"I thought I would like to talk to Mr. Pinkerton himself, but if you're
the responsible head--" Butler paused.

"I am," replied Martinson. "You can talk to me with the same freedom
that you could to Mr. Pinkerton. Won't you come into my private office?
We can talk more at ease in there."

He led the way into an adjoining room which had two windows looking down
into Broadway; an oblong table, heavy, brown, smoothly polished; four
leather-backed chairs; and some pictures of the Civil War battles in
which the North had been victorious. Butler followed doubtfully. He
hated very much to take any one into his confidence in regard to Aileen.
He was not sure that he would, even now. He wanted to "look these fellys
over," as he said in his mind. He would decide then what he wanted to
do. He went to one of the windows and looked down into the street, where
there was a perfect swirl of omnibuses and vehicles of all sorts. Mr.
Martinson quietly closed the door.

"Now then, if there's anything I can do for you," Mr. Martinson paused.
He thought by this little trick to elicit Buder's real name--it often
"worked"--but in this instance the name was not forthcoming. Butler was
too shrewd.

"I'm not so sure that I want to go into this," said the old man
solemnly. "Certainly not if there's any risk of the thing not being
handled in the right way. There's somethin' I want to find out
about--somethin' that I ought to know; but it's a very private matter
with me, and--" He paused to think and conjecture, looking at Mr.
Martinson the while. The latter understood his peculiar state of mind.
He had seen many such cases.

"Let me say right here, to begin with, Mr.--"

"Scanlon," interpolated Butler, easily; "that's as good a name as any if
you want to use one. I'm keepin' me own to meself for the present."

"Scanlon," continued Martinson, easily. "I really don't care whether
it's your right name or not. I was just going to say that it might not
be necessary to have your right name under any circumstances--it all
depends upon what you want to know. But, so far as your private affairs
are concerned, they are as safe with us, as if you had never told them
to any one. Our business is built upon confidence, and we never betray
it. We wouldn't dare. We have men and women who have been in our employ
for over thirty years, and we never retire any one except for cause, and
we don't pick people who are likely to need to be retired for cause.
Mr. P