The Case of the Counterfeit Eye Read Online Free PDF

pay it back then?"
    "I don't know all of the reasons. One of them is that the accomplice is a gambler. He has to have a roll in order to gamble. You dig into Harry McLane's mental processes deeply enough, and you'll find that he's figuring on staging a big comeback. He's got sense enough to know that if he and his accomplice pay back all the money Harry embezzled, they won't have any operating capital. A gambler needs something to gamble with.
    "Not that I blame them particularly," Basset said, "if they can get away with it. But they can't get away with it. Not with my money. They're either going to kick through, or go to jail."
    "I presume you realize," Mason said, "that you're compounding a felony."
    "I'm doing nothing of the sort. I'm getting my money back."
    "You're offering embezzlers immunity from prosecution if they make good the money embezzled."
    "Let's not be overly technical about it," Basset remarked. "You know what you want. I know what I want. I'm talking plainly to you. I might not talk as plainly elsewhere. I want my money."
    "And you think McLane has it?"
    "No, I think his accomplice has it."
    "But don't you think if McLane could get it from his accomplice, he'd have done so already?"
    "No'" Basset said. "They stole money to gamble with. They lost some of it. They want to keep on gambling. McLane's sister will put up money to keep McLane from going to jail. That will leave the pair money to gamble with."
    "Well?" Mason asked.
    "The girl hasn't all of the money," Basset said. "She's got a little over fifteen hundred dollars. McLane's accomplice has about two thousand left. I'll get the girl's money and then I'll find out who the accomplice is and get what money he's got."
    "Suppose," Mason asked, "it doesn't work that way?"
    "It will."
    Mason said slowly, "I can get you fifteen hundred dollars in cash and monthly payments of thirty dollars. I'm representing the sister."
    "Her money?" Basset asked.
    "Yes."
    "All of it?"
    "Yes."
    "The boy hasn't kicked through with any of it?"
    "No."
    "I'll take the fifteen hundred cash and a hundred a month from the girl," Basset said.
    Mason flushed, sucked in a quick breath, controlled himself, puffed on the cigarette, and said tonelessly, "She can't do it. She's supporting an invalid mother. She can't live on what would be left of her salary."
    "I'm not interested," Basset said, "in getting my money back in small installments. Monthly payments of one hundred dollars will get the principal reduced reasonably so that Harry McLane may get a job in the meantime. He can pass the loss on to his new employer."
    "What do you mean," Mason inquired, "by passing the loss on to his new employer?"
    "He can work out some scheme of embezzling from his new employer to pay me off my losses."
    "You mean you'd force him to theft?"
    "Certainly not. I'm simply suggesting that he pass on the burden. He embezzled from me. I held the sack for a while. Let someone else hold it for a while now."
    Mason laughed. "You might find yourself an accessory before the fact in that new embezzlement, Basset."
    Basset stared coldly at him and said, "What do I care. I want my money. I don't care how I get it. There's no legal evidence against me. The moral aspect of the case leaves me completely indifferent."
    "I gathered it did," Mason told him.
    "That's fine. It eliminates misunderstandings. I'm not going to talk with you about the morals of your profession and you're not going to talk with me about the morals of mine. I want my money. You're here to see that I get it. The sister doesn't want the boy to go to jail. I've given you my terms. That's all there is to it."
    "Those terms'" Mason told him, "won't be met."
    Basset shrugged his shoulders and said, "He's got until tomorrow."
    Knuckles sounded in a gentle knock on the panels of the door, which almost immediately opened. A woman, between thirty-five and forty, glanced at Perry Mason with a quick half smile, and turned solicitously to Hartley Basset. "May I