She said, “Don’t be silly, Mr. Mason. There are a dozen ways I could ditch you.”
Mason said, “You wouldn’t stoop so low as to try the rest-room trick on me, would you? That’s hardly sporting.”
“Good heavens, no!” she said. “It’s so obvious… And then I’m not entirely certain about you. I’m not even certain you’d stop at the rest-room door. You look as though you’d call any ordinary bet — perhaps raise it. You’re capable of it.”
“Well then, why not be a good scout and tell me.”
“Because that’s the one thing I don’t want you to know. I’m not quite ready for you to know.”
“When will you be ready?”
“When I know why you were following and what led you to me in the first place. I also want to know whether you know anything about those detectives who were trailing me in the automobiles. In other words, Mr. Mason, I seem to have achieved a very sudden and flattering popularity. To be shadowed by one detective is bad enough. To have two detectives on the job is disconcerting, and then to look back and see the city’s most famous attorney taking an unusual interest in my activities is enough to run my pulse up in the hundreds.”
“Are you,” Mason asked, “going to tell me who you are?”
She turned then to face him. “No,” she said, “and I’m not going to let you follow me. I’m warning you, Mr. Mason, that I want very much to be left alone… Now then, suppose we shake hands and part friends. I’ll stand here and watch you walk down that street. When you’re a block away, I’ll resume my afternoon shopping.”
Mason shook his head. “Having gone to all this trouble to find you,” he said, “I don’t intend to let you escape so easily.”