"I don't know anything about them," said Mamie Blanchard.
"She knows, all right, but she'll not talk," the sheriff declared. "Might as well haul them both to jail, I guess. There's an old charge against this Blanchard woman, and we can hold the other on suspicion while we make an investigation."
"You dare take me to jail!" shouted the fat-and-forty lady.
"Tut, tut!" said Sheriff Kowen.
The sheriff did not take his eyes off Mamie Blanchard. He was aware that she was clever, and he was watching for her to make some move. He watched her hands particularly.
Verbeck bent forward in his chair again. "It will be a great deal better for you to talk," he cautioned.
"I've said all that I am going to say!" Mamie Blanchard declared. "If you want to take me to jail, take me! The Black Star will get me out, and he'll take pay from the city because I was arrested!"
"You think you can bluff me with a speech like that?" Kowen demanded. "Not in the least, young woman! You do not seem to appreciate what you are facing."
"And you," she said, "do not seem to appreciate what is behind you at this moment!"
"Trying to get me to turn around, so you can make some sort of a move, are you?" the sheriff asked. "That's old stuff—telling a man to look behind him."