Page:O'Higgins--The Adventures of Detective Barney.djvu/223



At ten minutes after three he was called to Babbing’s private office and introduced to Eugene Van Amberg as “a young man who has been out on the case.” And with his morning’s lesson in his mind, Barney gave all his gaze to Van Amberg and took a good impression of him, demurely.

He was a tall, loose-shouldered, man of thirty-five, very drily tanned, with a philosophic long nose and a thin-lipped mouth. He did not actually smile at Barney, but his eyes softened and twinkled on him humorously, in an expression which Barney, as a telegraph messenger, had learned to recognize as the precursor of a twenty-five-cent tip. He was well-dressed in a negligent manner. He was growing bald: and it was evident that he had been trying to save his hair by going bare-headed out of doors. His scalp was sunburned.

He said to Babbing: “I did n’t exactly