“Did you ever try to do any detective work in Central City?”
“Of course I didn’t. You know how much chance there is to do that sort of thing in a little town like Central City. Why, people would have thought I was nutty for sure. They would have thought I had been reading dime novels.”
“Guess you are right, Willie, and it’s a good thing you didn’t attempt it. Yet I’m sure you have the qualifications. I hadn’t thought about you in that connection before; but I can see how your ability fits you for the work. You remember the time we discovered some smuggling taking place aboard this very boat——”
“The time you discovered it,” corrected Willie.
“No interruptions now. I have the floor. You remember I wrote you about the smuggling. One of the Secret Service men that came to investigate the matter said that good detective work was nothing but close observation, correct thinking, and persistence. And I believe it. And I never knew anybody that could hold a candle to you for close observation.”
“I wish I could believe it,” sighed Willie.
“Well, it’s true, and sooner or later you’ll get a chance to use your powers of observation the way you want to. But in the meantime, don’t you worry about a job. We’ll make this trip to Galveston and back, and we’ll have a corking good time. And when we come back I’ll try to get you a job. You’re a mighty good wireless man for an amateur, and with a little help I can give you, you’d soon be competent to take a job.”
“Gee! If you could get me a job, Roy, I’d be grateful to you to my dying day. I don’t care what it is. I’d take anything, so it was a job. Later on I could perhaps find just the sort of job I want. And you needn’t be afraid to recommend me, Roy. I’d make good.”
“Of course you would. There isn’t any question about that. And anyway, I wouldn’t want to get a fellow a job if I thought he wouldn’t make good.”
Just then the door of the wireless house opened, and a grinning, white-headed, old darky thrust his head through the doorway. “De puhsuh’s compliments, Mr. Mercer, and he say could you help him a bit he’d be ’bliged to you.”