Page:Arthur Stringer - The Door of Dread.djvu/20

 "I won't gamble on the 'good.' But ain't bein' just Amurican about enough in times like these?"

"It's enough!" acknowledged the man at the desk, with a sigh.

"But what I wanted to get at is, where did your parents come from?"

"Me mother was Irish."

"And your father?"

"Search me!"

The dew-lapped head moved slowly up and down. Then came still another moment of silence.

"Now, Sadie, there's a door you're keeping shut between the two of us."

"A door?" echoed the girl.

"Yes, a door that you don't seem willing to open; a door that seems to lead out on other days." He raised a heavy hand at the flash of alarm in her wide-open young eyes. "But I'm going to let that door stay shut, my girl; for as long as it stays that way it needn't count with either one of us."

"I don't quite get yuh," murmured the not altogether tranquil young woman. "And what's the game, anyway, wit' all this third-degree stuff?"

"Have I seemed too inquisitive?"

"No-o-o-o! But when yuh get me thumb-prints