“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. Pinkerton is a good judge of men.  There are others here who consider that they are.  We handle over ten thousand separate cases in all parts of the United States every year.  We work on a case only so long as we are wanted.  We try to find out only such things as our customers want.  We do not pry unnecessarily into anybody’s affairs.  If we decide that we cannot find out what you want to know, we are the first to say so.  Many cases are rejected right