“All right,” he said; “I’ve got ten minutes to spare.”
He was speculating a bit as he followed the storekeeper into the cramped private office.
“Set down,” invited Cope.
“I prefer to stand, if you don’t mind.”
“All right. I’ll come right to the p’int. I s’posed you was ruther interested in our baseball team, and I didn’t cal’late you’d do anything to hurt it.”
“You were quite right,” said Bent.
“Well, if that’s the case, why have you been tellin’ that Tom Locke is a college pitcher from Princeton? Why did you go and put such a notion into the noddles of the Bancrofters? What made you give Mike Riley such an idea?”
The young man frowned.
“Who says anything of the sort? I have never mentioned this fellow you call Locke to Riley, or any other Bancroft man. I wish you would explain how you got the impression that I had.”