Page:O'Higgins--The Adventures of Detective Barney.djvu/206

 Babbing had taken a box of cigars from a drawer of his desk. Harper selected one mechanically. “My relations with my brother-in-law are not very cordial. Don’t you smoke yourself?”

Babbing had closed the box. “No,” he said. “That ’s one of the little pleasures that we detectives have to deny ourselves.”

“Why so?”

“For the same reason as circus acrobats. And jugglers. We ’re frequently in places where the trembling of a hand would arouse suspicion. Tobacco affects the control that a man has over his nerves.”

Babbing was putting the box away. He did not appear to notice that Harper’s hand shook as he held a match to his cigar. Barney noticed it. He had already noticed that Babbing’s tone of voice was somewhat too innocent.

Harper exhaled the smoke appreciatively. “You keep good cigars for your clients.”

“Not altogether for my clients,” Babbing