CHAPTER VII.

A QUESTIONABLE GUIDE.


Max started violently at the girl's voice.

"A dead man? In there? How do you know?"

In a hoarse voice the girl answered:

"How do I know? The best way possible. _I saw it done!_"

There was an awful silence. Max was so deeply impressed by the girl's
words, her looks, her manner, by the gloom of the cold, dark passage, by
the desolate appearance of the two deserted buildings before which they
stood, that his first impulse was an overpowering desire to run away.
Acting upon it he even took a couple of rapid steps in the direction of
the street he had left, passing the girl and getting clear of the
uncanny boarded-up front of the shop.

A moan from the girl made him stop and look around at her. Emboldened by
this, she came close to him again and whispered:

"You're a man; you ought to have more pluck than I've got. It's two days
since it happened--"

"Two days!" muttered Max, remembering that it was two days ago that he
had surprised Dudley with his blood-stained hands.