"Well, I guess I can leave that to you. Yeh oughttuh know how bad yeh
want the matter hushed."
"As I calculate it, then, fifty ought to be enough for the boys; and
fifty will repay you for your trouble."
The end of Hickey's expensive panetela was tilted independently toward
the ceiling. "Shouldn't wonder if it would," he murmured, gratified.
Anisty stuffed something bulky back into his pocket and wadded another
something--green and yellow colored--into a little pill, which he
presently flicked carelessly across the table. The detective's large
mottled paw closed over it and moved toward his waistcoat.
"As I was sayin'," he resumed, "I'm sorry yeh don't see yer way to
givin' us a hand. But p'rhaps yeh're right. Still, if the citizens'd
only give us a hand onct in a while----"
"Ah, but what gives you your living, Hickey?" argued the amateur
sophist. "What but the activities of the criminal element? If society
combined with you for the elimination of crime, what would become of
your job?"
He rose and wrung the disconsolate one warmly by the hand. "But there,
I am sorry I have to hurry you away.... Now that you know where to find
me, drop in some evening and have a cigar and a chat. I'm in town a
good deal, off and on, and always glad to see a friend."
At another time, and with another man, Anisty would not have ventured
to play his catch so roughly; but, as he had reckoned, the comfortable
state of mind induced by an unexpected addition to his income and a
quart of champagne, had dulled the official apprehensions of Sergeant
Hickey.
Mumbling a vague acceptance of the too-genial invitation, the exalted
detective rose and ambled cheerfully down the room and out of the door.
Anisty lit another cigarette and contemplated the future with
satisfaction. As a diplomat he was inclined to hold himself a success.
Indeed, all things taken under mature consideration, the conclusion was
inevitable that he was the very devil of a fellow. With what consummate
skill he had played his hand! Now the pursuit of the Maitland burglar
would be abandoned; the news item suppressed at Headquarters. And it
was equally certain that Maitland (when eventually liberated) would be
at pains to keep his part of the affair very much in shadow.
The masquerader ventured a mystical smile at the world in general. One
pictured the evening when the infatuated detective should find it
convenient to drop in on the exclusive Mr. Maitland....
"Mr. Anisty?"