T was fully ten minutes before the man had recovered sufficiently to talk plain business. John Lenley had come straight to the lawyer's for money.
"How much do you think is due to you!" asked Meister sarcastically.
For answer the caller took from his pocket a small package and opened it on the desk. Inside, wrapped in cotton wool, was a little jewelled bangle.
"I don't know how much is due: this will make it more."
Meister took the bangle and carried the glittering thing to the light.
"What is this?" he asked.
"I collected it on my way here: it was left with a friend of
mine. That is all I had for my seven years," he said bitterly. "The man who was working with me got away with the rest. Why did you tell my sister that I knew where it was planted?"
Meister looked at him thoughtfully, and in that second was born his plan.
"Because I know," he said slowly. And then, in a more confidential tone: "Your friend never got away with it."
"What!"
"He hid it. He told me before I got him off to South Africa. There was an empty house in Camden Crescent—where the burglary was committed—there is still."
Johnny Lenley nodded.
"I know. We went through the house to do the job. Well?"
Meister was thinking quickly."He planted the stuff behind the cistern on the roof, and it's there now."
The returned convict fixed his questioning eyes upon the lawyer, but not an eyelid quivered.
"I thought you had had it. Why did you pay my sister an allowance?"
"Because I knew where it was, and that when you came out you'd get it—that's why," he said. "I could have got half a dozen men to lift it—but I didn't trust them."
Irresolution showed in Lenley's face; the weak mouth drooped a little.
"Let it stay where it is," he said, but he did not speak with any great earnestness.
Meister laughed. It was the first genuine laugh of his that the day had brought forth.
"You're a fool," he said in disdain. "You've done your seven, and what have you got for it? This!" He held up the trinket. "If I give you twenty pounds for it I'm robbing myself. There's eight thousand pounds' worth of good stuff behind that tank—yours for the taking. After all, Johnny," he said, adopting a tone of persuasion, "you've paid for it—on the Moor!"
"By God I have!" said the other between his teeth. "I've paid for it all right."
Meister was thinking quickly, planning, cross-planning, organizing, in that few seconds of time. "Knock it off to-night," he suggested, and again Lenley hesitated.
"I'll think about it. If you're trying to shop me"
Again Meister laughed.
"My dear fellow, I'm trying to do you a good turn and, through you, your sister."
"What is the number of the house! I've forgotten."
Meister knew the number well enough: he forgot nothing.
"Fifty-seven. I'll give you the twenty pounds for this bracelet now."
He opened his desk, took out his cash box and unlocked it.
"That will do to go on with." Lenley was still undecided; nobody knew that better than the lawyer. "I want full value for the rest if I go after it—or I'll find another fence."
It was the one word that aroused the lawyer to fury.
"'Fence'! That's not the word to use to me, Johnny."
"You're too sensitive," said his dour client.
"Just because I help you fellows when I ought to be shopping you." The lawyer's voice trembled. "Get another fence, will you? Here's your twenty." He threw the money on the table, and Lenley, counting it, slipped it into his pocket. "Going into the country, eh? Taking your little sister away? Afraid I'd be doing her harm?"
"I'd hate to hang for you," said John Lenley, rising.
"Rather have the Ringer hang, eh? You think he'll come back with all that time over his head, with the gallows waiting for him? Is he a lunatic? Anyway—I'm not scared of anything on God Almighty's earth."
The little table phone buzzed, and he picked up the receiver.
"Eh?... Who? ..." He covered the mouthpiece with his hand and jerked his head to the door where the girl had gone. "Beat it—it's Wembury."
Lenley sprang to his feet, frowning at him suspiciously.
"Wembury? What does he want?"
"Does he know you?" asked Meister quickly.
"He was the man who arrested me."
"Then get out. Ask your sister to show you the way down."
He waited till Lenley had left the room, and then:
"Send him up, Haggitt."
When they walked in, Mr. Meister was apparently intent upon the examination of a letter which lay on the blotting pad before him, and he roused himself with an exaggerated start.