“You promise me that?”
Sheila felt it safer not to promise forever, but safe enough to say, “Not for a long time, anyway.”
Reben stared at her grimly. “Sheila, I’m a business man; you’re a business woman. I’ll play fair with you if you’ll play fair with me. I’ll make a star of you if you’ll do your share. You wouldn’t flirt with me or let me make a fool of you. Then be a man and we’ll get along perfectly. If you’ll stick to me, not quit me, not hamper me, not play tricks on me, and abide by your contract, I’ll do the same for you. I’ll put you up in the big lights. Will you stand by me, Sheila, as man to man—on your honor as a gentleman?”
She repeated his words with a kind of amused solemnity: “As man to man, on my honor as a gentleman, I’ll stand by you and fulfil my contract.”
“Then that’s all right. Shake hands on it.”
They shook hands. His grasp was hot and fierce and slow to let go. His eyes burned over her with a menace that belied his icy words.
When the bond was sealed with the clasp of hands Reben breathed heavily and pressed a button on his desk. “Now for the young Shakespeare. We’ve kept him waiting long enough. He’s cooled his heels till he must have cold feet by now. Joey, show Mr. Vickery in; and then I don’t want to be disturbed by anybody for anything. I’ll wring your neck if you ring my telephone—unless the building catches on fire.”
“Yes, sir; no, sir,” said Joey; and, holding the door ajar, he beckoned and whistled to Vickery, and, having admitted him, dispersed the rabble outside with brevity: “Nothin’ doin’ to-day, folks. Mis’ Treben’s went home.”
Sheila, Vickery, and Reben regarded one another with the utmost anxiety. They were embarking on a cruise to the Gold Coast. Success would mean a fortune for all; the failure of any would mean disaster to all.