"I should say yes. An' there's tinhorners round here that if they had half your wad Hen'd have to ring in the fire alarm to put 'em out—they'd feel themselves such warm rags. But what d'yuh say to another ginger ale?"
"Sure," said Jan, and called aloud for them. And again Hen brought in the ginger ale in two long glasses, but also with two empty bottles to show Jan by the labels that it was the real imported and no phony stuff; and Jan said, "I know! I know!" as he paid and waved Hen away.
A door led from this back room into the lower back hall of the house, and in the shadow of the [pg 229] back hall Jan thought for an instant that he saw the landlady's figure; but he wasn't sure. Two minutes—or it may have been five minutes—later, a boy whom Jan had noticed round the house came into the room by way of that same door and said to the girl:
"Mrs. Goles wants to see you a minute."
"Tell her I got no minute to spare—not now."
The boy went out and quickly came back.
"Mrs. Goles says for you to come out and see her or she'll have the policeman in off the beat. He's at the corner now."
The girl went out.
"Who's Mrs. Goles?" asked Jan of the boy.
"Why, she's the landlady."