"Neither am I to be played with, though I am only a girl!" she retorted. "I'm desperate now—rendered desperate by you and your blackguardly gang."
"Because you fear for this novelist friend of yours—this prying person who is so fond of investigating other people's affairs, and using the material for his books, eh?"
"Yes. I fear for him, because I know what is intended."
"I tell you it's a matter which does not concern you," said the man with the master-mind, as I listened attentively.
"It does. He is my friend," she exclaimed in French. "I know that you intend he shall die—and I will warn him."
"You will, will you!" shouted Gregory, and I heard him spring to his feet. "Repeat that, at your peril!"
"I do repeat it!" said the girl wildly. "He shall not be harmed!"
"Eh? So you are ready to betray us, are you!" said the old man in a hard, hissing voice.
"Yes," she cried in defiance. "I will, if you so much as touch a hair of his head."
"You will! Then take that!" screamed the old man, while, at the same instant, I heard a heavy blow struck, followed by a woman's scream, and a loud noise as she fell upon the floor.