“Yes; but it is wise to be sure you can lick the man you laugh at.”

“Come down from your perch, Mike! You and I ain’t going to fall out.”

“Then don’t be so infernally funny, that’s all.”

“Who did you have the run-in with?”

“Have you seen Cook lately?”

“About an hour ago.”

“He could about tell you whom I ran up against,” said Quick.

“It wasn’t the detective?”

“That’s just exactly who it was, and it all come of me standing as a friend by Enoch,” replied Mike.

“He told me he would have been scooped but for you.”