The Barrel Mystery
Page 13
CHAPTER XIII
THE BLACK-HANDERS IN SESSION
"Upon entering the house, which was close by Cina's farmhouse, I saw atable in a room on the ground floor and around this table were seatedthe following bandits: Ignazio Lupo, Giuseppe Morello, Antonio Cecala,Uncle Salvatore (Giuseppe Palermo), Uncle Vincent, Vincenzio Giglio,Bernardo Perrone, Nicola Sylvester, besides a man from Brooklyn whomthe gang called Domenico and who was a baker, and five other men whosenames I did not know. Cina was not there, being occupied with hisfamily, where a birth was expected momentarily.
"As I stepped in no one motioned to recognize me nor was my greetingreturned. Mechanically I took a seat. After about ten minutes ofsinister silence and ill-boding glances, Cina broke the strain as hecame rushing in with Peppino, his brother, both of them laughing andshouting like madmen.
"'A boy! A boy!' they yelled.
"Cina received the congratulations of the gang. Silence once morehaunted the room. Then Lupo turned to me abruptly and said:
"'Don Antonio, your work is worthless. It is a rotten job; so much sothat none of it could be sold. Cina and Cecala have risked their livesin trying to sell it. However, they have sold some four thousanddollars of the counterfeit money, taking in, all in all, about onethousand dollars in genuine money. They have expended about twohundred dollars on their trip to different cities distributing ourproduct. Therefore, there remains about eight hundred dollars, whichwill be divided among the ones that have advanced the first money. Ifyou had turned out a good job we could have taken in more by sellingit all. As it is about seven or eight thousand dollars have been madefor the stove.
"'The Canadian money is worthless and must be burned. It cannot be puton the market. But this is no fault of yours, in this instance. It isthe fault of the one who made the plates.
"'Now you watch how the money is divided. _If there is any left_, youget it. These men present will not accept a penny of the remainderuntil those who advanced the money have been settled with.'
"'As my work did not turn out well,' I replied to Lupo, 'give me onlyenough to return to New York.'
"'No,' broke in Morello, decisively. 'We don't know yet whether youmay return to New York or whether you are to continue the work incompany with another man.'
"'You want money?' asked Lupo. 'Who will give it to you? I have spenttwo hundred dollars and now will take that amount. There will then bebut six hundred dollars to be divided.'
"'Don't do things all your own way, Ignazio,' Morello warned in hishusky voice. 'Let us deliberate and argue this thing out. There areeight hundred dollars. You have spent two hundred dollars. You getseventy-five dollars now. I have spent fifty dollars and will take itnow, as I need it very much, as you know. Fifty dollars we will giveto Cina, twenty dollars to Don Antonio, ten to Uncle Salvatore and tenmore to Uncle Vincent, five to Giglio and five to Bernardo; what isleft is needed for the continuation of the work with the otherplates.'
"'And the man who made the plates, don't you want to give himanything?' inquired Cecala.
"'Yes,' was the reply in chorus.
"'Well,' turning to me, 'take these twenty dollars,' said Morello,'and return to the house. Await there the decision whether you are toreturn to New York or not.'
"I accepted the money and tucked it into my pocket. Then I was drivento the stone house in a carriage accompanied by Cina's brotherPeppino.
"During this session with the gang some of them got busy and startedto burn up the Canadian five-dollar notes, and a portion of thetwo-dollar American notes. These were the notes returned as worthlessby the gang. While throwing the notes into the stove Uncle Salvatoreand Peppino exclaimed from time to time:
"'What a shame. They might all have been sold.'
"Once more at the stone house I explained to Caterina what hadhappened. I told her that they had given me the twenty dollars andthat I was going to go to New York and not return; of course she wasto come along with me. But after thinking it over we resolved that ourappearance was so miserable that we had better remain a while longer.There was also the ever-present danger that if we ran away from thisgang we would be murdered. We abandoned the idea, therefore, andstayed at the stone house awaiting the orders of the gang.
"We were not kept waiting long. Next morning, Salvatore Cina came tothe house in a very happy mood. He told me that I could not return toNew York because the work was to be continued with other and betterplates for the two-dollar notes. The five-dollar notes were to becontinued, and we were to print until five million dollars had beenstruck off the press. This amount, he said, would make us all rich.Then the work was to cease. He told me that it had been decided to buya horse and carriage for the exclusive use of the stone house. I wasto go to New York and meet Cecala who would introduce me to the manwho was to direct the work from now on. I was to tell Cina the day Iintended going to New York.
"After arranging that Giglio and Bernardo were to remain withCaterina, while I was in New York and Uncle Vincent went to Newburghon business, I said that I would be ready for my trip in two days.Then Cina left me after he had warned me not to tell any of thesecrets of the place, explaining how hard it was for the police todiscover the plant. He declared I must be happy in the thought offuture wealth.
"On March 7, 1909, Cina returned to the stone house with a carriage,bringing Giglio and Bernardo to keep Caterina company. He drove me tothe Highland station, and I got aboard the 11 A. M. train for NewYork. Arriving at the Grand Central station I was met by Cecala, whotook me to a house at No. 5 Jones Street. Not finding the party he wasseeking there, he told me to go to my aunt's house and return to theJones Street address at eight o'clock that evening and ask for DonPeppe.
"That same evening at the appointed hour I went to the Jones Streethouse and inquired in a grocery store on the street floor for DonPeppe. A woman indicated to me the door where I knocked. A bald-headedman, about forty-five years old, with a nice light brown moustacheopened the door.
