Page:O'Higgins--The Adventures of Detective Barney.djvu/214

 and they ’ll be watching for my men. We must be cleverer than that.”

“Oh, I see.” Harper shook hands with him. “I ’ll hear from you as soon as possible.”

“Don’t worry. We ’ll begin at once. Go out this way.”

When the door had closed on him, Babbing sat down at his desk again, took off his gold spectacles and settled back meditatively in his chair, tapping with his spectacles upon his teeth. They were small, sharp teeth, set far apart and very white. “Well,” he asked Barney, “what do you make of it?”

Barney had made practically nothing of it. He had not tried to. He had regarded Harper as a surgeon’s assistant might regard a prospective patient. He had not expected to have to pay any attention until the case came to the operating table. He smiled, defensively.

“Well,” Babbing said, “you did n’t like him, did you?”