"I heard you!" she said, in tones that were all the more awe-inspiring because they were low. "What do you mean by spying on me, you black devil? Think I want to cheat the house? I'd not be so clumsy about it, if I did! Think I'm trying to skidoo? I'd walk out if I felt like it! I'll go right to Miss Rose about this, an' have you fired so quick you won't have time to pack your duds!" The servant remained as she had sprawled. "Oh, please don', miss!" she wailed. "Please don' tell Miss Rose! Ah wasn't tryin' to spy on youse. Ah jes' drapped somethin' yhere, an' ah was jes' tryin' to fin'----" "Don't you lie to me," said Violet, her cheeks, now always so wan in the morning light, flushing to something like their former color. "Get up off your knees." "Miss Vi'let, please don' tell on me." The black girl's voice threatened to rise to a dangerous wail. "All right," said Violet, quickly. "I'll let it go this time; but you hurry up and get that brandy, or I might change my mind. Pull the cork while you're at it, and fetch a decent glass from the dining-room." Cassie, murmuring thanks with her thick lips, and wiping her eyes with the big knuckles of her right fist, scrambled to her feet, and started again upon her errand. This time Violet left the door open. She waited till the servant was out of earshot. Then she opened the door to the back stairway, which she herself had twice used to excellent purpose, and, finding nobody there, returned to Schultz. "Got something for me?" she whispered. But no haste upon her part would speed his Teutonic caution. "I asked you," he said, as if he had not observed the little encounter through which he had sat serene and unconcerned, "whether you knew the man who had my job before what I had it." "Yes--yes, I knew him. Quick!" "And your name is Miss Violet?" "You heard the girl call me that. Can't you hustle?" "I don't want to hustle. If you're the girl I want, you've kept me waitin' here three mornings already." "Well, I'm the person all right. You know that now. Oh, won't you please hurry? Don't you see how things are here?" "I seen enough to make me want to go slow." "You're going slow all right. What more do you want to know? I talked to the man you're telling me about and he said he'd see what he could do." Her replies came with the rapidity of musketry, but Schultz spoke with stubborn deliberation. "Was that all he told you?" "Sure it was." "Nothin' more?" "No.--Can't you hurry? Can't you believe me?--He didn't say no more.--Quick!--Oh, yes, he said he'd talk to his girl Katie about me.--Quick!--Hush-t! Here she comes!" Cassie's step sounded only a few yards away, but Schultz, now apparently satisfied of Violet's identity, displayed an unlooked for speed. The heavy hand that had been clumsily reposing in the bulging side-pocket of his coat shot free. Violet seized a fist that opened and withdrew as her own fingers closed on a bit of paper.