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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Rat Racket, by David Henry Keller
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Rat Racket
+
+Author: David Henry Keller
+
+Illustrator: Kotzky
+
+Release Date: October 12, 2008 [EBook #26890]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAT RACKET ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ THE
+ RAT
+ RACKET
+
+ By DAVID H. KELLER, M.D.
+
+    _With Dr. Keller's genius for hitting at vital spots every time, he
+    now gives us a brand new idea and an ingenious solution. We hope no
+    racketeers read this story. They might, as a result, cause the
+    police some trouble. Fortunately, however, the racket has a flaw._
+
+
+Richard Moyer, senior partner of the firm of Moyer & Perkins, read that
+letter over twice before he called in the man who had helped him make
+the importing of high grade groceries from England a most profitable
+business for over twenty years.
+
+He simply handed the letter over to Paul Perkins without a word of
+explanation. The latter read it through and handed it back in equal
+silence, but the hand that held the letter trembled.
+
+"Just another racket," exclaimed Moyer, finally.
+
+"Looks like it. I suppose we were foolish to start in paying for
+protection. First our trucks were threatened; then the new building;
+after that our best customers were bombed, and we had to pay to protect
+them. Your son was kidnapped--and the police! They even went so far as
+to advise that we keep on paying--and now this letter! We might as well
+close out the business. All our profits go toward supporting a gang of
+criminals who have muscled into every type of American industry."
+
+[Illustration: They were running out through the picture. A crazed man
+tore it from the wall.]
+
+"On the face of it the letter looks innocent enough," sighed Perkins, as
+he picked it up and gave it another reading. "Simply says that the rat
+menace is increasing, cites several business houses where the rodents
+have done a great deal of damage, and offers to give our warehouses
+complete protection for five thousand a week. You could show that letter
+to a hundred police officials and they would laugh at your fears. But I
+am not laughing. Because that letter was written on the same damaged
+typewriter that the other letters were written on and those gangsters
+have not failed to make any of their threats good."
+
+"Suppose we pretend that they are honest, and answer their letter and
+send them a check for the first week's protection?"
+
+"They will laugh at you and send back the check."
+
+"They may, at that. Then we will give them the cash. In either case, it
+will give us time to think. I feel that they are only experimenting with
+us. They are after larger game than five thousand a week. We shall see
+and hear more of this rat business in a while. Write to them and tell
+them that we will pay the cash, and put the entire matter in the hands
+of the Chamber of Commerce. If it does not act soon, the entire city
+will be in the hands of the gangsters."
+
+The complaint of Moyer & Perkins was only one of a dozen similar ones
+which reached the Chamber of Commerce that day. In a secluded room of
+the Manufacturers' Club a dozen wealthy men met day after day, hearing
+and weighing evidence against a hundred forms of racketeering which was
+rapidly becoming a terrible and powerful enemy to the varied industries
+of the Metropolis. Practically every business had been threatened and
+more than one captain of industry blustered openly, but paid his weekly
+tribute silently in order to protect his business, family, and home.
+
+Up to this time the usual weapon had been the strong arm man and the
+bomb. While these were bad enough, they were at least understood. When
+it came to rats, it was different. Of course, everybody knew something
+about rats--that they were supposed to be numerous around the river
+fronts and warehouses--but on the other hand, rats were seldom seen in
+daylight, and there were many New Yorkers who never saw one.
+
+Not one of the dozen men had been raised on a farm and none had served
+in the trenches during the World War. They did not understand rats, so,
+they hesitated, and finally simply advised the merchants who had
+received the rat letters to use their own judgement. As a result, some
+paid tribute and some did not. There is no evidence to show that those
+who paid were one hundred per cent free from rats in their warehouses,
+but within a week there was ample proof that at least three wholesale
+groceries and one laundry had been invaded overnight by rats in
+sufficient quantity to cause thousands of dollars' worth of damages.
+Moyer & Perkins heard the news and decided to pay another five thousand.
+
+The Defense Committee of the Chamber of Commerce was called to an extra
+meeting at the El Dorado Hotel. The owner of the hotel was one of the
+Committee, a man who, so far, had taken a very inactive part in its
+transactions. He did not waste time in giving the reason for the special
+meeting.
