Page:Arthur Stringer - The Shadow.djvu/102

 charge Sheiner indignantly claimed that he had only been playing the ponies and having a run of greenhorn's luck.

"Abe, I 've come down to gather you in," announced the calmly mendacious detective. He continued to sip his bruilleau with fraternal unconcern.

"You got nothing on me, Jim," protested the other, losing his taste for the delicacies arrayed about him.

"Well, we got 'o go down to Headquarters and talk that over," calmly persisted Blake.

"What 's the use of pounding me, when I 'm on the square again?" persisted the ex-drum snuffer.

"That 's the line o' talk they all hand out. That 's what Connie Binhart said when we had it out up in St. Louis."

"Did you bump into Binhart in St. Louis?"

"We had a talk, three days ago."

"Then why 'd he blow through this town as though he had a regiment o' bulls and singed cats behind him!"

Blake's heart went down like an elevator with