He was almost pathetically shocked at her frankness. "No, no--not that--Good Lord, Joan! Wouldn't have dreamed of suggesting it--don't know what made you imagine such a thing." "Brought up the way I was, you get that sort of imagination," she informed him coolly. "If it isn't that, what's the game? Don't tell me there's a philanthropist behind it, because I shall shriek with laughter." He fidgeted while she sat down and lighted a cigarette. It was a side of him she had never seen before, and she would have mocked at the idea of a fence being so sensitive if his distress had not been so palpably sincere. "It's the Triangle," he said presently. "We've got to have several places in different parts of London, and that flat'll be one of them. All you have to do is to live there and spend your allowance any way you like. In return, any member must be able to come and go as he pleases. The place is really two small flats knocked into one, so there are two entrances. If you like, you can lock yourself in half of it at night, and you can have both the keys of one entrance. I'll have a special lock put on the communicating doors, too, if that'll make you feel more comfortable. The only thing is to have some solid tenant--when big expensive flats aren't occupied the splits are liable to be a little curious, and we can't afford to take risks. Won't you think it over again, Joan?" She looked at him through a wreath of smoke. "Who is the Apex--who are the Triangle, for that matter?" she asked him directly, and his agitation froze into a menacing stillness. "That doesn't matter to you," he said. "All you need to know is that you're part of it, Joan, and you do as you're told." She stood up and set the long cigarette-holder carefully between her white teeth. Hands thrust down into the pockets of her boyish coat, she stared him straight in the eyes. "My name happens to be Sands, with a Miss in front of it," she said steadily. "All this Joaning is getting on my nerves. And as for the Triangle--I don't suppose I shall ever go to heaven, but I certainly don't intend to go to Aylesbury! I'll do my gold-digging where I don't have to trust a lot of other crooks with my safety. I'll take on your job, Snooper, but listen to this: I came into this Triangle of yours on the understanding that the crooked side of it didn't touch me, and I meant it. If you'll have those locks fixed, you can billet your crooks on me, because I want big money, and I want it bad. I'll take a chance of the busies getting on to me, but they'll never get me inside even as an accessory. When do I move?" "This afternoon," said Snooper shortly. "And you can drop the high-and-mighty tone, Miss Sands. It cuts no ice. You're a crook, even if they don't know you on the Embankment--your brother's hardly ever out of stir, and the pair of you come straight from a family of crooks." She opened the door and waved her hand towards the tiny hall.