Page:Arthur Stringer - The Hand of Peril.djvu/143

 rat-browed adversary had betrayed a desire to close his teeth on Kestner's thumb.

The woman repeated the command, more sharply, but still the fight went on. When it was over and Kestner stooped, panting, with one knee on the other man's chest, that other man showed a sadly battered face and a much subdued spirit. On the whole, Kestner grimly remembered, it had been an evening of uncommonly active pugilism.

"Stand up," Maura Lambert was commanding him as he stopped to wipe the sweat from his eyes. Her face disturbed him. Never before had he seen it wear a look so steely. There was something ominous in her very calmness.

"Stand up!" she repeated with the revolver covering him.

Kestner slowly and reluctantly rose to his feet. As the other man made an effort to raise himself the woman stepped back quickly. "Don't move," she called out to this other man, her voice now breaking shrill with tension, "or I'll kill you!" Then she turned back to Kestner.

"You have a revolver," she said. "Where is it?"

Kestner did not answer her, for at that moment still another figure stepped into the room. It was the figure of a young woman in a sodden-plumed hat and a dripping cravenette coat. And it took only a glance at that pert young face to see that the newcomer was Sadie Wimpel.

"Hully gee," was her slightly breathless cry as her gaze swept the room, "this sure looks like somethin' doin' here too!"