“This Nash is a systematic chap. Kept a memorandum of everything in his department. He’s wise to the pay-roll game.”
“You shouldn’t have allowed him to see——”
“Allowed him?” Hooker interrupted bitterly. “What else was I to do? Didn’t he have a letter from you? How was I to know? I thought of course you knew the man, and that he was wise to things. That’s why I trusted him in a dozen different ways.”
The politician was beginning to share the foreman’s uneasiness.
“Did he come to you after he found out about the pay-roll figures?” he asked.
“Yes. He said he thought at first it was a mistake in the bookkeeping. I imagined he was joking. When I found he was serious, I began to get worried.”
“Has he threatened?”
“Not exactly. But he intends to resign unless his department is run on the square. Handed me a bunch of stuff about being a native of Los Angeles, and how he dreaded to see its citizens get the little end of the deal.”
“Why not let him resign?” Sigsbee said, after a moment’s hesitation. “It’ll save explaining, and clear our minds a bit——”
Hooker broke in angrily: “Look here, Sigsbee, you’re a sensible man. Hasn’t it occurred to you that possibly some one suspects our game and has taken this method of getting the goods on us? We don’t know how Nash got that letter, but in all probability it was just a part of a well-laid scheme. It gave him the opportunity of working on the job and getting the proofs firsthand.”