“I don’t know,” she said. “I haven’t the slightest idea.”

 

“What time is he coming to see you?”

 

“After eight o’clock.”

 

“All right, Miss Wonderly, we’ll have a man there. It’ll help if—”

 

“Mr. Spade, could either you or Mr. Archer?” She made an appealing gesture with

both hands. “Could either of you look after it personally?

 

I don’t mean that the man you’d send wouldn’t be capable, but—oh!—I’m so afraid

of what might happen to Corinne. I’m afraid of him. Could you?

 

I’d be—I’d expect to be charged more, of course.” She opened her handbag with

nervous fingers and put two hundred-dollar bills on Spade’s desk. “Would that be

enough?”

 

“Yeh,” Archer said, “and I’ll look after it myself.”

 

Miss Wonderly stood up, impulsively holding a hand out to him.

 

“Thank you! Thank you!” she exclaimed, and then gave Spade her hand, repeating:

“Thank you!”