“I don’t see why I should go out of my way to help you in this,” she said. “It’s your own business, Larry.”

There was indecision in her voice. The man shook his head as though with amused tolerance at the slow comprehension of a dull child. “My dear woman, it is the business of all of us⁠—of you particularly. She knows much too much. Where will you be, if I am landed in the dock? We have all got to hang together or hang separately. I am not asking you to do me a favour. I am asking you to help save yourself. The prison doors are not far away from you, Adèle. You can take your choice.”

That threat clinched the matter as Larry Hughes expected it would. With all her futility of brain Mrs. Gertstein had a strong instinct for self-preservation. That alone would smother any lesser feelings she might have, even her hurt vanity or her sense of friendship for the girl who had been loyal to her. Her course was straight in front of her, and in taking it she reckoned nothing of the consequences to anyone but herself.