CHAPTER XVFADE OUT FOR CROOKS
I walk around the desk an’ I stand there lookin’ at her as she is lyin’ on the floor. I figure she is goin’ to give herself a double dose of hysteria in a minute.
I bend down an’ pick her up. I carry her over to the chair an’ while I am doin’ it she tries—even fixed the way she is—to pull something. While she is in my arms she sorta turns her head an’ looks at me an’ she puts everything inta that look that she’s got. I guess that if that dame coulda cut off ten years of her life if she was able to kill me with a look she woulda done it. It was poison I’m tellin’ you.
I throw her down in the chair.
“Take it nice an’ calm, Cleopatra,” I tell her, “because gettin’ excited or raisin’ hell around here is goin’ to be as much use to you as red pepper on a gumboil
