"You're right, Mark; but they're learning not to fool much time with our office. They're beginning to find out that it isn't healthy."
"I'm glad to hear it. And now tell me, my good friend, can you devote a little time to me for a day or so?"
"Most certainly. But let me ask again, what's up? Your message, you know, gave me no sort of idea."
"True. Well, I'll tell you. We've had a murder in our place—a most cowardly affair."
"That sort of thing happens pretty often up your way, doesn't it?"
"Well, we do seem to have more than our fair share of cowardly murders and kindred crimes; but this was a peculiar case—a most unnecessary killing."
"The victim was an old woman—a Jewess or a German, wasn't she?"
"Yes."
"Kept a low barroom or something of the sort?"
"You're right, the place was a regular dive, but had been carried on with so much secrecy that even the police never really knew what was going on there."