"Does your information go so far as to suggest when the attack will be made?"
"No."
"And have you any word of advice?"
"Advice? Yes. I should advise that you return the girl to my custody. I confess that she would be an embarrassment--"
"You will not be put in any such awkward position," I interrupted. "I can speak for Miss Kendrick, and say that she will keep the girl till the conditions are fulfilled."
"Then," said Big Sam composedly, "I leave to your best judgment the way to meet the danger." And with a bow that signified the end of the interview, he clapped his hands, and a young Chinaman appeared to conduct me down the stairs. And as I passed the sullen guards, and heard the door bolted and barred behind me, I admired the diplomacy with which Big Sam had washed his hands of his responsibilities, and left them to me.
CHAPTER XVIII
LITTLE JOHN AS A MAN OF ACTION
Big Sam's warning was enough to drive me once more to the Kendrick house to make certain that all was secure. I could suppose, from his words, that he did not expect an immediate attack, yet it was by no means unlikely that Little John's ruffians would take advantage of the disorders of the night to make their attack. But all was quiet in the neighborhood, and Andrews reported nothing more threatening than a few disorderly hoodlums who had gone shouting past an hour or two before.
I confided to Andrews the warning of an intended attack, and directed him to engage six men instead of the two I had previously ordered.