“I want you to not do anything more about what I told you last night. Now wait a minute. Wait till I get through. Dan was right. I oughtn’t sell Max out like that. It would be utterly filthy. Besides, it’s Noonan you chiefly want, isn’t it? Well, if you’ll be a nice darling and lay off Max this time, I’ll give you enough on Noonan to nail him forever. You’d like that better, wouldn’t you? And you like me too much to want to take advantage of me by using information I gave you when I was mad at what Max had said, don’t you?”
“What is the dirt on Noonan?” I asked.
She kneaded my biceps and murmured: “You promise?”
“Not yet.”
She pouted at me and said:
“I’m off Max for life, on the level. You’ve got no right to make me turn rat.”
“What about Noonan?”
“Promise first.”
“No.”
She dug fingers into my arm and asked sharply:
“You’ve already gone to Noonan?”
“Yeah.”
She let go my arm, frowned, shrugged, and said gloomily:
“Well, how can I help it?”
I stood up and a voice said: