“Sure an’ we both know that same!” laughed Grogan. “Yer a gintlemon in yer shtoyle, Barker, but yer a terror whin it comes to timper.”
“But say, Bill, didn’t you have something to do with the boy when he was younger?” went on Casco, curiously.
“Who told you I had?”
“Nobody exactly, but I fancied——”
“You fancy too much, Jim. That matter hasn’t got anything to do with the work on hand.”
Bob listened with bated breath to all that was said. He was sorry Barker had cut the others short. What might he not have learned had the man chosen to continue the conversation!
Bob was in a quandary. Should he summon the police, or should he stay and hear whatever might be said?
“If I go out, they may leave during my absence,” he said to himself. “I think I had better stay with them until somebody comes this way.”
He heard the men seat themselves around a table, and then Barker and Casco lit cigars, while Grogan got out a pipe.
“Now to come to business,” said Barker.