“Won’t an assistant do?” he asked. “The Chief’s somewhat busy.”
Palmer, having made up his mind to see Chief Connor, was not to be sidetracked.
“No,” he said decidedly. “I won’t detain the Chief but a minute; it’s important. Here’s my card,” and he laid it on the desk. The Captain pushed over some printed blanks.
“Fill out these forms,” he directed, “both you and your friend,” and he picked up his telephone receiver and held a subdued conversation which he discontinued when Palmer and Maynard handed him the filled-in blanks bearing their signatures and addresses. A touch of the push button and the attendant returned.
“Take these gentlemen upstairs,” the Captain directed and turned to interview some newcomers.
As Maynard accompanied Palmer and their guide up the winding staircase and through the broad corridors he noted the numerous uniformed attendants pacing up and down. In the outer office of the Secret Service Headquarters they were met by a polite secretary who invited them to be seated and confide their business to him, which Palmer, his obstinacy aroused by what his amour propre took to be a slight in shelving him with a subordinate when he desired to see the Chief, declined to do.
The secretary’s patience was wearing thin under Palmer’s irritating manner and he was about to close the interview when the swing door leading to an inner office opened and Detective Mitchell stepped out. He halted at sight of Maynard, who sat with his back toward the door, and disappeared into the room again. An instant later the call bell buzzed and, excusing himself, the secretary stepped inside the inner room.
“Nice business keeping a man of my standing waiting in an anteroom,” fumed Palmer, turning to Maynard, but the latter’s rejoinder was lost by the return of the secretary.
“Will you and your friend step this way, Mr. Palmer?” he said. “Chief Connor will see you.”
Palmer’s walk past the secretary was indicative of his feeling of triumph; he had gained his point. Maynard, following close at his heels, smothered a smile as they reached the large table near the window where sat Chief Connor with Detective Mitchell standing by him.