"Cecala was there seated in a chair. He introduced me to the man whoopened the door saying that he was Giuseppe Calichio, a lithographengraver, alias Don Peppe. Cecala turned to Calichio and said:
"'Don Peppe, we are in need of your work. This man (indicating me) isa printer, but he is not capable of doing the work that we require.You must go with him and continue this work. It is already started andeverything will go well. When we have printed two or three milliondollars' worth we will stop. We are in luck.'
"'Unless we are discovered by the police,' replied Calichio.
"'Have no such fear,' said Cecala. 'The place where the work is doneis very secure. No one would ever suspect that such a thing is goingthere.'
"'Listen, Cecala,' said Calichio. 'If things happen as they did when Idid work for you before, then I refuse to go. I do not care to workand risk my life and then get nothing for it.'
"'No, no,' said Cecala. 'You know that that work did not turn out atall well.'
"'I know nothing other than that you caused me to sell my littleprinting shop, and I am in terrible condition financially even now asa result of it. If you want me to do the work you speak about incompany with brother Comito here, you must give me twenty dollars aweek and board. I have a family in Italy to look after, don't forget.As long as you pay me what I want I am ready to work for you; but Imust be paid in advance. The first week that you fail to pay me inadvance I will cease to work and come home. And what is more, my dearCecala, I want good eating and must have wine every day; as you knowthere is not a day that goes by without my drinking wine that I do notget a headache. The wine gives me strength and health.'
"Cecala's answer to this was characteristic:
"'Don Peppe, I will do all that is possible to get you twenty dollarsa week, but I must first talk with the others, my friends, as you knowthat I am not alone in this undertaking. As to the eating, you willhave all that you want and there will be wine. I will have a barrel ofit shipped to Highland, direct to Cina, who will see that you get somewhen you want it.'
"'He is my godfather, whom you will know when you are in Highland,'said Cecala.
"'Perhaps he is that farmer whom I saw in Don Piddu's (Morello's)house last year?'
"'Precisely,' said Cecala.
"He continued: 'I will bring the first twenty dollars to-morrow.To-morrow night you will leave with Comito?'
"'All right. But first, I must see the plates and examine them to seewhether they are good. If I am to do this work, it must be doneperfectly. You know that I do not do things by halves. I must seewhether the plates need retouching. I will bring my tools. If I amunable to use them for this work then we will buy some before leavingthe city.'
"'Have no doubt,' continued Cecala. 'I will come to-morrow morning andshow the plates to you, and you can take them with you.'
"'Come to-morrow about 10 A. M. with Comito, and not before ten,because I expect a person on some _personal_ business and do not wanthim to see you,' counselled Calichio.
"During all this talk I did not say a word. On my way with Cecala tomy aunt's house in Bleecker Street Cecala remarked:
"'Don Antonio, that man Calichio is the professor for the job. InItaly he has printed for aristocratic families, who were in hardluck. He printed for these aristocrats about three million dollars infifty, one-hundred, five-hundred and one-thousand lire notes. _Thismoney was worked off in this country on people who were going to Italyon trips._ Don Peppe is capable of transferring to lithographic stonesthe engraving on bank notes and then transfer the engraving from thelithographic stones on to zinc plates, and in this way perfect theplates that are necessary for our business.'
"'Is that how our plates were made?' I inquired.
"'No. Ours were made by photography and a lot of preparations arenecessary by that method. It is enough to say that I have spent over ahundred dollars up-to-date for chemicals.'
"Suddenly Cecala turned on me a whispered: 'Don Antonio, what have youtold your aunt?'
"'Nothing--why?'
"'Did she ask where you are working?'
"'No. She knows that I am working in Philadelphia.'
"'Good! If she asks with whom you are working in Philadelphia say thatyour employer is a priest, and his name is Bonaventure (----).'
"'Very well,' I replied. 'My aunt is not interested whether I amworking with a priest or with a monk. I have told her that I wasemployed in a printing shop, nothing else.'
"'Good! You are an intelligent man, and that is why I and all myfriends like you Calabrians, because you are secretive and are nevercorrupted. I knew a Calabrian who was arrested with counterfeit noteson him, once, and the policemen made him all kinds of promises andeven punched him, in their effort to learn from him who had given himthe counterfeit money to exchange; but he never told a word. He neversquealed.'
"I made no reply; only shook Cecala's hand and went to my aunt's.
"The next morning, I forget whether it was the 9th or the 10th ofMarch, I went at the given hour to Calichio's house, where I foundCecala examining the zinc plates for the two-dollar American notes, ofthe check letter C, plate number 1110.
"Calichio carefully examined the plates with a magnifying glass. Heexplained to us that the acids that were used for washing the plateswere too strong and had destroyed some fine lines and that it would benecessary to retouch the plates and so raise the missing lines. Hewould do it himself, Calichio said, if the proper tools were broughtto him. Cecala quickly answered that the tools would be boughtimmediately and that we were to prepare to leave for Highland thatnight. We then went to a hardware store on the Bowery, and Calichioselected some chisels and other tools, for which Cecala paid. As soonas we were out of the store Cecala gave Calichio his first twentydollars in advance. Turning to me, Cecala said:
"'Don Antonio, Don Peppe and I are going to buy some chemicals. Youcan go away and be at Jones Street to-night at 10 P. M. ready toleave. Buy what you need, because you will not return to New Yorkuntil the work is completed.'
"I went to a store and bought a pair of shoes for myself and a pairfor Caterina. I also bought some little delicacies of food for her.
"That night the three of us left on the 11 P. M. train for Highland.Arriving there at 2 in the morning, we were met at the station byPeppino Cina with a carriage. He told us that we must go directly tothe stone house and not stop at Cina's farm because a strange facemight arouse suspicion among the neighbors. We did not work that day.We took a much-needed rest."