Page:Arthur Stringer - The Door of Dread.djvu/150

 down at the somber gunmetal of the leveled revolver.

"Can't I?" was Keudell's cry.

"No, you can't! And what's more you can't even scare me!"

"Then I'll do a little more than merely scare you!" said Keudell with an audible gasp, as he took one step closer to the man against the wall.

Sadie's heart leaped up into her throat. She knew what was coming. She knew that Keudell had suffered indignities enough to leave him desperate. That much was evident from the very fact that he had sought her out in her own home; that he had forced his way into the enemy's lair; that he had been willing to place his head in the lion's mouth. And unimaginative as she was, this thought fixed in her mind the value of the papers she carried in her own breast, the papers for which Wilsnach would have traveled half-way around the world. They were certainly worth the fight. But once Keudell broke loose, her last chance was gone. And Keudell was surely going to break loose.

"Wait!" was her shrill cry as she suddenly stood up behind her table. "If yuh want your papers that bad, you sure kin have 'em!"