to stand on any scruple.

And he thought that if he still lived when the clock finished striking
he would take it for an omen of good hope.

The last stroke sounded and died away into the silence of the night.

The revolver was still levelled at his heart, the grim purpose in
the other's eyes had not changed, and yet Dunn drew a breath of
deep relief as though the worst of the danger was past.

Through his mind, that had been a little dulled by the sudden
consciousness of so extreme a peril, thought began again to race
with more than normal rapidity and clearness.

It occurred to him, with a sense of the irony of the position, that
when he entered this house it had been with the deliberate intention
of getting himself discovered by the inmates, believing that to show
himself to them in the character of a burglar might gain him their
confidence.

It had seemed to him that so he might come to be accepted as one of
them and perhaps learn in time the secret of their plans.

The danger that they might adopt the other course of handing him
over to the police had not seemed to him very great, for he had his
reasons for believing that there would be no great desire to draw
the attention of the authorities to Bittermeads for any reason
whatever.