Page:O'Higgins--The Adventures of Detective Barney.djvu/216

 “Well, that ’s good. It shows that he didn’t. Why do you suppose it shook? He ’s in almost perfect physical condition. He ’s been an athlete. And evidently he does n’t dissipate. . . . I tell him that we detectives don’t smoke—because we ’re often in situations where the trembling of a hand would arouse suspicion. Now, if he has come with anything to conceal, he ’ll immediately become conscious of his hand. And it ’ll show. Understand?”

Barney nodded, big-eyed.

“When his hand shook, that alarmed him. When I added that the tobacco was strong enough to affect his nervous control of himself, he let his cigar go out, did n’t he?”

“I did n’t notice.”

“Well, if you ’re going to be of any use to this office, you ’ll have to begin to open your eyes. You ’ll have to learn to know when a man ’s lying to you and when he ’s telling you the truth. Otherwise, you ’ll be chasing off on all sorts of false scents. If you had