"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 260 - The Money Master" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

them.

"You should not bring him here! You should bring no one here! I have told you—"

"You told me to look out for you," interrupted Bert. "That's what I've tried to do, only you've made it too
tough for a one-man job. So come clean, Brune. What has you so scared?"

Brune's thick lips twitched and the throat gulps began again. In an easy tone, Bert queried:

"You're scared of Nazi agents?"
Brune gave a sudden nod.

"Good," decided Bert. "Make a note of it, Gregg. We'll tell the F. B. I. about it."

Words came frantically from Brune's lips.

"No... no—"

"So that isn't it." Bert's tone became a purr. "Then it must be ordinary crooks that worry you?"

After a short hesitation, Brune nodded.

"Then it's a job for the police," observed Bert. "That's easy, Brune. See this?" Bert reached over and
drew back Emmart's coat to display the detective's badge. "Here's the very fellow to hear your story.
That's why I brought him along."

Out of the inarticulate babble that Brune gave, Bert heard something like another "No... no!" Waiting for
Emmart to finish the latest notation, Bert declared:

"I'm dropping this case. Put that down as a final note, Gregg. I've never walked out on a client yet, but
this time one is walking out on me. I want to keep my reputation, so I'm asking you to act as an official
witness. Brune is through with me—"

Bert's canny statement had all the effect of an electric shock on Brune. Emmart stared in amazed
admiration while the frightened man clutched Bert like a last straw. In something like three languages,
Brune was beseeching Bert not to desert his cause. As a finish, came gulped words in English:

"I shall tell you everything!"

They watched Brune amble crablike across the floor. At the door to a rear room, the scared man halted,
gazed over a shoulder and spoke in begging fashion.

"Please do not go," said Brune. "I must get the metal box. You know the one, Mr. Cowder. It has
something important in it. Something that will explain."

Brune was fumbling for a light switch in the other room when Emmart raised his head from the notebook
and asked:

"The metal box?"