"Sure—if you’ll keep your yap closed."
"Trust me for that."
"I’m not here to be nailed by a bull," Nick added.
"You can gamble that I’m not," muttered the woman. "Say, step in there with me. We ought to know each other better."
"That hits me all right—but walk on your toes."
Nick had released her, when requested, but the woman clung to him for a second, as if fain to express her relief with a momentary display of affection. Together they stole into the library, and she noiselessly closed the door.[Pg 10]
"You’re not a dick, then," she remarked, in whispers. "Say, that’s some load off my mind. I thought sure I was a goner."
"Dick nothing!" Nick muttered derisively. "Have a peek. Do I look like a dick?"
He fished out his searchlight while speaking, throwing the beam upon himself. He then removed the disguise he had put on a few moments before, and displayed the sinister, make-up face beneath it.
It was a ruse that would have deceived the most suspicious of mortals. None would have supposed for a moment that he was there in double disguise—this man who now was pretending to be no less a crook than the woman herself.