CHAPTER VII
WILLIE GETS HIS CHANCE
Without further incident, the two made their way to Headquarters. Sheridan reported to his chief the discovery of the wool together with the arrest of the wool smuggler. He also described in some detail the manner in which the cotton thief had been found and arrested.
“Of course we are not directly interested in mere theft,” said the Chief, “but that was a good piece of work and I am glad you got the man. He would have stolen wool just as readily as he took cotton, if he had happened to be transporting wool. And sooner or later he would have had a load of it to carry. So you probably saved yourself trouble later on.”
“No doubt of it. We owe that to our young friend here. It seems that he is quite desirous of getting into the Secret Service.”
The Chief swung around in his chair and faced Willie. “I’m afraid you’re aiming a bit high,” he said, with a smile. “You know we never take anybody into the Service except the ablest and most experienced operators. And we have to be very certain of a man’s integrity before we even consider him.”
“I understand all that,” said Willie, “and I have no idea of trying to become a Secret Service agent offhand. But even the best men you have, had to make a start somewhere. I am willing to start at the very bottom, to do anything that would connect me with the Service, so that I could learn about your methods and study your problems. Mr. Sheridan thinks that maybe there might be a chance to work as an office boy. If I could get such a position you’d never be sorry you hired me. I would do the work just as near right as I knew how.”
“I believe you would be glad to have a lad like him in the Service, Chief,” remarked Sheridan. “He has had quite a bit of experience, and he seems to grasp a situation quickly. Now, when I was trailing those fellows before we arrested Larsen, there were several men in the bunch I wanted to keep under observation. I feared the gang would split up and I would lose some of them, so I wanted to telephone for McCarthy or somebody else to help me. But I didn’t want to risk losing the trail while telephoning. This kid was coming along the street. I never saw him before, but you can see by his face that he is intelligent. So I got him to telephone for me.”
The Chief nodded comprehension.
“Do you know what the lad did? When I gave him our telephone number he recognized it as the private call of the Secret Service, and——”
“What!” exclaimed the Chief, turning sharply on Willie. His eyes seemed to bore right through Willie. “How did you know that number was the Secret Service call?”