"
"But I tell you I'm not--" I began, when he interrupted me.
"You can't make that go here," he said contemptuously. "And I'll tell
you what, Wilton, I shall have to take you into custody if you don't
come down to straight business. We don't want to chip in on the old
man's play, of course, especially as we don't know what his game is."
Detective Coogan appeared to regret this admission that he was not
omniscient, and went on hastily: "You know as well as we do that we
don't want any fight with _him_. But I'll tell you right now that
if you force a fight, we'll make it so warm for him that he'll have to
throw _you_ overboard to lighten ship."
Here was a fine prospect conveyed by Detective Coogan's picturesque
confusion of metaphors. If I persisted in claiming my own name and
person I was to be clapped into jail, and charged with Heaven-knows-
what crimes. If I took my friend's name, I was to invite the career of
adventure of which I had just had a taste. And while this was flashing
through my mind, I wondered idly who the "old man" could be. The note I
had received was certainly in a lady's hand. But if the lady was
Henry's employer, it was evident that he had dealt with the police as
the representative of a man of power.
My decision was of necessity promptly taken.
"Oh, well, if that's the way you look at it, Coogan," I said
carelessly, "it's all right. I thought it was agreed that we weren't to
know each other."
This was a chance shot, but it hit.
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