At the same moment Bridge stepped from
hiding into the clearing. His pleasant 'Good morning!'
brought the girl around, facing him.
"What you want?" she snapped.
"I want you and this young man," said Bridge, his
voice now suddenly stern. "We have been watching you
and followed you from the Squibbs house. We found the
dead man there last night;" Bridge nodded toward the
quilt enveloped thing upon the ground; "and we sus-
pect that you had an accomplice." Here he frowned
meaningly upon Willie Case. The youth trembled and
stammered.
"I never seen her afore," he cried. "I don' know
nothin' about it. Honest I don't." But the girl did not
quail.
"You get out," she commanded. "You a bad man. Kill,
steal. He know; he tell me. You get out or I call Beppo.
He keel you. He eat you."
"Come, come, now, my dear," urged Bridge, "be calm.
Let us get at the root of this thing. Your young friend
accuses me of being a murderer, does he? And he tells
about murders in Oakdale that I have not even heard
of. It seems to me that he must have some guilty knowl-
edge himself of these affairs. Look at him and look at
me. Notice his ears, his chin, his forehead, or rather the
places where his chin and forehead should be, and then
look once more at me.
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