"He's not cut off yet," answered Towton with a shrug. "I don't want to throw cold water on your prospects, Vernon, but these old fellows have wonderful recuperative power."
"I shall be glad if he gets better," said Vernon emphatically; "and now that we are friends I may be able to make his life more cheerful. He has a dismal time all alone in that barrack of a house. But I don't see why I should bore you with all this family history."
"I do," said the Colonel unhesitatingly. "It's because you and I have been drawn into closer friendship by our common acquaintance with Maunders, who is playing fast and loose with the two girls we love. We have had to make common cause against the enemy, and so are forced to speak freely. Besides, you are a good chap, Vernon, and I don't wish to work alongside a better man," and, leaning forward, the Colonel gave his friend's hand a grip.
"Would you do that, would you say that, if you knew that I was a private detective, or, to soften the term, a private enquiry agent?"
"What!" Towton nearly jumped out of his chair. "As I had no money when my father died," explained the young man steadily, "and my uncle would have nothing to do with me, I turned my powers of observation to account by setting up as Nemo, of Covent Garden, to hunt down criminals and to help people to keep their secrets when threatened by blackmailers. Mine is a perfectly honourable profession, I assure you, Colonel, but you may have your prejudices."
"Well," said Towton after a pause, "I don't deny that I care little for detectives, who are too much the bloodhounds of the law. But I am quite sure that you were driven to take up the business, and I am also quite sure," added Towton emphatically, "that the business as conducted by you is all that can be desired in the way of honour. Why did you tell me?"
"If I hadn't, probably Maunders, when he found that we were working together, would have told you. It struck me as a wise thing to take the wind out of his sails."
"There's something in that," admitted the Colonel, twisting his moustache. "And I am glad that I heard of your profession from yourself. But how did your friend Maunders find out what you kept secret?"
Vernon shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows? He seems to have a wonderful nose for smelling out things to his advantage."
"To his advantage? Come, now!"