Page:Arthur Stringer--The House of Intrigue.djvu/247

Rh attention. But his earlier air of querulous meekness had fallen away from him. And now I could see him positively licking his chops.

"We'd better lock her up in the Lilac Room," he announced, "for there are a good many things, young woman, you still have to answer for!"

"And things we've all got to know before that girl gets out of this house," echoed old Brother Enoch, with a tremulous hand cupped behind a prominent ear, which made him look like a rabbit.

It was then that I twisted about and tried to make Big Ben Locke listen to reason.

"Chief," I gasped out to him, "you've stumbled into one of the biggest cases you ever struck, but for the love of heaven, listen to me before you do anything!"

"Listen to you!" he echoed, with a lip-curl of scorn. "Didn't I have the pleasure of listenin' to you for considerable time this afternoon? And do you expect me to holler for an encore on that sort of talk?"

"But things have happened since then," I told him, "things that change everything."

"Yes, it sure looks like it," he announced, as he dropped my second automatic into his pocket.

"Bring her along!" commanded Ezra Bartlett, in