He vanished into the back room with the glass, and before he returned, the disconsolate individual had slunk out, leaving Morrow in sole possession. If this place was indeed the rendezvous of the gang of minor criminals with which Charley Pennold had allied himself, he had obviously come at the wrong time to obtain any information concerning him, unless the voluble bartender 185 could be made to talk, and that would be a difficult matter.
“Look here!” Morrow decided on a bold move, as the bartender reappeared and placed a bottle of whisky between them. He leaned forward, after a quick, furtive glance about him, and spoke rapidly, with a disarming air of confidential frankness. “I’m in an awful hole. I’m new at this game, and I’ve got to find a fellow I never saw, and find him quick. He hangs out here, and the big guy sent me for him.”
“What big guy?” The cordiality faded from the bartender’s ruddy countenance and he stepped back significantly.
“You know––Pad!” Morrow shot back on a desperate bluff. “The fellow’s name’s Charley Pennold, and Pad wants him right away. He didn’t tell me to ask you about him, but he made it pretty plain to me that he’d got to get him.”
“Say!” The bartender approached cautiously. He rested one hand upon the counter, keeping the other well below it, but Morrow did not flinch. “What’s your lay?”
“Anything there’s coin in,” returned the operative, with a knowing leer. “Anything from planting divorce evidence to shoving the queer. I’ve been working for a pal of Pad’s in St. Louis for three or four years––that’s why I’m strange around here. Pad’s up in the air about something, and wants this Charley-boy right away, and he tells me to look here for him and not come back without him, see? This is on the level. If you know where he is, be a good fellow and come across, will you?”
The bartender felt under the counter for the shelf, and then raised his hand, empty, toward the bottle.
“I guess you’re all right,” he remarked. “Anyway, I’ll take a chance. What’s your moniker?”
“Guy the Blinker,” returned Morrow promptly. “Guess you’ve heard of me, all right. I pulled off––but I haven’t got time to chin now. I got to find this boy if I want to keep in with Pad, and there’s coin in it.”