The Clarion Call 235
settles it. It's a bad break I'm making, Johnny, but I can't dodge it. You helped me once, and it calls for the same."
"I knew it," said Kernan, raising his glass, with a flushed smile of self-appreciation. "I can judge men. Here's to Barney, for 'he's a jolly good fellow."
"I don't believe," went on Woods quietly, as if he were thinking aloud, "that if ac- counts had been square between you and me, all the money in all the banks in New York could have bought you out of my hands to-night."
" I know it couldn't," said Kernan. "That's why I knew I was safe with you."
"Most people," continued the detective, "look sideways at my business. They don't class it among the fine arts and the pro- fessions. But I've always taken a kind of fool pride in it. And here is where I go 'busted.' I guess I'm a man first and a detective afterward. I've got to let you go, and then I've got to resign from the force. I guess I can drive an express wagon. Your thousand dollars is further off than ever, Johnny."
"Oh, you're welcome to it," said Kernan,
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