The Spider Strain | Page 5

As soon as they are accomplished, you are to be a free man, and then you can marry Silvia and settle down as a respectable citizen."
"The old world isn't such a bad place after all--what?" Warwick said. "Man gets his reward in time, and all that sort of silly rot! Feel like a new man already! My word!"
"Don't be hasty, Warwick! These two things that I have mentioned are far from being trivial."
"Oh, I gathered that much!"
"You may begin work on the first just as soon as you please and do it in your own way."
"Orders, old sir and employer?"
"Exactly. I presume that you are acquainted with Mrs. Burton Barker?"
"I am," Warwick replied grimly. "Her husband was one of the group of men that robbed me of my fortune."
"Then this work should be a pleasure for you," said The Spider. "You may have observed that Mrs. Burton Barker wears a peculiar locket on a long gold chain."
"I have noticed it often, old sir and employer. No matter how she may be dressed, she always wears the silly thing. She's always twining the chain around her fingers and playing with it. I've wondered many times why she persists in wearing it when Barker could buy her all sorts of jewels, if she wished them."
"That locket happens to be an important bit of merchandise," the supercriminal said.
"I am to get the locket?"
"You are."
"As soon as possible?"
"Yes," The Spider replied. "And the sooner you can get it, so much the better!"
"It seems like a silly thing to steal!" Warwick declared. "You could buy all you wanted for about fifty dollars each."
"You couldn't purchase that particular locket at any price, and there is not another in all the world exactly like it!" declared the supercriminal.
"Some sort of history connected with the foolish thing?" Warwick wanted to know.
"Something like that, Warwick. You just get that locket as soon as you can and leave the rest to me. There will be ten thousand dollars in it for you--if you succeed."
"If I succeed!" Warwick gasped. "My word! Always succeed, don't I? Couldn't afford to fail--simply couldn't--when I am so nearly done working for you, could I? Fall down at the last moment, and all that sort of thing? Certainly not! My word, no!"
"Getting possession of that locket might not be as easy as it sounds," The Spider warned him.
"How is that, old sir?"
"It happens that there are some other persons very anxious to get their hands on it."
"Ah, I see!"
"And they are so anxious that they will go to about any length to get it, Warwick. You will have strong competition, in other words. This will amount to more than merely snipping a locket from a chain worn by a woman."
"What is the silly old locket, anyway?" Warwick wanted to know.
"I may tell you about that later," The Spider returned. "You'll have enough on your mind in planning to get it and outwit the others at the same time."
"And the others--"
"I can tell you absolutely nothing about them, Warwick. Another man is after that locket of Mrs. Burton Barker's, but he will not make an attempt to get it himself. He has assistants, however, and I do not know them. You'll have to be alert, on guard, and find out things for yourself."
"My word! Deep and dark mystery--what? And all over a silly bit of a locket that--"
"Allow me to tell you that it is not a silly locket, Warwick! It is a very important locket, and we must have it. Do you understand? We must get it!"
"Very well, old sir. I'll get the thing. I'm going to some sort of an affair at Burton Barker's place this very evening--going to take Silvia with me."
"Be careful, Warwick!"
"Invitations are already accepted, old sir and employer--and it'd look rather peculiar if she did not go. I always do my work best when everything appears natural--understand? Somebody might get suspicious if everything did not."
"But, Silvia--"
"She'll be in the way--bother me, you mean? Bless you--no! She probably will dance with a lot of chaps and give me time to do my work. I'll be more careful, too, if she is there--be afraid of making some silly mistake and wrecking our happiness. By the way, do these--er--other chaps of whom you spoke know that I am going after that locket?"
"They know that I am after it, and that you are one of my trusted men," The Spider replied. "And so, naturally, they will think that you are on the job when they see you at the Barker place."
"Suppose they will be there, too? Are they the sort that could go to a place like that?" Warwick asked.
"I haven't the slightest idea, Warwick."
"I'd better lose no time then, what? I'll get to work as soon as possible--nab the silly thing before anybody else