Page:Yellow Claw 1920.djvu/216

 Sowerby stared at Stringer, and Stringer stared at Sowerby.

“Except,” began the latter in a voice hushed with amazement, “that he’s got the coolest cheek of any mortal being I ever met.”…

Dunbar’s grim face relaxed, and he laughed boyishly, his square shoulders shaking.

“He was leading up to the confidence trick!” he said, between laughs. “Damn it all, man, it was the old confidence trick! The idea of a confidence-merchant spreading out his wares before three C.I.D. men!”

He was choking with laughter again; and now, Sowerby and Stringer having looked at one another for a moment, the surprised pair joined him in his merriment. They turned up their collars and went out into the rain, still laughing.

“That man,” said Sowerby, as they walked across to the stopping place of the electric trams, “is capable of calling on the Commissioner and asking him to ‘find the lady’!”