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.
The girl blushed and replied in a confused voice:
"He has a wife and three children in England.
Corinne wrote me that, to explain why she had gone off with him."
"They usually do," Spade said, "though not always in England."
He leaned forward to reach for pencil and pad of paper.
"What does he look like?"
"Oh, he's thirty-five years old, perhaps, and as tall as you, and either naturally dark or quite sunburned.
His hair is dark too, and he has thick eyebrows.
He talks in a rather loud, blustery way and has a nervous, irritable manner.
He gives the impression of being—of violence."
Spade, scribbling on the pad, asked without looking up:
"What color eyes?"
"They're blue-grey and watery, though not in a weak way.
And—oh, yes—he has a marked cleft in his chin."
"Thin, medium, or heavy build?"
"Quite athletic.
He's broad-shouldered and carries himself erect, has what could be called a decidedly military carriage.
He was wearing a light grey suit and a grey hat when I saw him this morning."
"What does he do for a living?" Spade asked as he laid down his pencil.
"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!"
"Not at all," Spade said over it.
"Glad to.
It'll help some if you either meet Thursby downstairs or let yourself be seen in the lobby with him at some time."
"I will," she promised, and thanked the partners again.
"And don't look for me," Archer cautioned her.
"I'll see you all right."
Spade went to the corridor-door with Miss Wonderly.
When he returned to his desk Archer nodded at the hundred-dollar bills there, growled complacently,
"They're right enough," picked one up, folded it, and tucked it into a vest-pocket.
"And they had brothers in her bag."
Spade pocketed the other bill before he sat down. Then he said:
"Well, don't dynamite her too much.