RED SETTER

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 300, 20 December 1938, Page 23

RED SETTER

. STORY

T KNEW Bob Setter up at Cambridge. * We were friends after wo came down, and our friendship continued until I. went out to the East for my father's firm. Upon my father's death X returned to England, and spent two or three years grinding hard in London, at the end of which time I thought I could sit back and tako it easy for a while. There was a boom ahead, and things looked pretty rosy. I went to the States. My cousin Brenda was in New York somewhere, doing stuff. for a woman's journal. I suppose it was in her blood. My aunt had been the daughter of a newspaper publisher in Philadelphia. I failed to find trace of my cousin in New York. People knew of her, of course, bad seen her recently, but for somo days prior to my arrival she seemed to havo slipped out of the landscape. I didn't think that odd. I knew Breiulaj knew what a oroaturo of whims and fancies she was. I gave myself up to enjoying the sights specially put on by New York for the Old World tourist—and they were plenty. Then, like a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day, I saw Bob Setter. Ho was the same old Bob, his shock of flaming red hair—which had earned him the nickname of Bed at Cambridge —was as unruly as it hud ever been in the time I had known him, and he wore the same creased tweeds and affronted the sartorial niceties in his same Hag-; rant manner by wearing an horrific tie of yellow shot with vermilion streaks ftming over a pale lavender shirt. Red always struck a note. Sometimes it was the wrong noto, but it didn't seem to matter. He was a personality; he always had been. He was dynamic, a breathing bunch of action sewn up in a human skin. . "Well, by the. living wonder!" was his roared greeting. "If it isn't the great business mail himself." He nearly wrung my arm from its socket. "How's Peter'/" , • . .

