help me," Aggie continued with the utmost solemnity, "Mary never
left the house all night. I'd swear that's the truth on a pile of Bibles
a mile high!"

"Have to be higher than that," the Inspector commented, grimly. "You
see, Aggie Lynch, Mary Turner was arrested just after midnight." His
voice deepened and came blustering. "Young woman, you'd better tell all
you know."

"I don't know a thing!" Aggie retorted, sharply. She faced the Inspector
fiercely, quite unabashed by the fact that her vigorous offer to commit
perjury had been of no avail.

Burke, with a quick movement, drew the pistol from his pocket and
extended it toward the girl.

"How long has she owned this gun?" he said, threateningly.

Aggie showed no trace of emotion as her glance ran over the weapon.

"She didn't own it," was her firm answer.

"Oh, then it's Garson's!" Burke exclaimed.

"I don't know whose it is," Aggie replied, with an air of boredom well
calculated to deceive. "I never laid eyes on it till now."

The Inspector's tone abruptly took on a somber coloring, with an
underlying menace.

"English Eddie was killed with this gun last night," he said. "Now, who
did it?" His broad face was sinister. "Come on, now! Who did it?"

Aggie became flippant, seemingly unimpressed by the Inspector's
savageness.

"How should I know?" she drawled. "What do you think I am--a
fortune-teller?"

"You'd better come through," Burke reiterated. Then his manner changed
to wheedling. "If you're the wise kid I think you are, you will."

Aggie waxed very petulant over this insistence.

"I tell you, I don't know anything! Say, what are you trying to hand me,
anyway?"

Burke scowled on the girl portentously, and shook his head.

"Now, it won't do, I tell you, Aggie Lynch. I'm wise. You listen to me."
Once more his manner turned to the cajoling. "You tell me what you know,
and I'll see you make a clean get-away, and I'll slip you a nice little
piece of money, too."

The girl's face changed with startling swiftness. She regarded the
Inspector shrewdly, a crafty glint in her eyes.

"Let me get this straight," she said. "If I tell you what I know about
Mary Turner and Joe Garson, I get away?"

"Clean!" Burke ejaculated, eagerly.

"And you'll slip me some coin, too?"

"That's it!" came the hasty assurance. "Now, what do you say?"

The small figure grew tense. The delicate, childish face was suddenly
distorted with rage, a rage black and venomous.