“Girls are always doing that, aren’t they?” Denby said pleasantly. There was no indication from his tone that he suspected she had been listening. “We’ll have to find it, Monty.”
“Sure, Steve, sure,” Monty returned. He was not able to cloak his uneasiness.
“Steve?” the girl queried brightly. “As I came in, I thought I heard you call him ‘Dick.’”
“That was our private signal,” Denby returned promptly, relieving poor Monty of an answer.
“That sounds rather mysterious,” she commented.
“But it’s only commonplace,” Denby assured her. “My favorite parlor trick is making breaks—it always has been since Monty first knew me—and invented a signal to warn me when I’m on thin ice or dangerous ground. ‘Will you have a cigarette, Dick’ is the one he most often uses.”
“But why ‘Dick?’” she asked.
“That’s the signal,” Denby explained. “If he said ‘Steve,’ I shouldn’t notice it, so he always says ‘Dick,’ don’t you, Monty?”
“Always, Steve,” Monty answered quickly.
“Then you were about to make a break when I came in?” she hinted.