"Do you take me for an idiot to let any one want to ask where I found it?"
He was satisfied, and his relief showed itself in his immediate change of manner. "All right, we'll bury the hatchet if you like," he said with a very poor attempt to hoodwink me.
"You can go then;" and I moved to let him leave. I was anxious to get rid of him now, as it was time for me to be off to the station. I must have betrayed my impatience somehow, for he started, stared a moment, and sat down. "You're in a deuce of a hurry."
"Dinner time, and I'm hungry. Clear out."
"Nice room you've got here, Lassen," he answered, squinting round, and started again as his eyes fell on my suit case. "O-ho, that's the game, is it?" he chuckled. "Going to bolt? No good, my friend, no good at all."
His fat insolent chuckle roused the devil in me. "You'd better drop that tone with me, von Erstein, and not interfere with my movements."
"Shall we go and dine together?" he sneered. "It'll be safer, for there are a few inquisitive friends of mine waiting outside."
I had noticed one or two men hanging round the building as I entered, and it wouldn't do to be shadowed. So I went out, locked the front door and put the key in my pocket.
"What's that for?" he growled uneasily.
"So that our chat shan't be disturbed. I've sampled your friends already, remember," I said drily.