Never before had a proposition of that sort been made to him.
It would take him from cases that might spring up to demand his attention.
After all, the man before him might have no enemy at all, and the time spent in watching him might prove lost time, though twenty-five thousand dollars would be his at the end of the year.
"If you accept, remember that for one year you belong to me, will be subject to my commands, will have to go whither I send you, and you will not be permitted to follow your calling beyond them."
"It binds one rather close," said Old Broadbrim.
"I want a man who will belong to me. He must devote his whole time to keeping the hand of death away from me, and——"
Custer Kipp leaned forward and opened the desk.
Running his hand into it, he pulled out a package and untied it before the detective's eyes.
"This is a picture of the man as he looked twenty years ago," he said, throwing a photograph on the desk. "He has changed some, of course, but he is the same cool-headed demon he was then."
"And the other—the woman?"