She’s so young and his bringing her here from New York is such a

serious—Mightn’t he—mightn’t he do—something to her?”

 

Spade smiled and patted the arms of his chair.

 

“Just leave that to us,” he said. “We’ll know how to handle him.”

 

“But mightn’t he?” she insisted.

 

“There’s always a chance.” Spade nodded judicially. “But you can trust us to

take care of that.”

 

“I do trust you,” she said earnestly, “but I want you to know that he’s a

dangerous man. I honestly don’t think he’d stop at anything. I don’t believe

he’d hesitate to—to kill Corinne if he thought it would save him. Mightn’t he do

that?”

 

“You didn’t threaten him, did you?”

 

“I told him that all I wanted was to get her home before Mama and Papa came so

they’d never know what she had done. I promised him I’d never say a word to them

about it if he helped me, but if he didn’t Papa would certainly see that he was

punished. I—I don’t suppose he believed me, altogether.”

 

“Can he cover up by marrying her?” Archer asked.