and there was venom in the glance.
Violently and negatively, she shook her head.

"Don't you want the money?" he interrupted, deeply interested in this
phenomenon. "I'm glad to have met you," he politely added. "You're an
unexpected and a brand-new type to me."

She was walking forward again, with no sign now that she heard his
voice. Reaching a wide colonial staircase that led to the second floor,
she started the ascent, but so slowly that the young man behind her
uttered another warning.

"No tricks, remember," he repeated, cheerfully. "I'm afraid you're
planning to start something. I believe you're capable of falling
backward, and bowling me over like a ten-pin. But don't you do it. A
dark, musty closet is no place for a kind-hearted, sensible woman to
spend twenty-four hours in."

She ignored that, too, but now she moved more quickly, and her
companion, close at her heels, found himself in an upper hall,
approaching a door at the front of the house. Before this door his guide
now planted herself, with much of the effect of a corner-stone settling
into place.

Keeping a careful eye on her, he stretched out a long arm and tapped at
the panel. There was no answer. He tapped again. Still no answer. He
glanced at the enforcedly silent woman beside him, and something in her
eyes, a gleam of triumph or sardonic amusement, or both, was tinder to
his hot spirit.

"Have you led me to the wrong door?" he asked. He spoke very quietly,
but the tone impressed the woman. The gleam faded from her eyes. Hastily
she shook her head.

"If you have--" He nodded at her thoughtfully. Then he raised his voice.

"Doris," he called. "Doris!"

He heard a movement inside the room, an odd little cry, half
exclamation, half sob, and hurried steps approaching. The next minute
her voice came to him, in breathless words, with a tremor running
through them.

"Is it you?" she gasped. "Oh, is it you?"

"Yes, open the door."

"I can't. It's locked."

He stared at the unyielding wood before him.

"You mean they've locked you in?"

"Yes. Of course."

It would be, of course, Laurie reflected. That was Shaw's melodramatic
method.

"We'll change all that, in a minute." He stepped back from the door.

"What are you going to do?" The voice inside was anxious.

"Break it down, if necessary. Breaking down doors to get to you is my
specialty. You haven't forgotten that, I hope." He turned to the woman
beside him. "Have you the key to t