Bill looked up from his work quickly.
"Surely we don't have to curry the favor of a brat like that!" Then, in a moment, "His preaching against me to-day didn't seem to get him in very strong with the manager, Mr. Robb?"
Robb made a face.
"Oh, I don't pay much attention to him. Sometimes I feel sorry for him, and then again I can't help despising him. He's got bank aristocracy in him, and that makes it hard for him among us common fellows. I think I insulted him this afternoon—"
Bill interrupted with:
"Wouldn't be surprised if he squealed it to the Big Eye."
The boys called Inspector I. Castle the "Big Eye," because of his initial and of his facility for seeing things; also for other reasons.
"Oh, no," said the manager, sceptically, "I don't think he's that much of a cad."
"Well, you know, Mr. Robb, he'd soothe his poor little conscience with the thought that it is a fellow's duty to report any treason against head office. That's the policy the bank itself pursues. Why should Castle have any more honor than he is taught to have?"
Evan pretended to be busy, but he was listening.