Spotty Morgan hesitated a moment, nodded silently, and then, arm in arm
with the man whom he had pulled from the path of the big truck, went
down the street, the mist and rain swallowing them up.




CHAPTER V

AMY'S APPEAL

Tinkling glasses formed a friendly rampart between Colonel Ashley and
Spotty Morgan. Spotty looked narrowly and shrewdly at the detective.

"I didn't expect to see you here," remarked the gunman, speaking out of
the side of his mouth, with scarcely a motion of his lips--a habit
acquired through long practice in preventing prison keepers from
finding out that he was disobeying the rules regarding silence. "Not
for a minute did I expect to run across you here, Colonel As--"

"Not that name, Spotty, if you please," and the fisherman-detective
smiled in easy fashion. "You know my little habits in that regard.
I'm known here as Brentnall, and, if it's all the same to you, just use
that. As for you, if Spotty--"

"Oh, that suits me as well as any other. I can change whenever I
like." Spotty raised a glass to his lips, and, with a murmured "here's
how," let the contents slide down his always-parched throat.

"That's so, Spotty. Well, I didn't expect to see you here, I give you
my word. When did you leave New York?"

"Well, I come away--"

"Hold on!" interrupted the colonel. "Don't answer. I shouldn't have
asked. I forgot you saved my life just now. Gad! it isn't the first
time I've nearly passed over, but--not in that way!" and he reached for
his glass to conceal the shudder that passed over him as he thought of
the rumbling wheels of the thundering truck.

"Well, Colonel, I--"

"Never mind, Spotty. Perhaps the less you talk the better off you'll
be. Does anybody in town know you're here?"

"Well, my picture--"

"Yes, it is probably down at headquarters. But they're too busy to
look for it now. But they may--later. So far you haven't been
recognized then?"

"Only by you, and it'd take a pretty clever guy--"

"No compliments, Spotty. We've gotten over that. You disguised
yourself very well, but the freckles show through."

"Yes, damn 'em!" heartily exploded the gunman. "I can't cover 'em up.
I've tried everything, but I guess I'll have to go togged up like a
colored man to fool the other bulls. As for you, Colonel--"

"There you go again! Cut it out! This is business."

"Yes, good business for you, but bad for me. I didn't think you'd get
after me so soon, Colonel!"

"I'm not after you, Spotty."

The detective spoke quietly, but the effect on the man sitting across
the table from him, in one of the less conspicuous cafes in Colchester,
had the effect of a shout.

"Not after me? You _ain't_?" and Spotty drew away from the array of
glasses and bottles so suddenly that he overturned a tumbler with its
tinkling chunk of ice. "Not after me, Colonel?"

"No, I came here for a quiet bit of fishing, and I just stumbled on
this case against my will. I'm not even working on it, and I'm not
going to. Nobody knows I'm in town except my man Shag--and you. I
know I can depend on Shag, and as for you--"

"I'm with you till the cows come to roost, Colonel. I'm strong fer
you! I kin forget I ever saw you."

"That's good. I thought you'd be that way. So, as no one knows I'm in
town (the colonel knew nothing of what Shag had said to the newsboy), I
can keep under cover and have my fishing as I like it--quiet. I don't
intend any one shall know I'm here, either.

"Now, Spotty, I'm a plain-spoken man when there's occasion for it, and
this is one of those times, I guess. You saved my life just now, I
know that. Of course I realize I might just have been badly hurt, and
perhaps have lingered on in a hospital for some years--but that would
be worse than death. I consider that you saved my life. I couldn't
have moved out of the way of that truck any more than I could have
flown. I realize it more and more. You did me the biggest service one
man can do another, and I'm not going to forget it, Spotty."

"No, I guess remembering is your long suit, Colonel."

"Well, that's all in a day's work. I didn't forget you, Spotty. Now,


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