"I may catch cold," laughed Mr. Magee; "otherwise I'll be perfectly safe." He went into the room and put on a gay plaid cap. "Makes me look like Sherlock Holmes," he smiled at the girl framed in the window. When he turned to his door to lock it, he discovered that the key was gone and that it had been locked on the outside. "Oh, very well," he said flippantly. He buttoned his coat to the chin, blew out the candles in number seven, and joined the girl on the balcony.
"Go to your room," he said gently. "Your worries are over. I'll bring you the golden fleece inside an hour."
"Be careful," she whispered, "Be very careful, Mr.—Billy."
"Just for that," cried Magee gaily, "I'll get you four hundred thousand dollars."
He ran to the end of the balcony, and dropping softly to the ground, was ready for his first experiment in the gentle art of highway robbery.
CHAPTER IX
MELODRAMA IN THE SNOW
The justly celebrated moon that in summer months shed so much glamour on the romances of Baldpate Inn was no where in evidence as Mr. Magee crept along the ground close to the veranda. The snow sifted down upon him out of the blackness above; three feet ahead the world seemed to end.
"A corking night," he muttered humorously, "for my debut in the hold-up business."