Belder’s smile was all but condescending. “Even if she’s sore as a sprained ankle, she’ll get rid of a twenty-thousand-dollar judgment for twenty-five hundred.”
“You’re cutting things awfully fine,” Bertha said.
“I know that,” Belder said, frowning at his watch. “She’ll be back home pretty soon, even if she’s meeting the writer of that letter. That’s the worst of it, though. They’ll chatter and chatter and perhaps go to lunch. When two women get at lunch — Good Lord, Mrs. Cool, if you’d only kept her in sight!”
“Can’t you go to your banker,” Bertha asked, “explain the circumstances to him, tell him that you were judgment-proof in order to get rid of this—”
“Not a chance in the world,” Belder interrupted. “In order to beat this judgment I had to put everything in my wife’s name, and I mean everything; and it’s in there so tight I can’t even get car fare unless she gives it to me. Remember this, Mrs. Cool; for over a year I haven’t had enough income to pay the expenses of maintaining my office. I made mine while the making was good, and then, when the going got tough, I crawled in a hole and pulled the hole in after me. It’s an ideal set-up to beat a judgment, but it’s an awful fix to be in when you want to raise money... No, I’ve got to get hold of Mabel. One thing’s certain. If Mabel’s out to lunch, she’ll have gone to one of four or five places. I guess the only thing for me to do is to cover them all.”
“Want me to go with you?”
“Yes. When we get the cheque it will save time... No, wait a minute, there’s that damned poison-pen letter to be considered. If I find my wife and you’re along— Oh, damn! Why did they have to pick this time to write that dirty letter?”
Bertha Cool got to her feet. “I’ll be waiting in my office. You can telephone as soon as things are fixed up.”
Belder’s face lit up once more. “Gosh, Mrs. Cool, that’s simply swell. It was a lucky hunch I had, coming to you.” He walked across and pulled open the door to the outer office. “I feel that I can never repay you—”
The door from the corridor opened. Two women came sweeping regally into the office.