Llanders stares at him curious. "You'd have an interesting time doing that, young man," says he; "very interesting."
"But I say," starts in Waddy again, which was where I shut him off.
"Back up, Waddy," says I, "before you bug the case entirely. Let me ask Mr. Llanders where I can call up your good friend Judson."
"That I couldn't rightly say, sir," says Llanders. "It might be one place, and it might be another. Maybe they'd know better at the office of his estate in Scranton, but as he's been dead these eight years——"
"Check!" says I. "It would have been a swell bluff if it had worked though, wouldn't it?"
Llanders indulges in a grim smile. "But it didn't," says he.
"That's the sad part," says I, "for Mr. Fiske here is in a great stew to see this Bruzinski party right away. There's a lady in the case, as you might know; one they met while they were soldierin' abroad. So if there's any way you could fix it for them to get together——"
"Going down's the only way," says Llanders, "and that's strictly against orders."
"Except on a pass, eh?" says I. "Lucky we brought that along. Waddy, slip it to Mr. Llanders. No, don't look stupid. Feel in your right hand vest pocket. That's it, one of those yellow-backed ones with a double X in the corners. Ah, here! Don't you know how to present a government pass?" And I has to take it away from him and tuck it careless into the superintendent's coat pocket.
"Of course," says Llanders, "if you young gentlemen are on official business, it makes a difference."