Excerpt.....“Has the chief been in this morning?” he asked.
The clerk bobbed up from his work as if startled, drying his hands with his handkerchief, and stared sharply at Nick for several moments. But he saw nothing familiar in the stranger’s grave, clean-cut features.
For all that this clerk knew, or surmised, Nick might have been an ordinary or very humble citizen, who had quietly dropped in there for want of something better to do.
“Chief Weston?” he returned inquiringly, still sharply scrutinizing Nick.
“There is no other chief in this department, is there?” was Nick’s reply, with a subtle tinge of irony.
“Well—no.”
“Chief Weston, yes,” bowed Nick. “Is he in his office?”
“I believe so.”
“Busy?”
“I reckon he is, just now.”
“Reckon, eh? Don’t you know?”
“Yes, sir, he’s busy,” the clerk now said, a bit curtly, flushing slightly under the detective’s keen eye and quietly persistent inquiries.
“He’s not too busy to see me, I think,” replied Nick, with dry assurance. “Go in and tell him I’m here.”.....
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