Page:Arthur Stringer - The Hand of Peril.djvu/57

 "And when you're getting the portrait?"

"When the first chance comes, I'll plant a dictograph. I'll toss a metal spool from the window and you'll get the wires and run them across the roofs to this room. Keep them under cover. Then I want to get the lay-out of that house, and ward-impressions for the different door-keys. And in the meanwhile I'll be feeling my way for still the next step."

"But why are you so sure the gang's here in Palermo?"

"Where the treasure is there also is the heart! Those people 've got a plant somewhere in this city. It's something more than a desk and an etching outfit. It's a big plant for doing their business in a big way. It's going to be hidden, naturally, and hidden deep. But it's our business to dig it out."

"And when we dig it out?"

"It will be no earthly use to us. But I want to know where it is and what it is. In the meantime, I also want a canvass of every printing place in this town. You're a political refugee, with a revolutionary pamphlet to print. And you want an anarchist printer to do this job. That will get you next to anything that looks suspicious."

"And supposing we find their plant?"

"If we get the plant, we'll get them! They won't be far away from where their work comes from."

"They'll fight like cornered rats!"

"Then we'll keep 'em cornered. And while we're at it, I want to look into that olive-oil export business of Morello's. I imagine some of those cans of his hold stuff that never came out of an olive-press."