> "Soro," I said, rubbing my arm. "And there's need to nee you're a disgusting object of fitness." He griiuied'his . wide, expansive grin, full of good humour and bantering acceptance of life. "Come and have a drink and tell me what >n the name of creation brings you to this nook of the globe." Over a Manhattan—Rod kept to a sour • Baccarcli—l told him of the changes that had, taken place in my life during the past few years, .He made suitable retorts, ordered another round of drinks, and then said: "So you haven't found ■. your cousin Brenda?" "No. Remembor "her?" "Very well. I ran across her a few weeks.agp, 'and she told me a secret." "What's that?" "Well," lie. demurred, "I don't know that I'm free to tell even you, Peter." "Don't be a fool, Red!" I grunted, "Bronda wouldn't mind my knowing." He looked ; at me with smiling eyes, "Xo, perhaps you . right," he said slowly. -''She's engaged." "Engaged!" I echoed. "To whom?" "That," lie said, "really is a secret. More than my life is worth to repeat it—honest Injun." "But, look here," X protested, "I've looked her up, and , no one seems. to know whore she is. I don't see that you can very well —" : ; 3 , He stopped nie with a gestiiring.hand. . "That's like - Brenda, to slip away without ■ a word. Don't you . remember she was always-like" tliat?; -' JThefe.uivasf {.hat time we wore lit your home for Ohristinaa—let's see, must be all of : seven .years ago—heavens! that's.a long time-7-and Brenda thought slie'd! like to see what tlie seaside was like with snow : : falling—" v "Red,'', I interrupted, "for goodness sake ,don't' wander. ' It was 'a '.failing , rdyKoped'you'd Rut'you haven't changed. I suppose you're" still up. to all your pranks. They . never seemed so'funny, to- [ '•-A; waiter approached, f. ."Mr, Setter?" lie inquired. • -'"yes?" said Red. ! "You're wanted on the 'phone,-sir." Red went, leaving me with my second Manhattan: I had 'met hinnin a restaurant on Fifth AvenuCj a popular place .. to which all visitors - gravitate in time, and now we were seated.'in the smoking room of liis club. The afternoon was growing old. He seemed gono a,, long time, and I supposed it-was a business call, though had I thought more carefully I should have asked myself what possible business could ; Red -Setter be engaged in. Ho had a ; eomfortablo income, I knew, and - lived a fairly active life" doing . nothing. At least, I'had never heard of any occupation-tliftt bad captured liis -" interest. i He came back after nearly iO minutes, a grave .expression on his face. I felt concerned. - "What's. Hio. .matter, old man," "I asked, "grave ne\ys %" ■ • .' He looked at nie, and there was a look 011 liis face I had never seen before. He looked wire-drawn, "Peter," he said, "let me tell you a story. You asked about my pranks, as you call them—" He paused, looking over his shoulder, bis mouth grim, Finally he went 011; "I went one night to the Seven Stars Club. It's a glorified gambling den run by a crook. I thought I'd have some fun. Under the sleeves of my dinner-jacket I rigged up a homemade clectro-niagnet, the current for which I switched on by pressing a button of my waistcoat. Well, I knew the „ roulette.was rigged. My electro-magnets stopped the rigging, and I found myself winning eonifpftably, The proprietor of the joint couldn't do a thing about it, but I could see he was mad, and lie knew I was out-cheating him somehowWhen I came to leave he stopped me. 'Mr. Setter,' lie said, f l'll give- you five grand for that trick, and I'll give you till midday to-morrow to make up your mind to sell. If you don't, it will-be too bad.' You see, I had him guessing, and it's such a damned simple device." • He -stopped, his eyes going blank. I did' npt interrupt, caught by' the -sudden drama of liis story. I felt I was being shown the inside of something I had never supposed real. "The name of the proprietor is Dutch Schwartz,"' he said- • I'startptj. . "He's W.gangster!V I exclaimed, "I've read about llim; in: the English. papers." Red nodded. . ."Everybody's read about him, Peter. He's the toughest crook ill- this man's towii, 'and- lie's got the toughest gang, Well, to continue. I took no notice of Dutch's warning. Just'now lie was on tlie 'phone, calling from a place out on Ijong Island—Spanish Casa, I know, the place. He.says I'm-to go" out there now or someone I'm. very fond of will get hurt- -badly." ' .I'breathed more easily. I "Throwing a:, scare into you," I said. "You can go to the police." He ;sliook his head. ' . a..-V- .-a . . "That would ibe .foolish, in the eircum-. Stances.''. ; '.'Which circumstances ?" >I quei:ied. .' .He looked at, me-strangely;'aTid' .was silent, some moments- before

"Peter," lie .said, "I know now where Brenda is." His voice was tight, strained. "You see, I'm tlie bloke she's engaged to." I started. "You, Red." He didn't grin; lie didn't make the rejoinder I might have expected. He sat there staring at me and through me. "Yea, me," he said slowly. "And she's the someone—l know it now—who might get hurt. I can't go to the police. It's too dangerous. Besides, Dutch Schwartz isn't an amateur at this game. He covers his trails, allows for a jiossible double-cross." He shook his head. "Dutch has got Brenda. and I'm going out there to Spanish Casa." "But it's madness," I stated, feeling the word fully inadequate to express what was in my mind. "Of course," he agreed simply. "I never 'thought Dutch would take my counter-cheating—if you like to call it that—so seriously. But I remember now I made him look silly in the eyes of some of liis mob, including Toni Pi roil i." "Toni Pironi?" "His chief henchman. Dutch is determined to read me a lesson. That offer of five thousand dollars was a bluff. This isn't." "And You're really going there, Red?" His eyes lit. "Hell, man, of course I am!" He stood up. X roso with him. I'm no hero, and I don't wish to pose as one. I felt damned seared, and don't mind admitting it. '. But, somehow I managed to say,.'"l'in corning, Red, After all, blood's, thicker than water," The strange look was in his eyes again as he muttered, "I'd be happier if it wasn't, Peter, my lad," I tried to puzzle out what he meant as his large roadster sped through the New York streets and out into the Long Island countryside. There was a quarter-moon in the sky,.- and a chill wind blew from off the-Sound. Spanish Casa was back up a creek, which in turn would back from one of the Sound's many inlets. I suppose wc were driving two hours before wc came to the place, set back behind a great fringe of beeches. Red braked the car, and we walked to the front door and rang. A man in a check suit, with hair long in the nape of his neck opened the door. "What you want?" he growled. "Dutch is expecting us," said Red.. "Yeah?" came the other's growl. "An' who's us'.'" "My name's Setter. This is a friend of mine," We were kept waiting in a large hall. Finally a man came and ushered us along a corridor to a door which he opened and stood back from while we entered. *The door closed quickly behind

