“You want a change too, perhaps! I could tell things about you that wouldn’t look good in print, and you’d have a change too! Get that in your mind, Gregory Penne! I’m not a fool—I’ve seen things and heard things, and I can put two and two together. You think I want a change, do you—I do! I want friends who aren’t murderers——”
He sprang at her, his big hand covering her mouth.
“You little devil!” he hissed, and at that instant somebody must have knocked, for he turned to the door and said something in the native dialect.
The answer was inaudible to Mike.
“Listen.” Gregory was speaking to the girl in a calmer tone. “Foss is waiting to see me, and I’ll discuss this little matter with you afterwards.”
He released her, and, going to his desk, touched the spring that operated the mechanism of the secret door that led to Bhag’s quarters.
“Go in there and wait,” he said. “I’ll not keep you longer than five minutes.”
She looked suspiciously at the door which had suddenly opened in the panelling.
“No,” she said, “I’ll go home. To-morrow will do. I’m sorry I got rough, Gregory, but you madden me sometimes.”
“Go in there!”