to find out," she continued, with her deliberation, with the air of sitting secure upon the highest level.
"I know now what I can do. I've proved it. Now I'm going right ahead putting over big things. You once told me I had it in me to be the best ever--and I now know I can be. I know I've got to tie up with a man, and the man has got to be just as good in his way as I am in mine. Right there's where I'm in doubt about you. I said I was going to talk straight--and I'm handing it to you straight. I don't know how good you are."
"You mean you think I'm not big enough to work with you?"
"I mean exactly what I said. I said that I didn't really know how good you are, and that I wasn't going to tie up with any man except the best in the business. You've hinted now and then at a lot of big things you've put across and how strong you were in certain quarters where it paid to be strong--but I really know mighty little about you, Barney. This present job hasn't required you to do anything special, and all the really hard work I've done myself. Of course I know you are a good dancer, and clever with the ladies, and know how to pick up a sucker and string him along. But that's everything I do know. And, there are hundreds of men who are good at these things. The man I tie up with has got to be good at a lot of other things--and I've got to know he's good!"
"Good at what other things, Maggie?" he asked with suppressed eagerness.
"He's got to be good at putting over all kinds of situations. I don't care how he does it. So clever at putting things over that no one ever guesses he's the man who did it. And he's got to be able to give me protection. You know what I mean. A woman in the game I'm going in for is absolutely through, as far as doing anything big is concerned, the minute she gets a police record. I've got to have a man who's able to stand between me and the police. And I've got to know from past performances that the man can do these things. Just large words about what he can do, or hints about what he has done, don't count for a nickel with me. This is plain, hard business I'm talking, Barney, and I don't mean to hurt your feelings when I tell you that you don't measure up in any way to the man I need."
It had been difficult for Barney to hold himself until she had finished. To start with, he had the vain man's constant itch to tell of his exploits, his dislike for the anonymity of his cleverness unjustly ascribed to some other man. And then Maggie had played upon him even more skillfully than she imagined.
"I'm exactly the man you need in every way!" he exploded.
"Those are just words," she said evenly. "I said I had to have something more than mere words."
"I'm ace-high with Chief Barlow!"
"You've got to be more explicit."
Barney was now all excitement. "Don't you get what that means? I've never been locked up once, and yet I've been pulling stuff all the time! And yet look how Larry Brainard, that the bunch thought was so clever, got hooked and was sent away. I guess you know the answer!"
"Again, Barney, I've got to ask you to be more explicit."
"Then the answer is that all the while I've been working on an understanding with Barlow. I guess that's explicit!"
"You mean," she said in her cool voice, "that you've been a stool-pigeon for Barlow?"
"Sure!--though I don't like the word. That's the only safe way of staying steady in the game--an understanding with the police. All there is to it is now and then to tip the police off about some dub of a crook: of course you've got to be smooth enough not to let anyone guess your game."