+
+"I was called on the telephone this morning," he explained. "The person
+at the other end wanted to protect my hotel from rats for the small
+compensation of twenty-five thousand dollars a week. He referred
+casually to the three warehouses and one laundry that had been wrecked
+last week. Right at the present time I have, on an average, twelve
+hundred guests a night. They are here to be entertained, not to be
+frightened by rats. But here is the point. If I yield, every other hotel
+in the city will be placed in a similar position. Three hundred thousand
+strangers are in the city every day. Suppose that ten hotels were
+overrun with rats in one week and the fact was circulated in the press?
+What would that cost the city?"
+
+"Better pay it," growled one of the men. He happened to own a hotel. He
+knew how temperamental was the pleasure-seeking stranger. Singularly,
+that advice was the only brand given by the rest of the Committee. They
+seemed strangely unable to offer any remedy except to keep on paying and
+in every way possible bar unpleasant news from the newspapers.
+
+Inside of next month, fifty-five hotels were paying a weekly tax to the
+rat racketeers. One small hotel refused, and was at once deluged with an
+army of rats which drove out guests and employees, killed one old scrub
+woman and severely injured twenty of the cooks, waiters and porters who
+received the brunt of the rodent onslaught.
+
+Moyer & Perkins were still paying the five thousand a week when, to
+their surprise, a visitor dropped into their office and casually
+suggested that they sell him their business.
+
+"It used to be a good business," explained Moyer.
+
+"It still is," interrupted Perkins. "What my partner means is this. We
+have our share of trade, but the overhead has become so heavy that we
+have not been able to make any money lately."
+
+"That is what I understand," commented the stranger. "In fact, I was
+sent here by the Chamber of Commerce. They told me you had been paying
+money for rat protection. That is about the only reason I want to buy
+your business. Your business is supposed to be worth about two hundred
+thousand and your real estate as much more. Suppose I give you half a
+million and advise you to keep quiet about the sale?"
+
+"You mean carry on the business under the old name?" asked Moyer,
+looking at the prospective buyer earnestly.
+
+"Something like that."
+
+The Englishman shook his head.
+
+"Not and remain in this country! They kidnapped my son. No telling what
+they will do next, if the policies of the firm are changed. Anything
+that is done we shall be blamed for, no matter who really owns the
+business."
+
+"Then, you and your partner take a vacation in Europe. You can afford
+it. All I am asking for is an exact account of your transactions with
+these racketeers, so I can have something to work on."
+
+"May I ask what you want to do with the business?" interrogated the
+Junior Partner, Perkins.
+
+"Certainly. I intend to use it as one of my experimental laboratories
+for the study of a mammal, known as the _Mus Norvegicus_, called, in
+common English, the brown rat. He is supposed to have originated from
+the _Mus Humiliatus_ of Central Asia. Now will you gentlemen take the
+half million?"
+
+"We will!" exclaimed Perkins. "Then may I ask your name?"
+
+"Winifred Willowby."
+
+"Not the one who is reputed to own more United States bonds than any
+other man in America?" gasped Richard Moyer.
+
+"I won't admit that I do, but I am the man you are thinking about."
+
+"Then I simply cannot understand why you want to mix up in this rat
+business."
+
+"Simple enough. I am a hundred per cent American. For five generations
+my people have been born and buried in this city. I own over two hundred
+million dollars worth of land here. When the dregs of Europe come over
+to my city and use the rats of Asia to bleed that city white, then I
+personally protest. I am going to start something. I am not sure what,
+but when I finish, this city will be practically rat empty and gangster
+free."
+
+"A large programme, Mr. Willowby," whispered Perkins.
+
+"But I am a large man. Now, suppose I write you gentlemen a check?"
+
+Five minutes later the two partners were alone. Moyer looked at the
+check, then put it in his pocket, and his hat on his head.
+
+"Suppose we get it cashed?" he said to Perkins. "You can do as you
+please with your half, but I am going to take my family and go back to
+England. That man Willowby is only half pint size, but his blue eyes
+look cold to me, and I bet he plays a stiff game of bridge. If he starts
+fighting those gangsters, I do not want to be caught on the
+battlefield."
+
+"How about starting a business over in England?" asked Perkins.
+
+"Not a bad idea. I came over here and together we made half a million
+selling English groceries to Americans. Perhaps we can make a million
+more selling American groceries to Englishmen."
