"I never saw him before. Shall I send him in?"
"I suppose it might be as well. Some business promoter, I fancy."
But as Conscience left, Tollman's scowl returned.
"Hagan," he repeated with a soft but wrathful voice to himself. "The blackmailer!"
His face bore a somewhat frigid welcome, when almost immediately the manager of the Searchlight Investigation Bureau presented himself.
Mr. Hagan had the appearance of one into whose lap the horn of plenty has not been recently or generously tilted, and the clothes he wore, though sprucely tailored, were of another season's fashion.
But his manner had lost none of its pristine assurance and he began his interview by laying a hand on the door-knob and suggesting: "The business I want to take up with you, Mr. Tollman, had best be discussed out of hearing of others."
Tollman remained unhospitably rigid and his eyes narrowed into an immediate hostility.
"Whatever business we may have had, Mr. Hagan," he suggested, "has for some time been concluded, I think."