Meanwhile Johnny was sizing up the sergeant. Nothing very wonderful to look at, this Sergeant McCarthey. Average size he was, with a face like a hawk. His nose was too long. It was curved like a beak. Shining out from behind it were two small black eyes. His head was, for the most part, bald, and he was but forty-five.
“Reminds me of a bald eagle,” Johnny told himself.
To complete the picture Johnny discovered an ugly scar running down the sergeant’s jaw and around his neck. The sergeant had got that scar during his first year of service. A holdup man, caught in the act, had pretended to surrender. He had given up his gun, but seeing an opening, had stabbed McCarthey, half behind his back. From that time on McCarthey began earning the name of the hardest man on the force. Certainly he made them “stick ’em up, and keep ’em up.” For all that, there were those who knew that the sergeant had a very human side.
“What do you think, Drew?” he shot at the young detective. “Do you think those pickpockets had their gang walk in on this boy and beat him up?” He was speaking of Johnny.
“Tell the truth, I don’t,” said Drew Lane. “First place they laughed when they saw him. If—”
“Can’t tell as much about a crook’s laugh as you can a bullfrog’s croak,” McCarthey broke in. “Not as much. When a frog croaks he’s saying he’s happy. A crook’s liable to laugh when he gets ten years.”
“It’s not just that,” said Drew. “You know yourself that pickpockets are sneaks; coyotes, not wolves. They may be well organized in some cities. They’re not in this one.”
“You’re right,” said McCarthey, shuffling a sheaf of papers on the desk. “That possibility is about all there is to that clue. But we’ll keep the sheets; you never can tell.
“I work it out this way.” He spread five sheets of paper on the desk. “See! This one is for your pickpocket friends who are naturally afraid of Johnny as a star witness against them. We’ll put it over here.” He laid it aside.
“But what about the squad call that was going through when the raid on the radio station was made?” Drew broke in.