"He ain't rich?" Don broke in skeptically. "Say, whatcha tryin' to hand me? If he ain't rich, whatcha marry him for--and risk doin' a trip for bigamy? Stuck on the guy, huh?" Helen shook her head. "N-no," she faltered. "I'm not 'stuck' on him. I wish to Heaven that I hadn't married him--now." Her lips twitched. "I--I suppose it looked like a chance to be respectable. I heard that you were in trouble out in Chicago, that you'd been put away for a long time. I took up typewriting after Tilliston's cabaret closed; I changed my name and got a job with a publishing house." "Yeah, I got all that from Madge." "Oh, what's the use going into the rest of it? I don't like to work; I never did. I met Gilmore. He was wild about me--still is. It seemed like such a wonderful chance, the wife of a famous novelist. I wonder what he'll do if he ever learns the truth? Perhaps--perhaps--he'll kill me!" "Aw, can that stuff," growled Don Haskins. "Conversation don't help me any; what I want is that thousand bucks--quick. I'm due for a long trip up the river--or worse--if I don't jump town before the bulls nail me. "I was in on a loft job. It was a water haul--not a ten-dollar bit between the three of us that was in on it. One of the birds got nabbed, and I know he's got a yellow streak in 'im as wide as Fifth Avenue. The cops won't have to more'n bounce a nightstick over his head when he'll come through with a squeal. I gotta get outta town, put distance behind me, because"--his voice sank to a low, hoarse whisper--"because the watchman got croaked, see! It--it's a chance of the chair, if 'Dago Mike' squeals on the other two of us. "A guy ain't got no chance doin' a slide outta town these days unless he's well heeled. I'm flat broke. Do I get that thousand from you, or----" "Say it, Don." The man's eyes were narrowed. "Or do I drop a note to Gilmore, tellin' him that his wife's got two husbands, that if he'll taxi over to Borough Hall in Brooklyn and look over the marriage-license records for October tenth, nineteen sixteen----" "You--you wouldn't do that to me, Don?" Helen's face was deathly white. "You ungrateful rat----" "If I'm a rat, then it was you made me a rat!" gritted the man. "When I got outta the Tombs that time and found you'd throwed me over, and was trailin' around with that swell with the Eyetalian name, it made a bum outta me. If I could have got my hands on you that first night----" His hands darted toward her, extended fingers twitching convulsively, as they neared her throat. With a stifled scream Helen protected herself with her arms. "Don't! Don't! Don't look at me like that. I'll try to get the thousand dollars, but I don't know what--what I will tell him." "It's up to you what kind of a song and dance you give 'im," he growled. "The big thing is--get it. It's that, or else----Now pass over that two hundred you was talkin' about; that'll help a little."