Page:Keeban (IA keeban00balm).pdf/217

 No one was following just then; the doors on both sides were tightly shut.

She turned and looked up at me. "Which is it?" she asked, straight.

I knew what she meant; and at that second I suddenly decided. "I keep your suit case," I said.

"And you'll give it back to me?"

"Where will you want it?"

"New York. I'm off at Cleveland, as I said, but I'll come to New York later."

"I'll take it there for you," I said, and it was in the manner of an agreement, "if I possibly can; and I will give it to you under one condition." I waited.

"Nobody's listening," she urged me.

I told her. "It's this. I bring it to you, alone. I'll be alone; you must be. You must give me a chance then to talk to you."

"What about?"

"Can't you imagine?"

She gazed into my eyes without wavering. "I reckon! You'll give it back and ask me to give it back again to you—to destroy! All right! That's a go! I'll run that chance with you!"

She held out her hand and I grasped it and