Page:Arthur Stringer--The House of Intrigue.djvu/228

214 comin' after me, he'll get what Mister Pink-pants on the floor there got!"

Silence for one short moment reigned in the room.

"Just a moment," I heard my Hero-Man say, as the woman in the rain-coat started to back toward the portiere where I stood. "Would you mind telling me just why you happened to come to this house?"

"That's my business!" retorted Copperhead Kate.

"But I have a particular reason for asking," persisted the man at the end of that dolorous line. He was speaking with a forced politeness which, had I stood in Katie's shoes, I'd have accepted as a danger-signal.

"And I have a particular reason for keeping my mouth shut," announced Copperhead Kate, whose temper, that night, had already been tried beyond all endurance.

"You may think differently, the next time we meet," ventured my Hero-Man.

The gentle Katie snorted aloud. "And when are we going to meet?" she demanded.

"Much sooner, I imagine, than you seem to anticipate," was the other's reply.

The woman with the automatic stepped toward