+
+Winifred Willowby not only bought the grocery business of Mover &
+Perkins; he bought a laundry, a small hotel, an apartment house and a
+theatre. He kept all the old employees, put in a manager, instructed
+that the weekly tribute should be paid as usual, and then disappeared
+from New York City.
+
+Ten days later, in Paradise Valley, in the broken country below the
+Poconos of Pennsylvania, he entertained several men, each an authority
+in his special line of art or science. They kept the appointment, not
+being at all sure what it was for, but unable to refuse the invitation
+which was accompanied in each case with a substantial check. They had
+all heard of Willowby, but none had ever seen him. No doubt all were
+rather disappointed at his apparent lack of color and personality. They
+quickly changed their mind when he started to talk, for there was a man
+who, when he had something to say, was able to say it briefly and to the
+point.
+
+"You men are all interested in rats," he began, "and so am I. You have
+worked with rats in one way or another for a good many years. Perhaps I
+ought to introduce you to each other. Mr. William Rastell has written
+the best biological study of rats in the English language. He has done
+for rats what Beebe did for the pheasant. Now the gentleman next to Mr.
+Rastell is Mr. Carol Crawford. I doubt if he ever actually saw or
+willingly handled a rat in all his life, but I am told he knows more
+about the folklore and traditions of the rat than any other living
+person. The third of my guests is Professor Wilson. He is the
+psychologist who has tried to breed different strains of rats, some of
+superior intelligence and others of the imbecile type. What I want you
+gentlemen to tell me is why these rats congregate at times in certain
+buildings of New York City, in such large numbers that they are a
+serious menace to property and even human life, and, then, as suddenly
+disappear as they appeared."
+
+"Are they actually doing that?" asked Professor Wilson, who had suddenly
+become vitally interested in the conversation.
+
+"Suppose they are?" queried Carol Crawford, answering the question for
+Willowby. "That is nothing more than they have done for centuries."
+
+"Do you mean migratory movements?" asked the biologist, Rastell. "Rats
+have always migrated."
+
+"I mean nothing of the kind," protested Crawford. "I mean their sudden
+appearance in a town or a building, their remaining there for a short
+time and then their sudden disappearance. The folklore and fairy tales
+are full of that sort of thing."
+
+"That is why I asked you to come to this conference, Mr. Crawford,"
+explained Willowby. "There is something peculiar happening in New York
+at the present time, and it has to do with rats and their actions. In
+some way rats of New York seem to be under the control of a set of
+racketeers who are able to force them to enter any building they select.
+The rats come and go suddenly. It is all over in a little while, but
+when they are in the building, they do a lot of damage."
+
+Mr. Crawford interrupted him.
+
+"I doubt if you use the right word, when you say the rats were forced to
+enter the building. Perhaps you mean that the rats were by some means
+placed in such a psychic condition that they wanted to enter the
+building."
+
+"That brings the matter into my field of research," insisted Professor
+Wilson. "I doubt the fact that they were forced, but if they wanted to,
+why that brings up all kinds of interesting questions."
+
+"That is what I am after, gentlemen. I simply want to present the
+problem to you and have you solve it. I personally am satisfied with one
+thing. These rats are no different than the rats of five thousand years
+ago. They are just like the rats of classic Greece and imperial Rome.
+Maybe Mr. Crawford will tell us how they acted."
+
+The antiquarian fairly beamed as he started to ride his favorite
+hobby-horse.
+
+"Of course, the story everyone thinks of is the one concerning the Piper
+of Hamelin. It was in the year 1284. The rats were thick, and the Piper
+agreed to lead them out of the town for a certain sum. He played a pipe,
+no doubt some kind of flute, and the rats followed him. When the people
+refused to pay, he returned on the 26th of June, the feast of Saints
+John and Paul, and again played on the pipe. This time the children, one
+hundred and thirty in number, followed him into a cave and were lost.
+The date is well documented. A number of historians believe that it
+actually occurred, and on the gate of the town is the statement.
+
+    "'_CENTUM TER DENOS CUM
+     MAGUS AB URBE PUELLOS
+       DUXERAT ANTE ANNOS
+        CCLXXII CONDITA
+          PORTA FUIT._'[1]
+
+"The same story is found, with variations, in all parts of the world.
+There is, for example, the story of the wicked Hatto, abbot of Fulda. He
+was visited by a swarm of rats who killed him. I can give you a dozen
+variations of that story, but in each of them the rats came and went,
+suddenly, as Mr. Willowby says they have been doing in New York."
