“No,” said the detective with thought. “I don’t see what more he can do. They’ll naturally want to hear from him exactly what we’ve been doing. He’ll probably turn us over to another man, or if, it being the dead of night, we went to the hotel, he’d judge we were safe for an hour or so....”
“And we’ll arrange that he thinks that. But the point is that you agree he’ll report. And who to?”
“Why, to Neuburg—the gang.”
“Yes—he’ll lead us to them,” smiled Clement quietly. The detective looked at him, and then smiled in return.
“Say, that’s pretty snappy thinking. Tell me the idea.”
“It’s based on the fact that he thinks we don’t suspect he’s following us. Now, this is my plan. When the train stops at Cobalt we’ll delay getting off until the last.... That’ll thin out the other passengers who alight ... that’ll make it easier for you to spot him, to fix him in your mind....”
“I’ve got him already,” smiled the detective. “That’s our job, you know, to remember men. I know him. I won’t miss him.”
“All right. But, anyhow, you’ll get a chance of picking him up easily if there are fewer people about. When we get on to the platform, and he has a chance of hearing all we say, I’ll arrange in a loud voice to have both the bags carried to the hotel. Then you will say to me (for, remember, we don’t suspect he’s there, we don’t suspect the gang knows we’ve come to Cobalt), also in a loudish voice, that while I’m reserving rooms in the hotel, you’ll have a word with the station master. I’ll agree to wait in the hotel lobby until you come to me.”
“And Siwash Mike overhears it all?”