"That's better," he said. "Now we're getting at something."
"What did he say to you?" she demanded.
"Nothing of which I could make sense," he said. "Surprising as it may seem, I refrained from pumping a drunken boy. I am also refraining from pretending, in order to make you talk, a knowledge I don't possess."
She glanced up at him in a puzzled way. "Yes. Do you mind telling me why?"
"Natural decency," said Mr. Amberley.
"Mark talks a lot of nonsense when he's drunk," she said. She seemed to consider him. "I wonder what you think I am?" she said with a crooked smile.
"Do you? I'll tell you, if you like. An objectionable little fool."
"Thanks. Not a murderess, by any chance?"
"If I thought that, you would not be standing here now, Miss Shirley Brown. You are obviously playing some game which is probably silly and almost certainly dangerous. If you let that brother of yours out alone you'll very soon find yourself in a police cell. As an accomplice he's rotten."
"Possibly," she said, "but I don't want another. I believe in playing a lone hand."