“Oh, I don’t want any of your impudence,” snapped the rascal.
“I wouldn’t give you any, or anything else belonging to me,” clicked Hank Butts, decisively.
“If you’re standing out here to watch me,” continued Dalton, “I am willing to tell you that I am not leaving the hotel for the present.”
“That, or any other information you are willing to offer me, will be treated in the utmost confidence, I assure you,” promised Hank.
“Don’t be too frolicsome with me!” warned Dalton, wrathily.
“I?” echoed Hank, looking astonished. “Why, I didn’t say anything until you spoke to me.”
With a snort Anson Dalton strolled away to a chair, seating himself and blowing out great clouds of smoke.
“He isn’t exactly glad to see us here—I can guess that much,” thought Hank. “But I wish I could guess how Anson Dalton comes to be here. I didn’t see anything of his drab boat in the river.”
In the meantime Tom Halstead and Powell Seaton, after dropping into chairs in the office, were talking most earnestly in undertones. 236 From where they sat they could see Dalton’s red bag resting on a shelf in the coat-room.
“I’d give the world to know whether the rascal has the stolen papers still in that bag!” cried Seaton, anxiously.