+
+"I should like to see a few examples of this mass movement of rats. I
+saw a lemming migration in Norway, but that was different," explained
+Rastell. "It seems to me that if we actually saw one of these nocturnal
+attacks, we might learn why they wanted to do it."
+
+"He is deadly right," agreed Professor Wilson. "A few actual facts are
+worth a hundred theories."
+
+"That is why I have asked you to help me," explained the richest man in
+New York. "I have prepared some experimental stations for your use. I
+can put you in a grocery warehouse and guarantee that inside of a week
+you will see more rats than you ever dreamed of. I have a laundry and a
+small hotel. We can work out the details right now. All I am asking of
+you is to find out, when the rats come, _why they come_ and, once we
+know that, we can do something to solve this problem."
+
+"The game looks interesting," declared the Professor of rat psychology.
+"What I am interested in is why the rats do it. I am sure that it is
+because they want to do it, but are they forced to want to do it? It is
+a problem that will take a lot of research to solve, but Rastell and I
+can solve it. With all respects to our friend, Mr. Crawford, I think
+that he had better stay away and just keep on reading about his little
+pets. A few thousand vicious rats would be hard for him to deal with."
+
+"I guess you are right," laughed Winifred Willowby. "Crawford and I will
+stay here and read about it while you two do the actual scientific work.
+By the way, Crawford, in that story of the Piper, what was given the
+credit for drawing the rats out of the town?"
+
+"The tune that he played on the pipes!"
+
+"Check and double check. Now I would advise you gentlemen to locate some
+musical instrument in that warehouse, and if you find one, experiment
+with it. Of course, you will have to be rather clever to find it. In the
+first place, the people putting it there will have it under cover and
+just as soon as the mischief is done they will remove it."
+
+"It is nothing like that," laughed Professor Wilson, almost in scorn.
+"These are New York rats. It will take more than a little music to lead
+them from their usual haunts. But Rastell and I will start in at once.
+Give us the address of the buildings and the authority to use them. How
+shall we know when the rats are going to come?"
+
+"They will appear within seven days after you stop the racket money.
+Suppose we adjourn the meeting? I want a few words in private with Mr.
+Crawford. You other gentlemen can get all the rest of the details from
+my secretary. He will arrange your salary and expense account. Good
+night."
+
+He took Mr. Crawford into his bedroom.
+
+"Do you really believe that story, Crawford?"
+
+"I positively do. And the people believe it. The Piper walked down the
+Bungen-Strasse and to this day no music is ever played in that street.
+They even date time in that town from the day the children disappeared."
+
+"Then, there must be something in it. Suppose we go over to Europe and
+find out something about that tune, the tune that drew the rats out of
+Hamelin?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Rastell and Wilson followed out their programme. They went to the
+grocery warehouse and made a rat survey. There were a few rodents there
+but not many. Then they issued orders that the weekly payment of five
+thousand dollars be stopped. After that they spent their nights in the
+warehouse. On the fifth night the rats came by the thousands. They
+appeared to be hunting for something, but in the meantime, they ate and
+soiled whatever came their way. The local cats fought heroically, but
+were soon killed and eaten. The rats came up from the cellar through the
+elevator shafts, up the steps, through the cracks in the floor, up and
+up till they started to run around the roof. Then, at four in the
+morning, they started to leave, running down the steps in close
+formation, seemingly panic-stricken at their own temerity and anxious
+only to return to their safe, dark haunts. The two scientists, in their
+wire observation cage, closed their note book, opened the door of the
+cage, and started to make a careful search of the building. It revealed
+nothing but the bones of cats and much spoiled food.
+
+For the next two days they worked carefully through every part of the
+building, hunting for something to explain the conduct of the rats. They
+found nothing. All that they were sure of was the fact that the rats had
+been there, and that they had not come back.
+
+The following week they repeated the experiment in the laundry. The
+course of events was the same. The payment was refused, then the rats
+came, devoured and destroyed, stayed a night and left. Nothing was
+found. They decided to go and have a conference with Winifred Willowby,
+but he could not be located. The two scientists were left to their own
+resources. Having no other plausible plan of action, they selected the
+small hotel for their next experiment. This time they set a hundred wire
+traps and caught several hundred living rats. These they subjected to
+every known experiment, and at the end were forced to acknowledge that
+all they had learned left them in ignorance as to why the rats came just
+for one night in such enormous numbers.
