"I suppose you hold a grudge against this agency, don't you?"
"The Comas company--Craig, rather--hired you to do a thing, and it has
been done. Craig is the one with a grudge; it's against me. I trigged
him. I reckon he has a right to get even, as he looks at it, if his
money can buy what you have to sell."
"We don't like to do some of the things that are put up to us, Latisan.
But I may as well be out and open with you. Craig paid us a lot of money
when we broke the strike for him. We have to consider business. That's
why we went ahead and got you, as we did. If you had been able to turn
around and get us, I would not have held any hard feelings. It's all in
the game." There was no especial sympathy in Mern's tone; he was
treating a victim with a patronizing air.
"I'm afraid I'm not up to tricks enough to play that game," retorted
Latisan. "We'll have to let it stand as it is. I'm sort of trying to
clear up my mind about the whole matter, so as to put it behind me. I
don't want to feel that there's any mistake about Miss Jones. That's why
I'd like to see her once more."
He was showing nervous anxiety.
It came to Mern that here was offered an opportunity to go even farther
with Latisan than the contract had demanded. Now that the man had been
pulled off the drive, a little shrewd maneuvering would hold him in New
York, away from the Flagg interests, until the Comas folks could have
their way. No doubt Craig would consider that the extra service was an
acceptable bonus, over and above what the agency had done.
"I'll tell you." Mern was affable. "Miss Jones is away on another case.
She is likely to report 'most any time. The best way for you is to drop
in each day, say around three o'clock in the afternoon. I think she will
be glad to explain anything you're now puzzled about. You still think,
do you, you'd better not tell me?" The chief's curiosity, his desire to
dig into the doings of his operatives, urged him to solicit Latisan
again. "My advice----"
"I don't want it. I don't take any stock in a man who does the kind of
work you're up to," declared Latisan, bluntly. "I don't take much stock
in anybody, any more. I may be a fool for wanting to see that young lady
again--but I'll call in to-morrow."
"About three!" Mern reminded him, having an object in setting that hour.
Latisan nodded and went away.
The chief called the Comas corporation offices and got Director Craig on
the telephone. When Mern announced his identity, Craig evidently
supposed that it was a matter of a dun and broke in, chuckling: "I'll
bring the check in to-morrow. I'd have done so, anyway, for I plan to
start north right away. What's the matter, Mern? Grabbing for the coin
because you are afraid the job isn't going to stay put?"
"That isn't the idea at all. I simply want to show you something which
will prove that the money has been well earned. I'll show you Latisan."
"I don't care to meet that gentleman right now. Oh no!"
"I'll plant you where you won't be seen. You can view Exhibit A. I think
I'll be able to promise that Latisan is going to stay here in New York.
That ought to make you feel safer when you go back north into the
jungle. No tiger behind a tree!"
"Say, I'll hand you that check like daddy giving a stick of candy to the
baby!" said Craig with hearty emphasis. "I'll own up that I have been
killing time here in the city, waiting to get a line on Latisan--where
he is. I have found that he's a lunatic when he's ugly--and there's no
telling how far a grudge will drive a man in the big woods. So he's here
in town?"
"Yes, and I'm rigging hopples to keep him here, I tell you. Come in at
two forty-five. See the tame tiger!"
Then Mern called in Crowley, who was very ill at ease, but was
obstinately and manifestly at bay. "Let's see. Didn't I understand you
to say, Buck, that Miss Kennard had gone chasing Latisan?"
"That's the way I figured it."
"You're wrong. He's chasing her. That's why he came in here."
The chief had snarled, "You're wrong," in a peculiarly offensive tone.
Mr. Crowley, after his proclaimed success in the Latisan case, had come
up a number of notches in self-esteem and was inclined to dispute an
allegation that he was wrong in that matter or in anything else. He was
provoked into disclosures by sudden resentment. "She stood out there in
the public street and said she was in love with him and would marry him
after the drive was down, and she grabbed up his cap and coat when he
ran away, and if it ain't natural to suppose that she was going to chase
him up and hand 'em over, then what?"
"Look here, Crowley, what kind of a yarn is this?"
"It's true."
"Why didn't you tell me before?"
"It didn't have anything to do with the case, as I was working it. It
was a side issue!" Crowley raised his voice, insisting on his own
prowess. "The idea was to get him off the job--and I did it. I
claim----"
"You infernal, damnation lunkhead, get out of my office till I calm
down," raged the chief.
He yelped at Crowley when the operative was at the door: "Go hunt up
Elsham and bring her here. It looks to me as if Kennard was foxier than
the dame I sent, and has turned the trick in her own way."
"I ain't afraid of questions," declared the operative. "They'll only
bring out that I'm right when I claim the credit."
He hastened to shut the door behind him. Mern acted as if he were
looking for a missile.
"But where is she? Why in the blue blazes doesn't she report in?"
muttered the chief, worriment wrinkling his forehead. On the face of
things, it seemed that, valuable as Miss Kennard had been as
confidential secretary, she was still more valuable as a skillful
operative--and Chief Mern was earnestly desirous of having her back on
the job.