She drew herself up.
“I did,” she said calmly.
I caught myself weakening. This woman who looked like the queen of something wasn’t easy to handle the way I wanted to handle her. I made myself remember that I knew her when she was homely as hell in mannish clothes.
“You ought to be spanked!” I growled at her. “Haven’t you had enough trouble without mixing yourself now with a flock of highbinders? Did you see The Whistler?”
“There was a man up there,” she said, “I don’t know his name.”
I hunted through my pocket and found the picture of him taken when he was sent to San Quentin.
“That is he,” she told me when I showed it to her.
“A fine partner you picked,” I raged. “What do you think his word on anything is worth?”
“I did not take his word for anything. I took Chang Li Ching’s word.”
“That’s just as bad. They’re mates. What was your bargain?”
She balked again, straight, stiff-necked and level-eyed. Because she was getting away from me with this Manchu princess stuff I got peevish.
“Don’t be a chump all your life!” I pleaded. “You think you made a deal. They took you in! What do you think they’re using your house for?”
She tried to look me down. I tried another angle of attack.
“Here, you don’t mind who you make bargains with. Make one with me. I’m still one prison sentence ahead of The Whistler, so if his word is any