+
+Two months later their employer sent for them. It appeared that he had
+just returned from Europe. He listened to their story, smiled kindly at
+their perplexity, suggested that they take a vacation and forget about
+rats for a while, paid all their bills, and discharged them. He even
+went so far as to say that he was uninterested in rats, that it had just
+been a passing hobby and that just at present he was working on other
+matters. So, he asked them to pass out of his life. But he and Carol
+Crawford went into the wilds of Pike County and did some experimenting
+on his own account.
+
+Meantime, things were going from bad to worse in New York City. The rat
+racketeers were becoming bolder, and started to reach after larger game.
+There were rumors that the Pennsylvania Railroad was paying to protect
+its terminal and that the Interurban was being bled white to keep the
+rats out of the subway. Of course, much of this was rumor and none of it
+reached the newspapers, but there is no doubt about the fact that eight
+million people were becoming rat-conscious and rat-afraid. It was
+growing into a worth-while racket, and those behind it were rapidly
+acquiring more than riches; they were growing so powerful that they felt
+able to control the city government.
+
+More than one business tried to resist and more than one business awoke
+to find that it owned nothing but ruins. Rat protection was worthless
+when the enemy came by the hundred thousand and even million. The only
+worth-while defense against the multitudinous enemy was the payment of
+the weekly tribute, small enough each week, but in the course of the
+year taking the profits from most of the firms compelled to pay. Within
+a year the average business in the city was working for the gangsters
+and content to, at least, be permitted to stay in business.
+
+Then the racket was transferred to other cities, slowly and on a small
+scale at first; then more boldly. Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington
+began to feel the pressure. The profits were divided, but always the
+main share went to New York. For that was where the Big Boys were. And
+ruling the Big Boys was the Old Man, who was so little known and so
+seldom seen that his very existence was questioned by some of the
+smaller gangsters. No one knew how he had obtained his power, but no one
+was brave enough to deny it. The fact remained that he simply ruled;
+reigned like a Caesar; dictated like a Napoleon. From back-stage he
+pulled the wires to make his puppets dance.
+
+It was this man who aroused the interest of Winifred Willowby. In other
+times, in former generations, in far-passed centuries, they might have
+ruled Rome together, or split it in two ways over their dying bodies.
+But in 1935 the short sword had been replaced by the ballot box and
+civil war by the primary election. Neither man had much that the other
+craved for, yet both prevented the other from the full enjoyment of
+life. But it was the blue-blooded patrician who at last gave in and
+secretly asked for an interview.
+
+The conference was held on a fallen log on the shore of Porter's Pond in
+Pike County, Pa. Someone said that if Mark Hopkins sat on one end of a
+log and a student on the other end, it was a University; but, with
+Willowby on one end of the log and the Old Man on the other, it became
+nothing more than a conspiracy against the existence and the very life
+of the nation.
+
+It was a strange sight, those two opposites on the log. The rich man, a
+little over five feet, barely a hundred pounds, with the body of a boy
+and the face of an angel. At the other end a large man, with the torso
+of an ape, and the face of a Titan, a man who had conquered by crushing,
+ruthlessly and devastatingly, all who had dared to oppose him. The two
+were great men, but they were equally lonely. Their very positions as
+leaders of their respective societies prevented any fraternizing with
+their followers.
+
+"I do not want to waste your time, Mr. Consuelo," began Willowby. "We
+ought to be able to understand each other. You would do nicely if the
+Federal Government would leave you alone, but it has the peculiar
+ability of annoying you and interfering with your plans. Am I right?"
+
+"Absolutely! Of course, it does not make any real difference--"
+
+"But it does annoy you--investigations of your income tax and deporting
+your men now and then?"
+
+"Well, what of it?"
+
+"Simply this. After some years of effort, I am at last able to say that
+I control the Government."
+
+"That is the silly brag of a child," sneered the Old Man.
+
+"Not at all," and as he said that, Willowby reached down and picked up a
+handful of pebbles. "See these stones? In the same way I hold in my hand
+a majority of the Supreme Court, over two-thirds of the Senators and
+most of the Representatives. I can swing the votes of enough of the
+states to pass any kind of legislation I wish. Now here is my
+proposition. You handle the cities. I will turn over the country to you.
