“You could be in better business,” replied the other. “What are you doing it for?”
“You know very well,” replied Patsy.
“Now that you have got up to me, what are you going to do?” he asked.
That was just exactly what Patsy was asking himself. What was he going to do? But he made a bluff, and said:
“I am going to find out who you are, and what your name is.”
“That’s easy,” replied the other. “But what do you want to know for?”
“That’s my business,” replied Patsy.
The fact was, Patsy didn’t really know why he had been ordered to follow the man. He suspected that it was because the man had followed Nick, and that there was a desire to know who he was.
“Of course, that is your business,” replied the other. “Very well, my name is George Vernon; I am one of the secret inspectors of this company. I followed Nick Carter this morning, thinking he touched the case I am on, until I found he did not. Then I sheered off. I take it I am a good deal in the same business you are.”
All the time he was talking this way he had been edging toward a door.