The Price

e been taken and jailed within the hour, if only for the reason that his desperate cast for fortune included no well-wrought-out plan of escape. But since he was at once both wiser and less c

to celebrate his success. It had proved to be such a simple matter, after all: one bold stroke; a tussle, happily bloodless, with the plutocratic dragon whose hold

as much more to the immediate purpose. He was hungry: there was a restaurant next door to the bank. Without thinking overmuch of the risk he ran, and perhaps not at al

d dwelt less upon what he had done than upon what he was about to eat, until the hue and cry in the street reminded him that the chase was be

M'sieu' so desired. "M'sieu'" said breakfast first, by all means, and informati

Gascon serving man, the story of the robbe

hile the leader, a masked giant armed to the teeth, had compelled the president at the muzzle of a pistol to pay a ransom of fifty-one hundred-five hundred thousand dollars! With the money in hand the gang had

sharp emphasis that to all civilized mankind, save and excepting those few chosen ones who shared his peculiar convictions, he was a common thief, a bandit, an outlaw. Public opinion, potential or expressed, is at best but an intangible

which he had just wrested from the claws of the plutocratic dragon must be held as a sacred trust; it must be devoted scrupulously to the

t intend to accept defeat without a struggle, and Gri

e real robber, would have figured himself safely out of it-or would have thought he had-before he made the break. Since I did not, I've got it to do now, and there isn't much time to throw awa

waiter. The man had been to the street door again, and by this time the sidewalk excitement had subsided sufficiently to make room for an approach to the truth. The story of an arme

l in no immediate danger so long as he remained in such close proximity to the bank. It was safe to assume that this was one of the things the professional "stron

lly that it was quite as possible to create an inerrant fugitive as to conceive an infallible detective. Joining the passers-by on the sidewalk, he made his way leisurely to Canal Street, and thence diagonally through the old F

the negro, bowing and scrapin

e and get me a cigar to smoke while you are doing it. Get a good one, if y

mustache; awkwardly, but swiftly and with well-considered purpose. The result was a fairly complete metamorphosis easily wrought. In place of the tr

decently original. The professional cracksman would probably have shaved, whereupon the first amateur detective he met would reconstruc

gro was not yet in sight, and Griswold walked rapidly away i

dge he offered was the suit he was wearing, and the bargaining concluded in an exchange of the still serviceable business suit for a pair of butternut trousers, a second-hand coat too

ly accused his customer of having stolen the pledge. And when Griswold departed without denying the charge, suspicion became conviction, and the pledged clo

he made a tramp's bundle of the manuscript of the moribund book, the pistol, and the money in the red handkerchief; and having surveyed himself with some satisfaction

bank-neighboring café not only failed to recognize him; he was dr

belong to go. I'll been kipping dis

ut, smiling bet

ety," he assured himself exultantly. Then: "I believe I coul

d of the gutter, he went boldly into the bank and asked the paying teller to give him silver for it. The teller sniffed at the money, s

ontemptuously, turning his steps riverward again. "Now I have only to choose my rou