+Together we will run the nation, and all I want is just one thing--just
+one little favor from you."
+
+"I bet I can guess what that is," laughed the Old Man.
+
+"No doubt, but let me tell you. I want to be the next President."
+
+"I thought so."
+
+"I think we ought to be together on this thing. Perhaps I could be
+elected without your help, even in spite of your opposition. But if I
+am, I will, naturally, try to destroy you. We might end up like the
+Kilkenny cats. But if we are allies, I have eight years of power and you
+have eight years of liberty in which to plunder the richest nation in
+the world. How about it?"
+
+The Old Man drew a deep breath.
+
+"Is this on the level?"
+
+"It has to be. I have a reputation, and it is respectable. I am placing
+myself in your hands. What is there to prevent you from giving the press
+an interview tomorrow?"
+
+"You would deny it!"
+
+"But no one would listen to me."
+
+"I suppose not. What do you want me to do?"
+
+"I want you to give the order to your leaders. There are a hundred of
+them, perhaps a few more. No doubt my list is not absolutely accurate.
+Call them in, from Chicago, St. Louis, New Orleans, Boston and
+Philadelphia. Have them all in one room. You introduce me. Let me talk
+to them. I will open the war chest, fifty million to start with, and
+more to come. You promise them anything you want, and I will make the
+promise good."
+
+"And you will be there? Right in the room with me?"
+
+"I will be there."
+
+"I won't do it!" growled the Old Man. "I never have and I never will. I
+don't do things that way. A whisper to one or two, and the business is
+done, but not a hundred at one time. Some of these boys have never seen
+me."
+
+"Then you want to turn me down?"
+
+"Not exactly, but I am opposed to that meeting."
+
+"Then we are through talking. I will take you to the five-ten train, or,
+if you want to, I will have my chauffeur drive you to the city."
+
+"Let's talk it over."
+
+"No."
+
+"How about having six of the Big Boys there?"
+
+"No! All on my list or none."
+
+"Your list?"
+
+"Certainly! I am not sure that it is absolutely correct, but it
+satisfies me."
+
+"Let me see it."
+
+"No reason why you should not."
+
+The Old Man took the paper that was handed to him. It was no casual
+glance, he gave the names. At last he handed it back to the little man
+with the casual comment:
+
+"I suppose that is not all you know about my organization?"
+
+"I suppose not. Why not be sensible about this, Mr. Consuelo? If we
+fight, we will simply kill each other, but if we become allies who can
+stop us? But I must be sure of you, and the only way I can be sure is to
+have you talk to your men, and then let me talk to them. We can have the
+meeting at night in my offices, you know where, top floor of the Empire
+Trust. No one need be any the wiser. Half an hour, and all the men can
+go back with the money in their pockets and the orders in their brains."
+
+"O.K. When shall we meet?"
+
+"A month from today at ten P.M."
+
+"Good. I'll give the orders, but I want the money, the fifty million. It
+is not much, but part of it will help keep the Big Boys in line. Some of
+them won't like the idea very much."
+
+"A little cash will influence them. Now, how about taking you back to
+the city?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Winifred Willowby made preparations for entertaining his one hundred
+guests. His largest office was transformed into an assembly room. Its
+inch-thick carpets, overstuffed chairs and mahogany trimmings gave it an
+air of luxuriant comfort. There were special chairs for the Big Boys and
+two very special chairs for the Old Man and the Host of the evening. A
+large picture frame, hanging on one wall, and carefully covered, gave a
+hint as to part of the evening's ceremony.
+
+The Empire Trust belonged to Willowby. He had built it so that he could
+have a private office on the top floor, the sixty-third from the ground.
+The elevator reached this floor, but there were no steps. Many buildings
+surpassed it in height, but none in the view that it gave of the city.
+The guests who arrived first commented on the view and expanded their
+chests when they realized that they carried that city in their vest
+pockets.
+
+At last every chair was occupied. It was a peculiar gathering. It
+included judges, politicians, pseudo-business men, several lawyers and
+even the Mayor of one of the largest cities in the Mississippi Valley.
+Facing them, sat the Old Man and Willowby.
