“There was nothin’ to that, Ben. The old man said he didn’t see hair nor track of him after that one minute. It wasn’t even a good lie. It was jist the commencement of one—an’ then Noel got wise to the fact that he couldn’t git it across even if he took the trouble to invent it.”
Ben smiled and sat back. The waitress was at his elbow. He ordered peach pie with cream and coffee. Mr. Brown ordered apple pie with cheese on the side and tea, and the waitress retired. Again Ben leaned forward.
“That wasn’t a lie, and that stranger shot Balenger,” he said.
“He shot him from the top of the bank on the other side of the river, upstream, exactly two hundred and eighty-six yards away.”
“Was yours apple or mince?” asked the waitress, suddenly reappearing with both arms full of pieces of pie and brimming cups.
The deputy sheriff turned the face of the law on her.
“Leave it an’ beat it an’ don’t come back to-day!” he cried.
“He came from the city of Quebec,” continued Ben, “and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the police there know something about him.”
Mr. Brown looked at once suspicious and impressed.
“It wouldn’t surprise you much to learn anything, Ben,” he said. “Have you got him tied under yer chair? Introduce me, will you?”
Ben laughed good-naturedly, produced the pen, the comb and the broken clip and told all that he knew about them, including old Noel’s searching description of the stranger’s appearance.
“Ben, I hand it to you,” said the deputy sheriff. “I give you best—for the second time. Yer smart and yer steady—and yer lucky! What’s yer next move?”
“Me suggest? That’s polite of you, Ben, but I’d sooner listen to you. I got a high opinion of the way you work yer brains—_and_ yer luck, if you don’t object to me mentionin’ yer luck.”
“I was thinking that you might make a special constable of me or if I’m too young for that you might engage me as a private detective, and we’ll go to Quebec and find out what the chief of police there knows about an acquaintance of Louis Balenger’s with three gold teeth and a scar just below his right ear.”
“Exactly what I was goin’ to suggest!” exclaimed Mr. Brown. “Shake on it! I’ll fix it—an’ the sooner the quicker. What about the day after to-morrow? If you get here as early as you did to-day we can take the two-o’clock train.”