The forger smiled, and there was malignant triumph in his expression.
“Pooh!” he exclaimed. “Even if I used it, they would never get on to me. See this?” He pointed at the strange contrivance on the muzzle.
Mary's curiosity made her forget for a moment her distaste.
“What is it?” she asked, interestedly. “I have never seen anything like that before.”
“Of course you haven't,” Garson answered with much pride. “I'm the first man in the business to get one, and I'll bet on it. I keep up with the times.” For once, he was revealing that fundamental egotism which is the characteristic of all his kind. “That's one of the new Maxim silencers,” he continued. “With smokeless powder in the cartridges, and the silencer on, I can make a shot from my coat-pocket, and you wouldn't even know it had been done.... And I'm some shot, believe me.”
“Impossible!” Mary ejaculated.
“No, it ain't,” the man asserted. “Here, wait, I'll show you.”
“Good gracious, not here!” Mary exclaimed in alarm. “We would have the whole place down on us.”
Garson chuckled.
“You just watch that dinky little vase on the table across the room there. 'Tain't very valuable, is it?”