+
+Of the hundred men in the audience not one was at his ease. Most had
+come because they were afraid to stay away. Many hoped that they would
+not be recognized. The majority doubted the wisdom of such a meeting and
+felt that the Old Man was slipping mentally. It was the first time that
+many of them had even seen him. He was almost as much of an unknown to
+them as the little man sitting next to him. A peculiar silence hung over
+the assembly. More than one man fondled the handle of his automatic. No
+one seemed to be sure of what was going to happen next. It was a
+fortunate thing that the meeting was held at night; with the audience
+composed of such men. A daylight gathering would have been impossible.
+
+The Old Man and Willowby held a short whispered conference, and then the
+leader of American Racketeers stood up. What had been silence before,
+now became the hush of death. The Old Man was going to talk, and
+everyone wanted to hear what he had to say. It did not take him long to
+start.
+
+"You Big Boys have been running the cities before," he growled, "but
+from tonight on we are going to run the country. Congress and the
+Supreme Court are going to dance to our music and like it. Our new
+friend here has promised to deliver the goods, and he does not want much
+in return. I have told him that we will trade, and what I say goes. Now,
+you boys listen to Willowby, and remember that I am back of him."
+
+Then he sat down. As far as the records are concerned, that was the
+longest speech the Old Man made in his life. The Boys hardly knew what
+to do; they felt they should applaud, but not being certain remained
+quiet. Then Willowby stood up.
+
+"I do not want very much, gentlemen," he remarked. "I only want to be
+the next President of the United States, and I can be, with your help.
+Let me show you a picture."
+
+He walked over to the covered picture, pulled a cord and unveiled it and
+there, life size, were the Old Man and Willowby shaking hands. Anyone
+could tell who they were and what they were doing. That brought the
+house down. Everybody felt that it was time for a little noise. Some of
+them, who knew the Big Boy well enough, went up and congratulated him on
+the new political alliance. In the confusion, Winifred Willowby slipped
+out of the room and no one noticed his absence.
+
+But some one did notice the sideboard and started to sample the bottles.
+Soon everyone was drinking a little. But the Old Man did not drink. He
+just sat there, moodily chewing his cigar and wondering how much of the
+fifty million he could keep for his share.
+
+Nobody saw the first rat. It dropped from behind the picture and ran
+under a chair. The next rat did the same. Perhaps fifty rats were in the
+room before their presence was noticed. By that time they were coming
+faster, by the dozen, by the hundred. That was different. One rat in a
+large room meant nothing. A hundred, five hundred in the same room could
+mean almost anything.
+
+And now they were literally pouring out from back of the picture. A
+cursing man pulled it to the floor and there was a large hole in the
+wall, two feet in diameter, and out of that hole the rats were pouring,
+big brown, hungry rats, dropping to the floor and starting to hunt for
+food. The puzzled men jumped up on top the chairs; the rats stood on
+their hind legs and looked at the large chunks of food with black beady,
+binoculars. The Old Man just sat there, chewing his cigar and cursing.
+He knew what it all meant seconds before anyone else.
+
+A number of the most fearful men made a dash for the elevator. They were
+driven back by a torrent of rats climbing up the elevator shaft. Then
+_fear came--and panic_. With gun and heel, and broken chairs for clubs,
+they started in to kill rats, and for every one they killed, a hundred
+fastened to them with chisel teeth. To make it worse, the lights went
+out, and they were there in the dark, with mutilation as a beginning and
+death as an ending, and still the rats poured into the room, up the
+elevator shaft and out of the hole in the wall.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Old Man walked across the room, kicking the struggling bodies of his
+followers out of his pathway. Rats ran up his legs and tried to bite his
+hands, his face; he swept them off him as a tiger would wipe ants off
+his fur; at last he came to the window. There was the city of New York
+in front of him, the city of a million twinkling lights, the tomb of a
+billion dead hopes; the Morgue of a Nation, covered by laughing, painted
+faces. He raised the sash and sat on the sill.
+
+"Damn Willowby!" he said. "What a fool I was. But I am going to die
+clean. No rat is going to send me to Hell!"
+
+And then he dropped.
+
+In the room the struggle kept on--for an hour and then two. At last the
+screaming ceased, and the only sound was the gnawing of the rats, the
+crunching of their teeth and their satisfied, little squeaks of
+pleasure.
+
+The next morning Winifred Willowby called on the Chief of the Secret
+Service of New York. With him were several men from Washington.
