CHAPTER VII

QUESTION AND ANSWER


Dunn obeyed promptly.

There was that about this little fat, smiling man and his unsmiling
eyes which proclaimed very plainly that he was quite ready to put
his threat into execution.

For a moment or two they stood thus, each regarding the other very
intently. Dunn, his hands in the air, the steady barrel of the
other's pistol levelled at his heart, knew that never in all his
adventurous life had he been in such deadly peril as now, and the
grotesque thought came into his mind to wonder if there were room
for two in that packing-case in the attic.

Or perhaps no attempt would be made to hide his death since, after
all, it is always permissible to shoot an armed burglar.

The clock on the stairs began to strike the hour, and he wondered if
he would still be alive when the last stroke sounded.

He did not much think so for he thought he could read a very deadly
purpose in the other's cold grey eyes, nor did he suppose that a man
with such a secret as that of the attic upstairs to hide was likely