started right. Have the Buntzes a telephone in the house?”
“I—I don’ know.”
“Find that out. Wait a minute. See Cooney to-night and explain to him that he has a paid-up policy for five-thousand dollars—say in the Calabrian Life. That ’s a foreign company that doesn’t exist. Their agent has a desk in 1047.” (Room 1047 was one of the unlabeled operatives’ rooms of the Babbing Detective Bureau.) “This policy has been made out in favor of Cooney’s two daughters, understand? They ’d get five thousand dollars between them when he died. But he ’s been so pinched for money that he wants to cash in the policy right away. And the agent of the Calabrian Life can only offer him fifteen hundred dollars for it. Do you get that?”
“Sure Mi— Yes, sir.”
“Good. As soon as you have Cooney ready, we ’ll telephone to Buntz’s—or have Fisher drop in there, if they have n’t a ’phone
