“Well,” he says, “and if you did get him the reward wouldn’t be yours by rights, but mine. Ain’t you working for me?”
Now I hadn’t looked at the thing that way, but I saw right off he was right.
“I’d like to get it for you then,” I says.
“That’s another part of speech,” says he, “and maybe you can. I ain’t got time to work up the case myself. Go ahead and see what you can do. If anything comes out of it I won’t be mean.”
“Do you mean it?” says I.
“Of course I do,” says he. “You’ve got to take up a big case some time, and this will be a good one to begin with. You’ll have every detective of any account against you, though. There ain’t one chance in forty that you’ll succeed.”
Wasn’t that encouraging?
But Old King Brady always did put things straight and call a spade a spade.
“What shall I do?” I asked him.