gloved finger.

 

Spade winked at his partner.

 

Miles Archer came forward to stand at a corner of the desk. While the girl

looked at her bag he looked at her. His little brown eyes ran their bold

appraising gaze from her lowered face to her feet and up to her face again. Then

he looked at Spade and made a silent whistling mouth of appreciation.

 

Spade lifted two fingers from the arm of his chair in a brief warning gesture

and said:

 

“We shouldn’t have any trouble with it. It’s simply a matter of having a man at

the hotel this evening to shadow him away when he leaves, and shadow him until

he leads us to your sister. If she comes with him, and you persuade her to

return with you, so much the better. Otherwise—if she doesn’t want to leave him

after we’ve found her—well, we’ll find a way of managing that.”

 

Archer said: “Yeh.” His voice was heavy, coarse.

 

Miss Wonderly looked up at Spade, quickly, puckering her forehead between her

eyebrows.

 

“Oh, but you must be careful!” Her voice shook a little, and her lips shaped the

words with nervous jerkiness. “I’m deathly afraid of him, of what he might do.