"Ach! that is bright!" he cried, "oi, oi, oi, but he is smart, this Herr Eichenholz! Who'd have thought of that? Brilliant, brilliant!"
"As you say, Herr Kore, enquiry agents must live, and I am quite prepared to pay for the information I require...."
I pulled out my portfolio as I spoke.
"The matter is quite simple," Kore replied. "It is already arranged. The charge is five hundred marks. My client said to me the last time I saw him, 'Kore,' he said, 'if one should come asking news of me you will give him the word and he will pay you five hundred marks.'"
"The word?" I said.
"The word," he repeated.
"You must take Dutch money," I said. "Here you are ... work it out in gulden ... and I'll pay!"
He manipulated a stump of pencil on a writing block and I paid him his money.
Then he said:
"Boonekamp!"