"Confound it!" I exclaimed, "isn't that like the old man—dragging me off this story before it's half finished in order to get another. I'll have to go. I'll get this story from you, Craig."
. . . . . . . .
The day before, in the suburban house, the Clutching Hand had been talking to two of his emissaries, an attractive young woman and a man.
They were Flirty Florrie and Dan the Dude.
"Now, I want you to get Kennedy," he said. "The way to do it is to separate Kennedy and Elaine—see?"
"All right, Chief, we'll do it," they replied.
"I've rigged it so that you'll reach him through Jameson, understand?"
They nodded eagerly as he told them the subtle plan.
Clutching Hand had scarcely left when Flirty Florrie began by getting published in the papers the story which I had seen.
The next day she called me up from the suburban house. Having got me to promise to see her, she had scarcely turned from the telephone when Dan the Dude walked in from the next room.