Introducing The Toff Read Online Free PDF Page A

would have done. He shifted his chair back, and the legs squeaked across the linoleum. The knobbly hand which he pushed over his flat brow was shaking.
    Garrotty was nothing to him, anyhow.
    ‘Last I heard of him,’ he muttered, ‘he was at the “Steam Packet, Lambeth. But I ain’t working with him, mister, s’welp me, I ain’t!’
    ‘If it eases your mind,’ repeated the Toff smoothly, ‘I know you aren’t.’ His voice hardened. ‘But you had the chance, didn’t you?’
    Harry kept silent. The thought that the Toff might know of his meeting with Dragoli made his stomach turn. Because the Toff, with his uncanny knack of squeezing information from the dregs of the underworld, was just as likely to know of some of the darker deeds in Harry’s past – and his present
    The Toff broke the silence.
    ‘I’ll take yes for an answer, my little man.’
    He stood up, so quickly that Harry didn’t notice he had moved until he stood by the window, leaning against the framework and staring across the parlour. His voice was dangerously smooth,
    ‘If the police knew half what I know about you, Harry, you wouldn’t be away from the rope for more than a couple of months. But you haven’t been working for a long time now – and I might let you off....’
    Harry turned in his chair, his nostrils distended and the blood showing red beneath the several scars on his flattened face. He knew that the Toff was leading up to something; that the Toff was playing cat-and-mouse with him, as if delighting in the mental torture. And it says much for Harry’s fear of the Toff that he did not once think of using his knife, which he always carried.
    What did the Toff want?
    ‘I’ll tell you,’ drawled Rollison, with whom mind-reading of a certain nature was an art. His voice dropped. ‘Achmed Dragoli’s been here. What was he after?’
    So that was it. The Pug felt horribly afraid.
    His tongue crept along his dry lips.
    ‘Who – who’s Dragoli?’
    ‘He’s the darkie,’ said the Toff patiently, ‘who came to see you a few days ago with a proposition. After seeing you he got in touch with Garrotty the Yank. What was his game?’
    Harry the Pug squirmed. He was in a hell of a fix, and he knew it. The trouble was, knowing just how much the Toff was bluffing, and how much he really knew. Only the Toff could have answered it.
    But there was one thing about the Toff which was generally admitted. He never went back on his word. If he promised to let Harry alone –
    The Toff moved suddenly to the table where Harry was sitting. He stared down at the ex-bruiser, and there was a wicked smile at the corners of his lips.
    ‘I know what you’re thinking,’ he claimed gently. ‘Listen, Harry. Spill everything, don’t mix any lies, and I’ll leave you alone for your past. That doesn’t cover anything you do in the future, mind you.’
    For a moment they stared at each other. Harry’s little eyes shifted first, then his lips opened.
    ‘To start you off,’ drawled the Toff, who saw that his victory was won so far, and decided the time for his bluff had come, ‘he mentioned a man named Goldman. I know Garrotty killed Goldman, and I want to know why. See?’
    Harry saw. And he was afraid, because what little he knew might not satisfy the Toff.
    ‘He didn’t say who,’ he muttered. ‘Believe it or not, mister, he didn’t mention a name. All he said was there was a yob he wanted out of the way, and somehow he got an idea I’d do it,’ The Pug grew very indignant. ‘And I turned him flat, mister, you kin take it from me! I never mixed myself up in a game like that, an’ I ain’t goin ter –’
    ‘Of course you ain’,’ drawled the Toff. ‘But he told you something else, Harry. Spill it!’
    Harry the Pug looked like an ape in a tight corner. The blood showed livid in his many scars.
    ‘He didn’t mister, s’welp me! He just said he’d got a job, and it had to be finished quick.’
    The Toff’s eyes sparkled for that