Presently Joe’s companion, who had been silent most of the time during the stop, arose and signalled the former to follow him. Down the aisle they went. The seat directly in front of Young had just been vacated, and the tall man turned the back over, set his bag down, and seated himself facing Young, draping his overcoat across his knees and patting the seat beside him invitingly as Joe hesitated.
“Sit down,” he said pleasantly. “That’s it. Now, then, here we are all together.” He turned to the astonished Mr. Chester Young and regarded him smilingly. “I guess,” he went on, “we can settle this all up nicely before we reach Detroit, eh? We’ve got a lot of time ahead of us and needn’t hurry.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” sputtered Young, darting a venomous look at Joe. “You haven’t anything on me.”
“Now, now!” The intruder lifted a lean hand deprecatingly. “Don’t let us start off that way, my friend. Let’s be good-natured and just talk things over a bit. Why, bless you, I’m not complaining a mite, am I? When the chief called me up and said, ‘Beat it to the station and find a fellow named Young,’ I was just getting ready for a nice, long snooze. I was up most of last night and was counting a lot on my sleep. Well, it’s all in the day’s work with us Central Office tecs, and I’m a natural-born philosopher. So here I am, and no hard feelings.”
The expression on Young’s face changed from angry defiance to alarm. He swallowed once with difficulty, almost losing his cigarette in the operation, and then his gaze darted quickly about as though seeking an avenue of escape. The man opposite leaned over and patted his knee.
“Don’t think of that,” he said soothingly. “You couldn’t get away if you tried. Besides, you’d break your neck if you slipped off with the train going forty miles. Don’t try any foolish business, my friend. Just keep calm and good-tempered and let’s talk it all over nicely.”
“I haven’t got anything to talk over,” muttered Young.
“Sure you have!” The man chuckled. “You’ve got seventy-five dollars! We can do a lot of talking about seventy-five dollars, eh? Come on now, cards on the table, Young. What’s your idea of it?”
“Idea of what?” Young was rather pale, but he managed to put some assurance into his question. The man lighted a cigar with much deliberation.
“Why, I mean what are you thinking of doing? Now, here’s my advice to you. You don’t need to take it, you know. I shan’t mind if you don’t. If I were you I’d get together what you’ve got left of that seventy-five and hand it over. See? Then we’d just wish each other luck and I’d drop off at the first stop and report ‘nothing doing’ at the office. That would be the simplest thing. But you can come on back to Toledo if you want to and face the music. Only that makes a lot of trouble for you and me and this fellow here. You spend the night in a cell, I don’t get to sleep before one o’clock, and this fellow has to lie around until your case comes up in the morning. Still, I don’t want to persuade you against your own judgment. It’s all in the day’s work for me.” He leaned back and smiled pleasantly at Young.