"What is your pleasure in the matter?" Jack asked Bobo with a respectful air.
"Oh, pay him! Pay him!" was the agitated reply.
A pleased faraway look appeared in Mr. Whigham's eye. He was evidently figuring on how he would spend his commission.
"Will you sign a check?" asked Jack.
Jack and Bobo went into the next room, and presently returned with a check, which was handed to Mr. Whigham. That little gentleman received it with thanks, and bowing, left with a promise to send "the contracts" around as soon as they could be made out.
Jack fell into a study.
"What do you make of it all?" Bobo asked helplessly.
"I may be wrong," said Jack slowly, "but my guess is that Whigham has a nice little wife and baby, and lives in a semi-detached with a neat back yard in Bayonne. I believe he is a member of the men's bible class and the Y.M.C.A., and is in every way a decent little citizen without a suspicion of the real nature of the devilish business he is engaged in. We'll have to look a long way past him for the principal."
"Devilish business!" repeated Bobo. "Don't—don't you believe what he said about the Reds being after you—I mean me, and all?"
"Not a word! Though I think the worthy little man believed it himself."