“How did he make you? Did he threaten you?”
“He have-a dagger. He say he killa me, if I not speak as he say.”
“Ah, a dagger! An Italian stiletto?”
“No, not Italiano. I not see it much, I so fright’. But I know it if I see it more!”
After a few more questions, Stone was ready to go. But Fibsy sidled up to the woman. “Say,” he said, “what you give your bambinos for the cough, hey? Med’cine?”
“No, I burna da Vaporina, da Vap’ da Cressar lina——”
“Gee! Quite so! All right, old lady, much obliged!”
After that matters whizzed. On the ride down town, Fibsy told Stone much. Stone listened and made that much more. The two acted as complements, the boy having gathered facts which the man made use of.
CHAPTER XXV
THE WHOLE TRUTH
The two went straight down to the office of the district attorney. “I must send a message to Mr. Whiting at once,” Fleming Stone said to a secretary there.