Wc found ourselves in a large room, facing a man seated at a vide oak table. Electric light poured over a scalp re--1 sembling a tonsured priest's and a face j as hauntingly malignant as the devil's. 1 My first sight of Dutch Schwartz sent a thrill of apprehension running over Imy body. I had read of this man. I had stepped into his strange world of I strange values. It seemed incredible, fantastic. Then lie spoke. "I didn't tell you to bring .company, Setter," lie said, and his voice had the boom of a bull's roar, yet somehow had all the qualities of a husky whisper. "This is my fiancee's cousin, Schwartz. He wanted to come," o "YealiV" Dutch Schwartz rose, slowly, every movement studied, calculated. "Well, suppose I don't want him around, smart guy'.'" "Let's get to business," said Red, and out of the corner of my. eye I saw his jaw square with purpose. Dutch Schwartz smiled. His teeth were good. He seemed anuised. X "I'll show you just how much I -mean business, Setter," he said. Stepping to a curtain, lie drew it back. I 'caught my breath. Bound and gagged •in a chair was Brenda. She started when she saw- me. Red moved forward impulsively, fists j knotted, but Schwartz's right hand sped under his left arm-pit and reappeared holding a snub-nosed automatic. "Don't try uothiii' you can't finish. .You know what I want, Setter. How you stymied that wheel at my Seven Stars."

"And my fiancee—" [ Schwartz made an impatient gesture. [ "Hell, she's 110 good to me! She I goes when I got what I want." I saw the struggle in Red's face as ; he nitide up his mind. . He couldn't t trust that dark sardonic gangster, yet r he had to take his word, [■ "All right, Schwartz, I'll trade." ; Under the mcnace of the other's gun he brought his electro-magnet apparatus - from his overcoat pocket, stripped off ; his jacket and arranged the apparatus along his arms, with a battery-control ' lead to his waistcoat. The gangster swung a leaf from a side-table, and a roulette wheel rose slowly to the table level. He set it whirling. "Demonstrate," he commanded. Red pressed the switch' under his waistcoat by apparently rubbing a button, played the rotating wheel, and stopped it on black, then on red. The wheel obeyed the pressure on the switch, "Just to make sure," said Schwartz, "I'll try, Setter, and it'd better _ work for ine; too." "It will," promised Red. "Okay, fix it on my arms, and try nothing that ain't your right move. I'm holding this gun against your belly, Setter." My heart was beating like a triphammer. I saw Red fix the apparatus to the gangster's arms, arrange the switch lead, and, still covering us, Schwartz turned to the roulette wheel. His face glowed with strange light, like that of a boy who has received a longenvied toy. He spun the wheel, stretched his arms over it, the gun still pointing at Red's stomach, and then with his free hand touched the switch. The same instuiit his face twisted in surprise, his arms jerked straight before him, and the gun slattered to the floor. Red .leapt for it, and Dutch Schwartz was on him. There was a brief struggle, both men's hands groping, fumbling, .and then the gun exploded.■ I saw the gangster straighten, his whole body twitch, and fall headlong. A door opened, and I saw a small lean man grinning at us as he fondled a cumbersome thing of steel dulled to a.deep blue that I knew, from the gangster films I bad soon in England, was a. Thomson sub-machine gun. He stroked the large drum with his left hand. "So yuli killed Dutch, huh, mister?" 'He sounded amused in the way a snake would be amused. I felt cold .iliside, and that first feeling of cold dread returned. Red turned, stared at the newcomer. • j "I've made it easier for you, Pironi," he said quietly. .. I saw the other's dark eyes narrow. iv"How you make that out?" he asked. ' . "Dutch is dead. You: take over. . I'vo probably put three million dollars a /year in your hands, Pironi—maybe 'more." ■ ' ~ "

