Page:Earl Derr Biggers - Seven Keys to Baldpate (1913).djvu/146

128 morning. But he must make me feel. And he can't do that if he doesn't feel himself, can he?"

William Hallowell Magee actually hung his head.

"He can't," he confessed softly. "You're quite right I like you immensely—more than I can say. And even if you feel you can't trust me, I want you to know that I'm on your side in what ever happens at Baldpate Inn. You have only to ask, and I am your ally."

"Thank you," she answered. "I may be very glad to ask. I shall remember." She rose and moved toward the stairs. "We had better dis perse now. The rocking-chair fleet will get us if we don't watch out." Her small slipper was on the first step of the stair, when they heard a door slammed shut, and the sound of steps on the bare floor of the dining-room. Then a husky voice called "Bland".

Mr. Magee felt his hand grasped by a much smaller one, and before he knew it he had been hurried to the shadows of the landing. "The fifth key," whispered a scared little voice in his ear. And then he felt the faint brushing of finger-tips