Blanche quieted down. In her abrupt way she got to her feet and went to the bureau. Emptying out the little beaded bag, she commenced to rub fresh color into her cheeks, making strange faces into the glass meanwhile. But the tears flowed faster than she could repair the damage. "Oh damn!" she cried, throwing down the rouge pad. She drifted around the room with her lithe, abrupt movements like a diminutive tigress, the baby face all woebegone and hollowed. "Why couldn't you leave me alone?" she said crossly. "What'd you want to get me going for! Now you know what's inside I hope you're satisfied!" Notwithstanding the querulous tone Pen saw that she had been accepted as a fellow-woman. There was no more strangeness between them. "What do you want of me?" Blanche went on. "What good am I to anybody now? For two cents I'd fling myself out of the window and end it." "I thought you'd want to know what happened to Spike Talley," said Pen. It had an electrical effect on Blanche. She ran to Pen. "Do you know? Do you know? Do you know?" she demanded, moving her little clenched fists up and down. "I have only a suspicion. We must follow it out together." "Well, open it! open it!" Her tigerish look gave Pen a fresh fear. "You must promise me something!" "Oh, my God! What?" "Not to try to take the law into your own hands." "What are you trying to protect the man for?" "I'm not trying to protect him. I want to bring him into the prisoner's dock." "Well, I promise," said Blanche unwillingly. "Who was it?" "Do you know who Spike Talley was working for when he disappeared?" "No!" cried Blanche. "Don't torment me with any more questions. Who was it?" "I suspect it was Ernest Riever." The great name pulled Blanche up short. She stared at Pen with wide troubled eyes. "What for?" she whispered hoarsely. "Would you mind very much," Pen faltered, "if I said I suspected that it was Spike Talley who shot Collis Dongan?" Blanche smiled scornfully. "Not at all," she said coolly. "If it was his job." Her eyes widened again. "I begin to get you," she said slowly. "You mean Riever hired Spike ... and when the job was done ... croaked him?" Pen nodded. "Maybe so," said Blanche somberly. "What do you know?" Pen told her. "You see it's next to nothing," she said agitatedly. "They wouldn't call it evidence.... Just the same _I know!_ ... What can you add to it?" she implored, clasping her hands. Blanche stood with withdrawn gaze like a little statue of abstraction. "Not much ... right off the bat," she murmured. "But it's a working theory. Things can be found out ... Funny it never struck me that Dongan was killed the night Spike disappeared.... I knew Spike was on a job, too.... But everybody said Counsell did that.... I can tell you one thing. It was a rich man Spike was working for. One of the richest. He said as much." "That's something," said Pen.