Which general line I followed and, the information having been
gathered and the report made up, I proceed to make out my
expenditures of $45 for the month to forward to Empire for
reimbursement. Now it needs no deep detective experience to know
that in such cases you naturally begin with, "Well, what you going
to drink, girls?" and end by paying the bill in a lump sum--a
large lump sum--and go your way in peace. What more then could I
do than set down such items as:
"May 12, Liquor, investigation, Panama--$6.50?"
But here I began to feel the tangling strands. Was it not stated
that all applications for reimbursement required an exact itemized
account of each separate expenditure, with the price of each? It
did. But in the first place I did not know half the beverages
consumed in that investigation by sight, smell, or name. In the
second place I came ostensibly as a "rounder"; it would perhaps
have been advisable at the close of each evening's entertainment
to draw out note-book and pencil and starting the round of the
table announce:
"Now, girls, I'm a dee-tective. No, keep yer places, I ain't going
to pinch nobody. Anyhow I'm only a Zone detective. But I just want
to ask you a few questions. Now, Mamie, what's that you're
drinking? Ah! A gin ricky. And just how much does that cost--here?
And you, Flossie? An absinthe frappe? Ah! Very good.
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