"Do let me in, Clare! I'm so 'ungry and so cold!"

"Then I shall have to put you in the water-but! I said I would!"

"If you don't promise not to, I'll go straight to the police. They'll
take the brat from you, and put her in the workhouse!"

Clare thought for a moment whether it would not be right to kill such
a traitor. His mind was full of history-tales, and, like Dante, he put
treachery in its own place, namely the deepest hell. But with the
thought came the words he had said so many times without thinking what
they meant--"Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that
trespass against us," and he saw that he was expected to forgive
Tommy.

"Tommy, I forgive you," he said solemnly, "and will be friends with
you again; but I have said it, and I was right to say it, and into the
water-but you must go! I can't trust your word now, and I think I
shall be able to trust it after that."

Ere he had finished the words, Tommy lifted up his voice in a most
unearthly screech.

Instantly Clare had him by the throat, so that he could not utter a
sound.

"Tommy," he said, "I'm going to let you breathe again, but the moment
you make a noise, I'll choke you as I'm doing now."