Page:Arthur Stringer - Gun Runner.djvu/77

 last chance. We've worked too hard on this thing not to see it put through to a finish."

"And?" asked McKinnon, waiting.

"All I want you to do is to keep tab on anything that comes in for this man Ganley, or about him and his tin-horn warfare down there—and on anything that's to go out, until we land."

"Are you acting officially?" McKinnon demanded, with a studied effort towards impersonality. "I mean, are you acting for the department at Washington?"

"I'm acting as the confidential agent of the Consolidated Fruit people, and the Consolidated Fruit people have been co-operating with the department for several weeks now."

"And you simply want to know what these messages are?"

"Yes, that's all; I mean that's all, unless they're of such a nature as to defeat the ends of justice. We don't want anything to get through that's going to help our man slip away from us."

"You mean for me to hold back everything that looks suspicious until you O.K. it?"

"And couldn't you do that if I made it worth while for you?" quietly inquired the stranger.

"How do you mean worth while?"