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i "Yeah?" "If you're sinart you'll let us go—all I of us." I saw the Italian thinking rapidly, counting figures in a strange, bewildering sum, and I saw that lie couldn't arrive at the right answer. "3 lay be I ain't that smart—or dumb," lie pronounced, stroking the tommy-gun as though it were a thing of great price. "Listen," said Red, throwing the gun that had killed the ganster on the table. "You get rid of Dutch's body, any way you like. Perhaps a barrel 'of liquid cement, and dropped one night into Long Island Sound. I don't have to tell you how to do that job." The Italian smiled. "Xo, you don't have to do that, mister. Go 011, I'm still interested." Red moistened his lips with his tongue. "The police will nose around, but will find nothing, that right?" "Maybe. Go on." "I can't do a thing." "Why not?" "Because my fingev-prints are on that gun; You've got me there, Pironi, if you keep the gun in a sa.fe and don't wipe off those finger-prints." "I've got you anyways, mister." "But that won't help vou, Pironi." "No?" "Xo." Red was breathing hard, exerting himself, being his most persuasive. He was lighting for the lives of all three of us, and those - lives at that moment hung in 11 very precarious balance. . "Perhaps I am dumb," muttered Pironi, with a smile I didn't like. • "Kill us," said Red slowly, uttering ; •each word distinctly, "and the gang will know you didn't fix Dutch yourself. You won't" be the Big Shot then, Pironi. ■ You'll be just in the running. You j know that. Dutch didn't advertise what 1 he was doing' to-night, because he ] wanted to learn something for himself. He was smart—or thought he was." "Yeah, thought he was. He didn't know you'd short-circuited that damn thing, mister. I was watching—never mind how. I saw." "And you let me get away with it, Pironi. You didn't want Dutch to live too long. He was greedy. He ate up the profits too fast.- Those profits can be yours if you're smart, keep this jthing to yourself. You can move in now, this minute", Pironi, if you think 1 clearly." There was a long-drawn-out period of silence, broken when Pironi dropped the tominy-gun into the crook of his "I'll take a chance on you, mister," he said. "I'll find you anyway if your memory's bad and squawk. Okay, Dutch was cheating and I gave him his. The boys get a share out, and that fixes the deal. Cut the dame's rope and beat it. But one thing, mister." Red hesitated. "Yes?" "Koep outa the Seven Stars. You won't bo welcome —any time.. That's final." We were going out of the room when lie said, "Leave the. trick gadget, mister. I like it, and I'll cover that piece of wire •with some tape.". x Ten minutes later we were out in the cool night air, and Red started up the engine of his car, As we drove out 011 to the main road I shuddered. "My God, you took a chance, Red!" I cxclaimcd. "I was banking 011 Pironi," he said. "I remember the looks he threw Dutch that night at the Seven Stars." The night sped by us. "Who took you there?" I inquired. "Brcnda." I turned to my cousin, who had been thoughtful after my first words to her upon leaving Spanish Casa. "What did you take him there for?" I asked her. A patch of lfioonliglit struck her face, revealing an impish grin. "I wanted a story for my paper. I didn't get it. But now " The car shuddered as Red's foot stumbled over the accelerator. "Now, my girl," 'he said heavily, "you've finished your penny-a-lining." "But Red, this" story—the paper will go crazy." "My dear," said Red, with friendly sarcasm, "I prefer you as you arc—pigheaded, mule-lieaded, stubborn as sin— but without any bullet holes adorning your becoming torso. To-morrow you i enter the holy state—in a® hurry, and you write your resignation to the paper. 2 Understand?" "You gangster!" she flung at him. But I saw that she was smiling with happiness.