“Well, didn’t I soak the place with gasolene,” protested Dade; “how was I to know a kid would come along and give the alarm before it got fairly alight?”
“It’s been a dismal failure all the way through,” lamented Harding, as if he had been engaged on some praiseworthy enterprise.
“Incidentally,” purred Jukes Dade, but with a menace under his silky tones, “I’d like to see some of that money you’ve been promising me all along.”
“You’ll have to wait till I see my father,” snapped out Fanning savagely.
“Well, see him quick then, or I may have to take other means of getting it,” snarled Dade.
“What do you mean?”
“Why, by telling a few things I know. About the loss of a certain lady’s jewels, for instance.”
Fanning went white as ashes.
“You sneak! You’ve been listening at keyholes!” he cried.
Dade returned him look for look defiantly.