ACK at police headquarters, Detective Sam Marter asked for the assistance of another detective named Jones, who often had worked with him, and it was granted. He took Jones aside and told him the entire thing, and they began formulating plans for the capture of Joe Carden when he had the marked bills in his possession.
“He said noon, and so we’ll be on the job as early as ten o’clock in the morning,” Marter said. “We don’t want to slip up on this, Jones, and so we’ll take nobody else into our confidence. We’ll not even speak to the general delivery clerk beforehand. Either Carden or Nifty Burke will call for that mail, and we know both of them by sight. Here is where we get the crook comedian.”
Later in the day, Marter telephoned both Belcher and Razelus and made sure that the money had been put in the mail. Marter was well satisfied with the way things were going. He had a vision of Joe Carden being sentenced to the big prison up the river, of brother officers saying they were sorry they laughed when Carden had made a fool of him before.
But he might not have been so satisfied had he known everything that was in Carden’s mind. The crook comedian was not a man to leave things to chance. He was up at an early hour the following morning, and had a long talk with Nifty Burke, who immediately went into the little dressing room and put on clothing that caused him to look anything but “nifty.” When he appeared before Joe Carden again he had the appearance of a down-and-outer.
Burke received further instructions, and then he left the place and hurried uptown. He approached the general post office cautiously, yet not in a manner to arouse suspicion. He loitered across the street, walked around the block, and came up from an opposite direction. And shortly after ten o’clock he saw Detective Marter, and Jones not far away.
Nifty Burke knew them both, and he was careful that they did not recognize him. He watched them for a time. Marter and Jones were on guard, yet Burke was able to tell, within a short time, that they were not at the post office accidentally. He hurried to a telephone and called Joe Carden, and gave him the news.
“I half expected it, Nifty,” the crook comedian said. “Belcher called him into the case, I suppose. So you go ahead with those plans I told you, and watch for me exactly at noon. Careful now, Burke.”
“I getcha, boss!” Burke said.
He felt no fear for Joe Carden, for the comedian had demonstrated on several occasions that he could care for himself. And Burke liked this game with Marter and others of the police, liked close calls and narrow escapes. He got another taxicab and journeyed downtown to a district where men could be hired for small amounts to do anything, including murder. He searched for some time until he found the men he desired, and then he talked to them carefully, and finally gave them their instructions.
One was an elderly man and the other a common-looking thug. They grinned when told what was expected of them, and their eyes bulged at mention of the money they were to receive. They were given to understand, too, that they would have to carry out the program, else incur the enmity of one powerful in the underworld. Nifty Burke mentioned no names, but his manner carried conviction.
As for Joe Carden, he did an amazing thing after receiving Nifty Burke’s message of warning. He went into the dressing room his usual self, and emerged again an old man, stooped of shoulder, with shaggy hair, dressed in a rusty suit that made that of Razelus look like the latest in gentlemanly adornment.
He slipped from the house through the alley, hobbled down the street, and got on a surface car. It took him considerable time to reach the post office, and when he did approach it, he did so with extreme caution.
Nifty Burke passed him on the corner.
“Marter inside the door, tryin’ to hide by the big desk, and Jones on the front steps,” Nifty whispered from one corner of his mouth.
“Exactly at noon, Nifty!”
“I getcha, boss!”
They passed; Nifty continued around the block and Joe Carden went up the street. It lacked half an hour of noon. Carden turned his back on the post office building and went slowly along the avenue through the crowds, like an old man with small interest left in life.
Five minutes to noon he was back at the post office corner, and saw Nifty Burke standing at the bottom of the steps. He saw Detective Jones loitering at the top of the flight, but he did not see Marter. Nifty signed to him that he was ready.