"What mistake? What do you mean?" "It would have been a rich joke on Mr. Bansemer. Seems that some lawyer is likely to be charged with blackmail, and they got Mr. Bansemer's name mixed up in it some way. Of course, nothing came of it, but--I just wondered if anybody had told him of the close call he'd had."
Droom stared straight beyond the young liar and was silent for a full minute. Then he deliberately opened the book on his knee and began to turn the pages.
"That WOULD have been a joke on Mr. Bansemer," he said indifferently.
"I don't think he would have enjoyed it, do you?"
"No one enjoys j okes from the United States Marshal's office," said Droom grimly. "By the way, who is the lawyer that really was wanted?"
"I never heard. I believe it was dropped. The young fellow I know said he couldn't talk about it, so I didn't ask. Say, who was that swell woman I saw coming out of your office to-day? I was up at Mr. Hornbrook's."
Droom hesitated a moment. He seemed to be weighing everything he said.
"I suspect it was young Bansemer's future mother-in-law," he said. "Mrs. David Cable was there this afternoon about three."
"Gee," laughed Eddie. "Does she need a lawyer?"
"Mr. Bansemer transacted business for her some time ago. A very small matter, if I remember correctly. Here, listen to this. Now here's a little incident I found this evening that interests me immensely. It proves to my mind one of two points I hold in regard to Marshal Ney. Listen," and he read at length from his book, a dry, sepulchral monotone that grated on the ear until it became almost unendurable.
The little clock on the mantelpiece clanged ten before they laid aside Napoleon and began to talk about something that interested Eddie Deever far more than all else--Elias Droom himself and such of his experiences as he cared to relate. The rid man told stories about the dark sides of New York life, tales of murder, thievery, rascality high and low, and he told them with blood-curdling directness. The Walker wife-murder; the inside facts of the De Pugh divorce scandal; the Harvey family's skeleton--all food for the dime-novel producer. Eddie revelled in these recitals even while he shuddered at the way in which the old man gave them.
"Ah, this is a wicked old world," said Droom, refilling his pipe and showing his teeth as he puffed. "That's why I have those pictures of the Madonna on the wall--to keep me from forgetting that there are beautiful things in the world in spite of its ugliness and hypocrisy. I haven't much---"