But I had not the smallest impulse to put her there; quite on the contrary. In fact, I imagined, at that moment, that I heard somebody trying to listen at the door; and, thinking it was old “Iron Age,” I felt myself going definitely to her side. Nobody was going to shut this girl up in prison for ten years. I was going to do something about her; but not that. I had no idea of shifting responsibility. Not at all; I was going to see to this business myself.
I got up and opened the door, while she watched me. Nobody was there and I sat down again.
“I’ve called on you by orders, I think you ought to know,” I told her.
“Government orders?” she said.
“That’s it.”
She feigned a shudder, prettily. “My soul!” she said. “What I’ve told you! Now you’ll arrest us all, I suppose!”
I laughed, for I felt mighty good. There was no denying it; I felt as happy as ever I had in my life; happier on some counts; on others, of course, there was my knowledge of her character and the chances she was running. But the chances only made it more exciting for me to like her.
Obviously, I’d let her see she’d hooked me; she could feel me on the line. Yet she hadn’t me in the net—not quite.
“I’d gladly arrest George,” I said. “And lock him up for life.”
“Why?”