ys! She's had her fling at our expense; it's her turn to pay
now." He laughed again--and in the laugh now there was something
both brutal in its menace, and sinister in its suggestion of gloating
triumph.

"What do you mean?" demanded Rhoda Gray quickly. "What are you going to
do?"

"Get her!" said Danglar. The man's passion flamed up suddenly; he spoke
through his closed teeth. "Get her! I made her a little promise. I'm
going to keep it! Understand?"

"You've been saying that for quite a long time," retorted Rhoda Gray
coolly. "But the 'getting' has been all the other way so far. How are
you going to get her?"

Danglar's little black eyes narrowed, and he thrust his head forward and
out from his shoulders savagely. In the flickering candle light, with
contorted face and snarling lips, he looked again the beast to which she
had once likened him.

"Never mind how I'm going to get her!" he flung out, with an oath. "I
told you I'd been busy. That's enough! You'll see--"

Rhoda Gray, in the semi-darkness, shrugged her shoulders. Was the man,
prompted by rage and fury, simply making wild threats, or had he at last
some definite and perhaps infallible plan that he purposed putting into
operation? She did not know; and, much as it meant to her, she did
not dare take the risk of arousing suspicion by pressing the question.
Failing, then, to obtain any intimation of what he meant to do, the next
thing most to be desired was to get rid of him.

"You've got the money. That's what you came for, wasn't it?" she
suggested coldly.

He stared at her for a moment, and then his face gradually lost its
scowl.

"You're a rare one, Bertha!" he exclaimed admiringly. "Yes; I've got the
money--and I'm going. In fact, I'm in a hurry, so don't worry! You got
the dope, like everybody else, for to-night, didn't you? It was sent out
two hours ago."

The dope! It puzzled her for the fraction of a second--and then she
remembered the paper she had thrust into the bodice of her dress. She
had not read it. She lunged a little in the dark.

"Yes," she said curtly.

"All right!" he said-and moved toward the door. "That explains why I'm
in a hurry--and why I can't stop to oil that grouch out of you. But I'll
keep my promise to you, too, old girl. I'll make up the last few days to
you. Have a heart, eh, Bertha! 'Night!"

She did not answer him. It seemed as though an unutterable dread had
suddenly been lifted from her, as he passed out of