n to them."

In another minute she opened the door, and answered the mortgage-jobber's
embarrassed greeting with a frigid stare. Having had some experience with
Sally's uncompromising directness, he was inclined to fancy that the game
was up, but he waited calmly.

"What's this man doing here again?" Sally asked, fixing her eyes on
Hawtrey. "You promised me you would never make another deal with him."

Gregory flushed. Had he thought it would be the least use he would have
made some attempt to get Sally out of the room, but he was unpleasantly
sure that unless she was fully satisfied first it would only result in
failure. Driven to desperation, as he was, he had a half-conscious
feeling that she might provide him with some means of escape. Sally had
certainly saved him once, and, humiliating as the thought was, he had an
idea that she did not expect too much from him. She might be very angry,
but Sally's anger was, after all, less difficult to face than Agatha's
quiet scorn.

"I haven't made another deal. It's--a previous one," Gregory explained
lamely.

Sally swung around on Edmonds. "You have come here for money? You may as
well tell me. I won't leave you with Gregory until you do."

It was quite evident that she would make her promise good, and Edmonds
nodded.

"Yes," he said, "about three thousand dollars."

"And Gregory can't pay you?"

Edmonds thought rapidly, and decided to take a bold course. He was
acquainted with Hawtrey's habit of putting things off, and fancied that
his debtor would seize upon the first loophole of escape from an
embarrassing situation. That was why he gave him a lead.

"Well," he said, "there is a way in which he could do it if he wished.
He has only to fill in a paper and hand it to me."

Edmonds had not sufficiently counted on Sally's knowledge of his
victim's affairs, or her quickness of wit, for she turned to Hawtrey
with a commanding gesture.

"Where are you going to get three thousand dollars from?" she asked.

The blood rushed into Hawtrey's face, for this was a thing he could not
tell her; but a swift suspicion, flashed into her mind as she looked at
him.

"Perhaps it could be--raised," he answered.

"To pay this mortgage off?" Sally swung round on Edmonds now, as she
questioned him.

"Yes," he admitted, "he can easily do it."

Then the girl turned to Hawtrey. "Gregory," she said with harsh
incisiveness, "there's only one way you could get that money--and it
i