+
+"I want to tell you something," he said. "A large group of men borrowed
+my office to have a meeting last night. They wanted privacy and secrecy
+and they had heard of my place in the Empire Trust Building. So I loaned
+them the entire floor for the night. But my janitors tell me that
+something terrible happened. An army of rats invaded the place, as they
+have been doing with other places in the city, and literally ate every
+man there; that is, all except one, a fellow by the name of Consuelo,
+and he preferred to jump out of a window and die clean on the pavement."
+
+"Consuelo?" asked the Chief. "Not the Old Man? Not _that_ Consuelo?"
+
+"I think that is the one. Here is a list of the men who were there. I
+thought you might like to look it over before you gave it to the
+papers."
+
+The Chief took the list and read it, puzzled.
+
+"Do you mean these men were there last night?"
+
+"I understand so."
+
+"And now they are dead?"
+
+"I think so. Of course, that is for the coroner to say."
+
+"Do you know who these men were?"
+
+"I suppose they were business associates of Consuelo. At least, that is
+what he told me."
+
+"They were the hundred biggest gangsters in America. They were the
+brains of everything vicious in American society. There is not a man
+there whom we have not been after for years, but we just couldn't pin
+anything on them. Their death in one night gives the decent people in
+our country a new lease on life. We can go ahead now and get the little
+fellows. But, tell me, Mr. Willowby, how did it happen?"
+
+"I told you. They had a meeting and the rats came. You know there was a
+rat racket which no one thoroughly understood. Anyway, the rats
+came--and killed them. No one can tell exactly what did happen, because
+everyone who was there was killed. That is all. I am sorry that it
+happened in my office--but I thought I was doing the man a favor to loan
+him the place for the meeting."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That night Crawford and Willowby were talking things over. In rushed
+Rastell and Wilson, brushing the indignant butler aside.
+
+"We have heard a thousand rumors," began Rastell, "and read as many
+foolish statements in the papers about the rat tragedy, and we just
+couldn't wait a minute longer. You just have to tell us what happened.
+We are not going to leave you till you do."
+
+"You tell them, Crawford," whispered Willowby. "Whenever I talk about
+it, my voice becomes squeaky."
+
+"It happened this way," explained Crawford. "After you started to work,
+Mr. Willowby decided to go over and study the story of the Piper right
+in the town of Hamelin. We went there and there was no doubt that the
+town people really believed that it really happened. They told us all
+about it, and the more we listened and paid them, the more they told.
+They gave us the very tune the Piper played to make the rats follow him.
+It was a simple little thing, and we made some phonograph records of it.
+It seems that when the rats hear that tune, they want to get as close as
+they can to the source of the music. Then one old man--he gave us some
+additional bars which he claimed drove the rats frantic for blood, and
+we made a record of that also.
+
+"Afterwards we came back to America and went up into Pike County. Not so
+many rats there but enough to experiment with. We tried the short tune
+and the long tune and they worked on the American rats just like they
+did on the Hamelin ones. We put two and two together and decided that
+the rat racketeers in New York were using this method of attracting
+rats. Just put a repeating phonograph in a building and start it
+playing, and then the rats would come and eat everything to pieces. Of
+course, we did not know the psychology of it, but I suppose it has
+something to do with the effect of musical vibrations on the rat's
+nervous system.
+
+"Then Mr. Willowby thought that it would be a good idea to make a great
+rat trap and attract all the rats in the city to it. He had a good deal
+of work done in the Empire Trust, and rigged up a phonograph with a lot
+of loud speakers in different parts of the basement. He ran a lot of
+ropes down a ventilating shaft for the rats to climb on. I think it was
+his original idea to have them come up to his office by the millions and
+then use some kind of gas on them. At least, he wanted to get rid of the
+rats. Someone must have turned on the phonograph with the entire record.
+Mr. Willowby left the room, went down the elevator and being somewhat
+absent-minded, told the elevator boy that he could go for the night. Of
+course, he was surprised to hear all about it the next morning. All he
+wanted to do was to get rid of the rats."
+
+"Exactly!" purred Mr. Winifred Willowby.
+
+And he lit another cigarette.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] When the magician (the Piper) had led the one hundred and thirty
+children out of the city, two hundred and seventy-two years before the
+gate was built.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+    This etext was produced from _Amazing Stories_ April 1956 and was
+    first published in _Amazing Stories_ November 1931. Extensive
+    research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on
+    this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical
+    errors have been corrected without note.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Rat Racket, by David Henry Keller
+
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