Burke sneered scornfully.
“Well,” he roared, “you'll never pull another one on me. You can gamble on that!”
Mary permitted herself to laugh mockingly in the face of the badgered official.
“Thank you for telling me,” she said, graciously. “And let me say, incidentally, that Miss Lynch at the present moment is painlessly extracting ten thousand dollars from General Hastings in a perfectly legal manner, Inspector Burke.”
“Well, anyhow,” Burke shouted, “you may stay inside the law, but you've got to get outside the city.” He tried to employ an elephantine bantering tone. “On the level, now, do you think you could get away with that young Gilder scheme you've been planning?”
Mary appeared puzzled.
“What young Gilder scheme?” she asked, her brows drawn in bewilderment.
“Oh, I'm wise—I'm wise!” the Inspector cried roughly. “The answer is, once for all, leave town this afternoon, or you'll be in the Tombs in the morning.”
Abruptly, a change came over the woman. Hitherto, she had been cynical, sarcastic, laughing, careless, impudent. Now, of a sudden, she was all seriousness, and she spoke with a gravity that, despite their volition, impressed both the men before her.
“It can't be done, Inspector,” she said, sedately.