“You mean you think I’m not big enough to work with you?”

“I mean exactly what I said.  I said that I didn’t really know how good you are, and that I wasn’t going to tie up with any man except the best in the business.  You’ve hinted now and then at a lot of big things you’ve put across and how strong you were in certain quarters where it paid to be strong—­but I really know mighty little about you, Barney.  This present job hasn’t required you to do anything special, and all the really hard work I’ve done myself.  Of course I know you are a good dancer, and clever with the ladies, and know how to pick up a sucker and string him along.  But that’s everything I do know.  And, there are hundreds of men who are good at these things.  The man I tie up with has got to be good at a lot of other things—­and I’ve got to know he’s good!”

“Good at what other things, Maggie?” he asked with suppressed eagerness.

“He’s got to be good at putting over all kinds of situations.  I don’t care how he does it.  So clever at putting things over that no one ever guesses he’s the man who did it.  And he’s got to be able to give me protection.  You know what I mean.  A woman in the game I’m going in for is absolutely through, as far as doing anything big is concerned, the minute she gets a police record.  I’ve got to have a man who’s able to stand between me and the police.  And I’ve got to know from past performances that the man can do these things.  Just large words about what he can do, or hints about what he has done, don’t count for a nickel with me.  This is plain, hard business I’m talking, Barney, and I don’t mean to hurt your feelings when I tell you that you don’t measure up in any way to the man I need.”

It had been difficult for Barney to hold himself until she had finished.  To start with, he had the vain man’s constant itch to tell of his exploits, his dislike for the anonymity of his cleverness unjustly ascribed to some other man.  And then Maggie had played upon him even more skillfully than she imagined.

“I’m exactly the man you need in every way!” he exploded.

“Those are just words,” she said evenly.  “I said I had to have something more than mere words.”

“I’m ace-high with Chief Barlow!”

“You’ve got to be more explicit.”

Barney was now all excitement.  “Don’t you get what that means?  I’ve never been locked up once, and yet I’ve been pulling stuff all the time!  And yet look how Larry Brainard, that the bunch thought was so clever, got hooked and was sent away.  I guess you know the answer!”

“Again, Barney, I’ve got to ask you to be more explicit.”

“Then the answer is that all the while I’ve been working on an understanding with Barlow.  I guess that’s explicit!”

“You mean,” she said in her cool voice, “that you’ve been a stool-pigeon for Barlow?”

“Sure!—­though I don’t like the word.  That’s the only safe way of staying steady in the game—­an understanding with the police.  All there is to it is now and then to tip the police off about some dub of a crook:  of course you’ve got to be smooth enough not to let anyone guess your game.”