"'Well, I ain't got no time.'"
"'If we send a reporter down, will you talk to him and——'"
"'No, for there ain't nothin' to tell——'"
"'You're Halsey, aren't you?'"
"'Yes.'"
"'Well, we should like to get some of the details; it was a very heroic rescue, and——'"
"'Well, there ain't no details and there ain't no heroics. I git paid for what I do, and I done it,'" and he rang off the 'phone.
A dead silence followed—one of those uncomfortable silences that often follows a society break precipitating the well-known unpleasant quarter of an hour. This silence lasted only a minute. Then Captain Shortrode remarked calmly and coldly, and, I thought, with a tired feeling in his voice:
"Well, what else could he have said?"