Page:Arthur Stringer - The Hand of Peril.djvu/153

 at the Gallerie Lafayette! An' I'm canned for Monte Carlo, after that badger coup with old Novikoff!" "Then what do you intend to do?"

"Me ? Why, I'm goin' to sour on this crime stuff an' reform. Do what I've been tellin' you—have a nice old Uncle Updyke an' an electric runabout an' start studyin' for the stage. No, dearie, this ain't no repentance act I'm puttin' over. But I've got the winter to think of. An' I'm tired o' being chased across the map by ev'ry low-brow slooth who owns a nickel lodge-pin. I wanta rest. I'm dead sick o' needle-pumpers an' hop-nuts an' crooks an' dips and con guys. An' I'm dead sick o' the Gov'nor an' his day-dream about makin' eighty million o' counterfeit an' gettin' away with it! It can't be done, dearie. It can't! An' take a little tip from Sadie, an' beat it while the goin's good!"

"And what could I gain by that?" was the quiet-toned and half-indignant inquiry of the other woman.

"You'd get over havin' heart-failure ev'ry time you hear a bell ring! Hully gee, woman, don't you know that shovin' the queer is a felony in this country an' good for fifteen years with hard labour? D'you expect me to keep me beauty an' have a thing like that to brood over? It's too wearin'! An' if I was in your place, with your looks, I'd sure tie a tin can to that nutty parent o' yours! I'd get a smooth talker an' go into suburban real estate or open a swell little bucket-shop down in the Wall Street distric'!"

"Cherry, you're talking nonsense, and you know it!" reproved the fuller-toned voice.

"No, I ain't. An' I mean it. It don't take me a