JAIL-BREAK 19
"He would simply stand there, blending with the trees."
its scope. That, Littell knew, was because
the plan he had evolved had not quite
succeeded. A little slip. One any man
might make. And it had seemed a risk
anyone would take, when the stakes were
considered.
Half a million dollars! That was the
heritage Littell would have split if the
murder of his ward, Elizabeth Moore,
had gone undetected. And God knows it
should have succeeded. Littell could still
glow when he thought of the subtlety of
the plan.
The sub-microscopic germs of psittaco-
sis, a thing most people couldn't even
pronounce, let alone understand. Dread
virus of the parrot disease that could kill
like a flaming sword, but subtly, unde-
tectably. A virus obtained through Doc-
tor Harley, eminent Government author-
ity, whose daughter had secretly disgraced
herself to such a degree that Harley could
be blackmailed into anything through fear
of her exposure. Death for Elizabeth
Moore; half a million dollars almost in
the hand.
And then they had been caught.
"Don't keep thinking it was my fault
we were tripped up," he said urgently.
"It was just bad luck—"
"It isn't because we were caught that I
could cheerfully see you burned at the
19