walked into the flat, and found the
woman who waited for him on the stairs lying on the ground, clutching a
bundle of bank-notes, while a little, mean-looking man was kneeling on
her chest, half throttling her, and trying to force the notes out of
her hand. The woman's mother was standing by shrieking aloud and
crying,--

'Do as he tells you, you b---- fool! He knows what's what. He's got
these blighters in a corner, and he'll make them pay.'

Rodd flung himself on the man, whom he recognised as the creature he
and Clara had met on the stairs. He picked him up and threw him into a
corner, where he lay, too terrified to move. The woman lay back
moaning and rolling her eyes, almost foaming at the mouth. Her bosom
heaved and she clutched the notes in her hand more tightly to her....
Rodd turned to the other two, and said,--

'Get out....'

They obeyed him, and he knelt by the woman and reassured her.

'Come now,' he said, 'out with the whole story before you've begun to
lie to yourself about it.'

'It's my own money,' she gasped; 'I don't want to do any more. It's
all fair and square, if he's paid. If a feller pays, it's all fair and
square.'

Rodd accepted the soundness of this rudimentary ethic.

'He wanted half and half, but it's my own money. I signed a paper for
it, and I'm not going back on my word. He wants me to. He wants me to
go into the Imperium so that he can get on to some of the swells....'

The Imperium? Rodd determined that he would have the whole story out.
He left her for a moment and locked the door. Then he lifted her into
a chair--it was a flashy furniture-on-the-hire-system room--gave her a
dose of brandy and began to ply her with questions,--

'Do you feel better?'

'Much better. I like being with you. You're so quiet. You'd
understand a girl, you would. I've often wanted to come and tell
you.... It fair knocked me silly when I saw you with her.'

'With whom?'

'Charley's girl.'

'Whose?'

'Charley's. Charley Mann's. He's my husband.'

Rodd was silent for some moments while he took this in.

'Who is this other--man?' asked Rodd kindly, beginning slowly to piece
the story together.

'That's Claude.... He was a lodger of mother's before she went broke
and had to come to live with me. He never let me alone. I wanted to
go straight, I did really.... Charley's not bad, and I thought I
should never see him again. I never thought he would make money. I
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