“Go round the corner,” he muttered, “and meet me under the elevated.”
Willie went on down the street, turned the corner, and walked to Pearl Street. There he waited in the shadow beside a pillar of the elevated railway. Presently Sheridan came round the other corner of the block and joined him.
Willie was all afire with curiosity. He wanted to ask his companion a thousand questions, but had discretion enough to keep quiet.
“See here, kid,” said the Secret Service man. “What’s your name?”
“Willie Brown.”
“What part of town do you live in?”
“I live in Central City, Pennsylvania. I’m just visiting in New York. Got here this afternoon.”
The Secret Service man stopped and looked at his companion searchingly.
“Well, you’re the cleverest country kid I ever saw. What made you try to disguise yourself and slip your message to me so quietly, just as though I was doing detective work?”
“Why, you are doing detective work,” said Willie. “You’re a United States Secret Service man.”