"You bet you can. I like some one I can talk to; some guy with ideas. You see I run a broker's office down town, an' its pretty blame slow around a dump like this—you get me?"
"Sure; this seems to be a pretty quiet place."
"Quiet! Hell! it isn't always so quiet. I've dropped in here when it was lively enough, believe me. But tonight it's the limit. Fact is I come up for a little excitement, as much as anything else, but must have struck an off night. You're a smoke inspector, Mike says?"
West nodded.
"Know Fred Karvan, I suppose?"
"Oh, yes; friend of yours?"
"Used to be; we were kids together down on the southside. He's got a pretty soft job now; stands in strong with the City Hall, they tell me. Mean to drop in and see him some of these days."
"You'll find him a mighty good fellow," asserted West to whom the name was entirely unfamiliar.
"Well, I'm not so sure about that. He's got pretty stiff the last few years they tell me. But then you work under him, and ought to know. Head of your department, isn't he?"
"Yes, but I only meet him in a business way, of course."