warm heart. And there, and there was I, a common thief who had broken
in to steal! Yet I was unaware that I had uttered a sound until she
looked up, startled, and the hands behind me pinned me where I stood.

I think she must have seen us, even in the dim light of the solitary
candle. Yet not a sound escaped her as she peered courageously in
our direction; neither did one of us move; but the hall clock went
on and on, every tick like the beat of a drum to bring the house
about our ears, until a minute must have passed as in some breathless
dream. And then came the awakening - with such a knocking and a
ringing at the front door as brought all three of us to our senses
on the spot.

"The son of the house!" whispered Raffles in my ear, as he dragged
me back to the window he had left open for our escape. But as he
leaped out first a sharp cry stopped me at the sill. "Get back!
Get back! We're trapped!" he cried; and in the single second that
I stood there, I saw him fell one officer to the ground, and dart
across the lawn with another at his heels. A third came running up
to the window. What could I do but double back into the house? And
there in the hall I met my lost love face to face.

Till that moment she had not recognized me. I ran to catch her as
she all but fell. And my touch repelled her into life, so that she
shook me off, and stood gasping: "You, of all men! You, of all men!"
until I could bear it no more, but broke again for the study-window.
"Not that way - not that way!" she cried in an agony at that. Her
hands were upon me now. "In there, in there," she whispered,
pointing and pulling me to a mere cupboard under the stairs, where
hats and coats were hung; and it was she who shut the door on me with