"Do you know what'll happen to me if de 'Gink' finds I'm peachin' on him?" he asked.
"We have an idea——" John began.
"An idea!" Murphy exclaimed, contemptuously. "Well, I got more than an idea, see? I know what'd happen to me, see? I get my head kicked in, see?"
"We'll promise you that for every piece of information you give us you'll get enough money to make it worth your while," put in Brennan.
"Dat's straight?" asked Murphy, turning to John.
"That's straight," John assured him.
They left a few minutes later with Murphy's pledge, given with an oath worded far stronger than the customary legal one, to act as their informant and to keep secret every word they had told him.
"De 'Gink's' no pal of mine, see?" said Murphy as they left his room. "I'm wise enough to know that he'd cross me in a minute, see?"
The interrogative "see?" that Murphy used to punctuate his sentences was invariably accompanied with a gesture of his hand that resembled a baseball umpire's gesture in calling a runner safe at a base more than anything John could think of.
Before dinner that night Mrs. Gallant handed him an envelope which she said she received in the afternoon's mail. It was addressed to him and opening it he found that it was a note from Consuello.