“My surprise was due as much to the style of delivery as to its contents. Why didn’t you use your tongue instead of your pencil?”
“Two men in the room were watching me.”
“Didn’t they see you flip the paper?”
“No; without looking directly at them I knew when their heads were turned and they were occupied with that dispute in the bar-room. Then it was that the bit of paper which I was holding and awaiting my chance, dropped on the page of your note-book. Had I spoken, they would have heard me, though they might not have understood the words, but no sound was made by the tiny missive.”
“It would have been natural for me to betray you by my surprise, and to open the fragment and read it at the time their attention came back to the room in which we were all sitting.”
“I knew you were not that kind of a young man.”
The compliment did not wholly please Harvey.
“How could you know that? What means had you of learning anything about me? I noticed that you know my first name.”
“The hotel register told me that you are Harvey Hamilton, from Mootsport, New Jersey; a little study of you when you did not suspect what I was doing imparted the rest. We detectives become skilful in reading character.”
“So you are a detective?” said Harvey in surprise, such a thought never having come to him until this announcement was made.