Page:Arthur Stringer - The Door of Dread.djvu/85

 studied the young woman with the pert eyes and the carelessly swinging foot. That troubled look of his seemed one of appraisal.

"What's the game?" she quietly inquired.

He stepped forward as she spoke, crossing the room with the same studied quietness. Yet he shrugged a shoulder as he stood before her, as though to disguise the urgency, the apprehension, which he could not keep from his eyes. "I'm getting leery about these people here," he said in little more than a whisper. Then he stopped.

"What's the game?" repeated the patient-eyed woman.

"I've got certain documents these people want to get hold of. They want them bad, but they're going to pay me my price for 'em!"

"Your troubles is interestin'," quietly admitted Sadie. "But I came here to see the dame who said I'd crabbed her name."

The moist-browed man gave a gesture of impatience. Then he grew very grave.

"Lady, I'm going to be very honest with you. There's trouble ahead of me in this house, and I'm not ready to meet it. What I want to know is, are you game to help me out?"