The girl's face changed with startling swiftness. She regarded the Inspector shrewdly, a crafty glint in her eyes.
“Let me get this straight,” she said. “If I tell you what I know about Mary Turner and Joe Garson, I get away?”
“Clean!” Burke ejaculated, eagerly.
“And you'll slip me some coin, too?”
“That's it!” came the hasty assurance. “Now, what do you say?”
The small figure grew tense. The delicate, childish face was suddenly distorted with rage, a rage black and venomous. The blue eyes were blazing. The voice came thin and piercing.
“I say, you're a great big stiff! What do you think I am?” she stormed at the discomfited Inspector, while Cassidy looked on in some enjoyment at beholding his superior being worsted. Aggie wheeled on the detective. “Say, take me out of here,” she cried in a voice surcharged with disgust. “I'd rather be in the cooler than here with him!”
Now Burke's tone was dangerous.
“You'll tell,” he growled, “or you'll go up the river for a stretch.”
“I don't know anything,” the girl retorted, spiritedly. “And, if I did, I wouldn't tell—not in a million years!” She thrust her head forward challengingly as she faced the Inspector, and her expression was resolute. “Now, then,” she ended, “send me up—if you can!”