Page:Arthur Stringer - The Door of Dread.djvu/133

 things, she knew, which Wilsnach was demanding of her, and she did not propose to be a blunderhead in the Service.

She let her gaze dwell pregnantly on Dorgan's battered features. She still had very thin ice, she remembered, over which to pick her way.

"I was thinkin' yuh might finance me for a move on to the Windy City, if I gotta move," she solemnly yet blandly suggested.

Dorgan shifted his chair closer to the table behind which she sat. Then he studied her face for a moment or two.

"I've got to beat it myself," he finally began.

"And how about me?" queried Sadie.

"That's what I'm coming to!" was his answer. Still again he studied her face, and her hopes rose with his silent nod of approval. But they went as promptly down again at the next words he spoke.

"Let me see that envelope of mine!"

She was conscious enough of the danger ahead of her. She knew that everything depended on whether he accepted that envelope as it was or tore it open and discovered that it no longer held his secret plans. One rip of the manila paper flap and the game was up. Yet she knew that further