Chapter 49

Cairo wet his lips and turned slowly to face Spade. “Suppose,” he said, and swallowed. “Have I—? Can I choose?” “You can,” Spade assured him seriously, “but you ought to know that if the answer is _out_ we’ll give you to the police with your boy-friend.” “Oh, come, Mr. Spade,” Gutman protested, “that is not—” “Like hell we’ll let him walk out on us,” Spade said. “He’ll either come in or he’ll go in. We can’t have a lot of loose ends hanging around.” He scowled at Gutman and burst out irritably: “Jesus God! is this …