第25章 WITHIN THE LAW(2)

Beyond that, she needed only to keep her course most carefully within those limits of wrong-doing permitted by the statutes.

For that, the sole requirement would be a lawyer equally unscrupulous and astute.At once, Mary's mind was made up.

After all, the thing was absurdly simple.It was merely a matter for ingenuity and for prudence in alliance....Moreover, there would come eventually some adequate device against her arch-enemy, Edward Gilder.

Mary meditated on the idea for many days, and ever it seemed increasingly good to her.Finally, it developed to a point where she believed it altogether feasible, and then she took Joe Garson into her confidence.He was vastly astonished at the outset and not quite pleased.To his view, this plan offered merely a fashion of setting difficulties in the way of achievement.

Presently, however, the sincerity and persistence of the girl won him over.The task of convincing him would have been easier had he himself ever known the torment of serving a term in prison.

Thus far, however, the forger had always escaped the penalty for his crimes, though often close to conviction.But Mary's arguments were of a compelling sort as she set them forth in detail, and they made their appeal to Garson, who was by no means lacking in a shrewd native intelligence.He agreed that the experiment should be made, notwithstanding the fact that he felt no particular enthusiasm over the proposed scheme of working.It is likely that his own strong feeling of attraction toward the girl whom he had saved from death, who now appeared before him as a radiantly beautiful young woman, was more persuasive than the excellent ideas which she presented so emphatically, and with a logic so impressive.

An agreement was made by which Joe Garson and certain of his more trusted intimates in the underworld were to put themselves under the orders of Mary concerning the sphere of their activities.

Furthermore, they bound themselves not to engage in any devious business without her consent.Aggie, too, was one of the company thus constituted, but she figured little in the preliminary discussions, since neither Mary nor the forger had much respect for the intellectual capabilities of the adventuress, though they appreciated to the full her remarkable powers of influencing men to her will.

It was not difficult to find a lawyer suited to the necessities of the undertaking.Mary bore in mind constantly the high financier's reliance on the legal adviser competent to invent a method whereby to baffle the law at any desired point, and after judicious investigation she selected an ambitious and experienced Jew named Sigismund Harris, just in the prime of his mental vigors, who possessed a knowledge of the law only to be equalled by his disrespect for it.He seemed, indeed, precisely the man to fit the situation for one desirous of outraging the law remorselessly, while still retaining a place absolutely within it.

Forthwith, the scheme was set in operation.As a first step, Mary Turner became a young lady of independent fortune, who had living with her a cousin, Miss Agnes Lynch.The flat was abandoned.In its stead was an apartment in the nineties on Riverside Drive, in which the ladies lived alone with two maids to serve them.Garson had rooms in the neighborhood, but Jim Lynch, who persistently refused the conditions of such an alliance, betook himself afar, to continue his reckless gathering of other folk's money in such wise as to make him amenable to the law the very first time he should be caught at it.

A few tentative ventures resulted in profits so large that the company grew mightily enthusiastic over the novel manner of working.In each instance, Harris was consulted, and made his confidential statement as to the legality of the thing proposed.

Mary gratified her eager mind by careful studies in this chosen line of nefariousness.After a few perfectly legal breach-of-promise suits, due to Aggie's winsome innocence of demeanor, had been settled advantageously out of court, Mary devised a scheme of greater elaborateness, with the legal acumen of the lawyer to endorse it in the matter of safety.

This netted thirty thousand dollars.It was planned as the swindling of a swindler--which, in fact, had now become the secret principle in Mary's morality.

A gentleman possessed of some means, none too scrupulous himself, but with high financial aspirations, advertised for a partner to invest capital in a business sure to bring large returns.This advertisement caught the eye of Mary Turner, and she answered it.

An introductory correspondence encouraged her to hope for the victory in a game of cunning against cunning.She consulted with the perspicacious Mr.Harris, and especially sought from him detailed information as to partnership law.His statements gave her such confidence that presently she entered into a partnership with the advertiser.By the terms of their agreement, each deposited thirty thousand dollars to the partnership account.

This sum of sixty thousand dollars was ostensibly to be devoted to the purchase of a tract of land, which should afterward be divided into lots, and resold to the public at enormous profit.