Page:Arthur Stringer - Gun Runner.djvu/146

 He was conscious of the fact, as he turned to her, that his earlier sense of uneasiness had departed from him.

"Listen," said the quiet-moving and clear-eyed girl, peering impersonally up at him as she spoke, and yet standing so close that her sleeve brushed his hand, "I've been thinking a great deal about that foolish receipt. It's the only thing, now, that stands between us and our freedom of action. We have cleared away so much: but this is still one of the things that stand between us. I mean it's still a danger to you—much more a danger than I can make you understand, unless you know how treacherous and vindictive this man Ganley can be."

"But why should I be afraid of Ganley?" McKinnon maintained. "I can fight him in his own way. I am fighting him in his own way."

"You might do it at home, in your own country," she warned him, "but not in Locombia—not anywhere in Latin America. He knows his ground too well, his tricks and his chances, his burrows of escape when he needs them. He would never give you a fighting chance. That s why we must do what we can, at once, without delay."

Still again he marvelled at her directness of purpose and movement, at her unequivocating