“I said, ‘Yes, what do you want?’
“‘Do you know one Jack Bates?’
“‘I do,’ said I, now thoroughly aroused to anger. ‘Is it any of your business if I do?’
“He looked at me kindly, yet gravely, and replied in even tones, ‘I am sorry to say it is some of my business, and a very unpleasant business at that.’
“Then he asked me if there was not a private office where he could talk his business over with me. So I took him into Mr. Walton’s private office.
“He said, ‘Will you tell me what you know of Mr. Bates?’
“I told him I didn’t know anything against him, if that was what he was waiting to hear me say.
“‘Will you tell me what your relations are with him?’
“I could feel the blood leaving my face, and I must have repeated his question, for he said, ‘Yes, tell me whether you have ever had any relations with him which you should not hold.’
“‘I will not tell you a thing,’ said I. ‘Who are you and what do you mean by asking me such questions?’