"Was it? You overlook the fact that I stood to lose a little money of my own—if nothing else!"
"I did. I actually did! By Jove, I don't see how you can forgive me, Huber."
Luke's answer was to push open the door. Within half an hour the interview was concluded. Forbes had deposited his securities and received a certified check. It was all so simple that, while Luke was wondering why he had not thought of it twelve hours before, Forbes was saying to himself:
"How was it I didn't think of it last night?"
§4. Luke intended to go from the Ruysdael offices to those of the League, but as he parted from Forbes on the street after the loan had been secured, something happened that changed his plans. At the foot of the elevator-shaft of the building, he noticed a little man leaning against the marble-paneled wall: the man was an unostentatious fellow, commonplace as to both face and clothes, but Luke thought he had seen the figure before.
He passed with Forbes through the revolving doors of the office-building and walked to the curb. He glanced back and saw the commonplace man coming through the doorway behind him. Then he remembered: when he left the Arapahoe that morning, he saw this man walking down the other side of Thirty-ninth Street. He had thought nothing of it at the time, but now his experience of detectives told him that this man bore the marks of the detective.
Luke called a taxicab. The man, he saw, prepared to call another.
"I'll try to keep my promise to see Betty to-night," said Luke to Forbes.
"You must," said Forbes. His gratitude, though not so hot as it had been, was still warm.
"I'll try. There's a lot to be done—politically, you know. But I'll try-"