“Well...”
“Got a permit to carry that gun you’re lugging around?” Tragg interrupted.
Blaine’s hand moved automatically to his pocket. “Sure, I got a permit. I...” He stopped as he caught the triumphant gleam in Tragg’s eye.
Tragg laughed. “What did you do before you became Karr’s bodyguard?”
“I had a detective agency in Denver Colorado,” Blaine blurted, red-faced. “I wasn’t making very much money at it, and when I had this opportunity to draw steady wages and good wages, I jumped at it.”
Tragg said, “That’s better. If you want to keep that permit to carry that gun and if ever you want to go back into the detective business, you’ll be wise to co-operate a little. Now what do you know about Hocksley?”
“Absolutely nothing.”
“Ever see the man?”
Blaine said, “Look here, Lieutenant, I’m going to be frank with you. I was hired to act as Karr’s bodyguard. I gathered that, because of some old feud in China, his life might be in danger. I’ve never heard him mention the name of Hocksley, and today is the first time I ever knew about that Shanghai partnership. Karr never told me what specific danger he feared. I had an idea he was still doing a little gun-running — getting stuff past the Japs. I won’t go into details, but I think Karr’s the brains of the works. I think it would raise the devil, not only with Karr, but with an underground grapevine by which munitions are being smuggled in, if Karr got any publicity. I don’t know how the government would feel about it, but I presume that, at least unofficially, they’d have some interest in the matter. That’s one of the reasons I’ve been keeping my mouth shut. I can’t tell you a lot about methods, but, as I get the picture, there’s quite a fleet of Chinese fishing junks that put out from all the coast villages. Those people have to five, and in order to live, they have to fish. The Japanese realize that. Occasionally, they search these junks. Some of them are considered above suspicion. Some aren’t. They can’t search them all. Therefore, you can see it’s pretty important for Karr to keep under cover, and — well, that’s been my job. I’ve been keeping him sewed up and out of circulation.”
Tragg took a deep breath, looked across at Karr.