“Oh,” laughed Kennedy, “never think it.  Don’t you suppose the crooks read the scientific and technical papers?  Believe me, they have known about thermit as long as I have.  Safes are constructed now that are proof against even that, and other methods of attack.  No indeed, your modern scientific cracksman keeps abreast of the times in his field better than you imagine.  Our only protection is that fortunately science always keeps several laps ahead of him in the race—­and besides, we have organized society to meet all such perils.  It may be that the very cleverness of the fellow will be his own undoing.  The unusual criminal is often that much the easier to run down.  It narrows the number of suspects.”

“Well,” rejoined Carton, not as confident now as when he had first met us in the laboratory, “then there is a possible suspect—­a fellow known in the underworld as ‘Dopey’ Jack—­Jack Rubano.  He’s a clever fellow—­no doubt.  But I hardly think he’s capable of that, although I should call him a rather advanced yeggman.”

“What makes you suspect him?” asked Kennedy eagerly.

“Well,” temporized Carton, “I haven’t anything ‘on’ him in this connection, it’s true.  But we’ve been trying to find him and can’t seem to locate him in connection with primary frauds in Murtha’s own district.  Dopey Jack is the leader of a gang of gunmen over there and is Murtha’s first lieutenant whenever there is a tough political battle of the organization either at the primaries or on Election Day.”

“Has a record, I suppose?” prompted Kennedy.

“Would have—­if it wasn’t for the influence of Murtha,” rejoined Carton.

I had heard, in knocking about the city, of Dopey Jack Rubano.  That was the picturesque title by which he was known to the police and his enemies as well as to his devoted followers.  A few years before, he had begun his career fighting in “preliminaries” at the prize fight clubs on the lower East Side.

He had begun life with a better chance than most slum boys, for he had rugged health and an unusually sturdy body.  His very strength had been his ruin.  Working decently for wages, he had been told by other petty gang leaders that he was a “sucker,” when he could get many times as much for boxing a few rounds at some “athletic” club.  He tried out the game with many willing instructors and found that it was easy money.

Jack began to wear better clothes and study the methods of other young men who never worked but always seemed to have plenty of money.  They were his pals and showed him how it was done.  It wasn’t long before he learned that he could often get more by hitting a man with a blackjack than by using his fists in the roped ring.  Then, too, there were various ways of blackmail and extortion that were simple, safe, and lucrative.  He might be arrested, but he early found that by making himself useful to some politicians, they could fix that minor difficulty in the life.