The Toff In New York Read Online Free PDF Page B

react; all she could think of was Wilf, in danger. If it meant paying out a fortune, she had to get him back.
    â€œYou mean Wilf’s been kidnapped? Who . . .“ She choked, hating herself for the folly of the words.”Why . . .“
    â€œThey want a hundred thousand dollars,” Conway blurted out.
    â€œAnd boy,” said Halloran, “is that big money?”
    Valerie backed to a chair, and sat down. Conway was too late to help her. She leaned back and closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them again both men were staring at her, as if anxiously. How well they acted, now! Halloran put his right arm behind him, and produced it again, carrying a leather-covered flask.
    â€œIt’s rye,” he said. “What do you think, Brian?”
    â€œVal, would you like a spot of whisky?”
    â€œNo,” Valerie said. “No, thank you.” She felt swimmy, but two words were rising out of the mists in her mind, like bubbles rising to the surface of a whirlpool. Keep calm. “No, I’ll be all right,” she said; “just leave me alone for a while.”
    â€œBrave little woman,” Halloran opined, while he kept a completely straight face.
    Valerie heard him, but didn’t think about what he said. She was trying to get the simple facts clear in her mind, and the only one which really mattered was this news about Wilf. The incident of the telephone call and the injured man falling into her arms might never have happened.
    Conway lit a cigarette.
    Valerie spoke in a much steadier voice. “I suppose you two do know what you’re saying. Wilf has been kidnapped?”
    Oh, yes,” said Conway.
    â€œSure,” asserted Halloran.
    â€œIt was like this,” said Conway, beginning to pace the room; now he looked much more harassed and worried than Valerie, and was rather over-playing his part again.
    â€œWhen we got downstairs we asked the desk clerk to put us in touch with the nearest hospital, and then the hospitals on the way to Idlewild. Before he could do that a man came and told me he had a message from your brother. He”
    â€œHow did he know you?” asked Valerie.
    â€œThis is just the way it happened,” Conway explained earnestly. “We were followed from the airport, and the kidnappers saw you with us. And they had another man, waiting right here, to see what we would do. He was the man downstairs, who spoke to me. Mike and I went outside with him; we didn’t dream what kind of message it was. I mean, would you have guessed?”
    Valerie shook her head.
    â€œHe simply told us that your brother had been kidnapped, and that he’d be released in return for a hundred thousand dollars,” Conway continued. “And” He broke off, and gulped.
    â€œPlease go on,” Valerie made herself say.
    â€œHe said that they hadn’t much time,” Conway went on; “they want to get out of New York tonight, and if you don’t pay up quickly, then”
    He stopped, as if he simply couldn’t bring himself to finish.
    â€œMurdering lot of hoodlums,” Halloran said.
    â€œMurdering.” Valerie gasped.
    â€œNow take it easy,” Conway rebuked.
    â€œBut I haven’t got a hundred thousand dollars! It would take me days to get it,” Valerie cried. “I’ve only a credit for twenty thousand. They can’t do it, they can’t . . .;’
    â€œNow listen to me, ma’am,” said Halloran. He put his hand into the inside pocket of his jacket, and when he drew it out he held a wallet which looked as thick and solid as the whisky-flask. “We can rustle up some dollars to help, I guess. I’ve close on five thousand right here, and Brian - how many you got, Brian?”
    â€œThree thousand,” Brian answered, as if miserably.
    â€œThat makes eight,” declared Halloran, after a long and pregnant pause. He paused again. “Sure, that’s right. That