Page:Arthur Stringer - The Door of Dread.djvu/306

 yuh know how far it got yuh before and how far it's goin' to get yuh this time!"

Keudell seemed to relish her opposition. Resistance was what he wanted. It supplied him with a bone on which to set his teeth. He stood up in his place, almost exultantly, and leaned across the table menacing her with an accusatory forefinger.

"This, madame, will be the fourth time. And this time it will get us somewhere. It will—"

He stopped, interrupted by a sudden knock on the door. He motioned, still standing, for Heinold to answer that knock.

The entire tribunal waited, anxious-eyed, as the key was turned and the door opened. But most anxious of all waited Sadie, for all the indifferent glance with which she apparently regarded her suede shoe-tips. For she remembered that she was still the part of a machine.

It was the huge-bodied man who had held her in the taxicab. He came in thoughtfully, ignoring her where she sat. But she watched him as he crossed the room and leaned over the green-baize table toward Keudell.

"We've got him this time!" he quietly announced.