The Mystery Megapack

Tomorrow, over your fright, you’d decide that you had been a fool,” she said. “You’d turn burglar again. Prison is the best place for you.”
    “Ain’t you got any mercy?” he asked.
    “ Mercy isn’t extended to criminals,” she replied. “You cut yourself off from mercy when you turned crook.”
    “Just give me a chance! I’ll never forget it, lady! And I swear to go straight!”
    Jim Morlan thought that he was a consummate actor. He had no more intention of going straight than he had of running for mayor. But he managed real tears and a dry sob or two. And meanwhile he watched her carefully.
    It was about time for the police to arrive, he judged. She seemed to think so, too. She got up again and once more moved toward the hall door.
    Jim Morlan took the chance. He was out of his chair like a shot and at the nearest window. He crashed through it, darted across the lawn, made for the nearest alley. And as he ran he exulted—he had her rings!
    He did not notice that the lights in the library went out immediately.
    CHAPTER III
    The following evening Jim Morlan ate his dinner in a restaurant frequented by those of the underworld. He was surly, mean. In the morning papers he had read of the robbery at the Blakeley house. Servants had been awakened, the story said, by the crashing of glass. It was evident that the thief had made his get away through a library window, and in a hurry. Evidently something had alarmed him.
    That puzzled Jim Morlan to a great degree. Did not the woman—he supposed she was the daughter of the house—tell the police the truth?
    And there was more to puzzle him. The robbery had been discovered by the servants just after the breaking of the window. And the safe was open, papers scattered about, currency, old jewelry, and rare coins missing.
    Jim Morlan thought it all over again and cursed beneath his breath. There was some mystery, he supposed. At least he had the diamond rings, and they would repay him. He would wait for a few days, and then carry them to the fence. Perhaps that story in the newspapers was a trick of the police, a trap. They often had resorted to such tricks before.
    Into the cafe came two men Jim Morlan knew well—”Burley” Bell, a pickpocket, and Harry Carls, a swindler. They sat down at the adjoining table and nodded at Morlan, and he nodded in return.
    He gave them no attention for a time, and then suddenly he pricked up his ears.
    “Have mercy, lady!” Bell was saying. “For Heaven’s sake, lady, let me go!” Carls replied. “I’ll go straight from now on!”
    “Don’t call the police, lady,” said Bell. “I was driven to it! I swear I’ll go straight!”
    Jim Morlan’s eyes bulged, and then his face turned red. He glanced at the others, and saw they were laughing.
    “Great stuff!” Bell said to Carls. “It’s the laugh of the district! This bird goes ahead and opens the safe and piles out the loot, and then Maizie comes along and gobbles it all in. And the boob gets away with a bunch of paste rings worth about fifteen dollars retail. My eye!”
    “Let me go! I swear I’ll run straight!”Carls grunted, tears of laughter running down his cheeks. “I was driven to it!”
    “Here comes Maizie now,” said Bell.
    Jim Morlan glanced down the aisle from the corner of his eye. Along it, dressed in a neat blue suit, came the woman of the night before. She sat down at the table with Bell and Carls.
    And then Bell got up and walked across to Jim Morlan.
    “Come over and meet Maizie, Carls’ girl,” he said. “She’s some moll, educated and all that. She’ll tell you about a funny little trick she pulled last night, Morlan.”
    “Go to—” Morlan began.
    “Oh, don’t get rough about it!” Bell said. “You had it comin’ to you. No honor among thieves for you! You’re a crooked crook, Morlan, but this’ll finish you in this town. You’re a huge joke to everybody in the know. Clever of you to open the safe and get out the loot for Maizie.”
    “I’ll—”
    “You’ll take your medicine and clear out—or stay here and be laughed to death,” Bell said, suddenly stern. “We’ve got enough to do watchin’ cops, without watchin’ a crooked crook, too. You were easy, Morlan. We had it all planned. We’d been watchin’ you for a couple of weeks. Maizie played the game good, too. And that telelphone call to the cops—wires cut outside, Morlan, by yours truly. It may interest you to know that the swag brought Maizie a