"And leave you with----" Mrs. Jarsell cast a terrified look at Dan. "Pooh!" cried Queen Beelzebub contemptuously, "you don't think that I am afraid of him. I have the lancet with the snake-poison, and if he tries to get out of the door or the window you know very well that every exit is watched. Go away and employ your time better than sobbing and moaning. You know what you have to do, you poor silly fool?"
"Yes," sighed Mrs. Jarsell, and stumbled towards the door like a rebuked infant. "I'll send the telegrams before eight. But the village post-office will learn too much if I send them."
"Never mind. The whole world will learn too much before to-morrow night, my dear Eliza. However, neither you nor I, nor anyone else concerned, will be here to get into trouble." Mrs. Jarsell threw her hands above her head. "The end has come; the end has come," she wailed tearfully, "we are lost, lost, lost!"
"I know that as well as you do," said Miss Armour cheerfully, "thanks to this idiot here. However, he shall pay for his meddling."
"But if the police----"
"If you don't get out," interrupted Queen Beelzebub in a cold fury, "I shall prick you with the lancet--you know what that means."
"It would be better than the other thing," moaned Mrs. Jarsell, clinging to the door, which she had opened. "What other thing?" inquired Halliday, on the alert for information. Queen Beelzebub replied. "You shall know before you die! Eliza, will you go and send those telegrams, you silly fool? If you don't obey me----" the woman's face took on such a wicked expression that Mrs. Jarsell, with a piteous cry, fled hastily, closing the door after her. Then Miss Armour drank a little of the wine that was on the table beside her and looked smilingly at her prisoner. "I never could make anything of Eliza," she explained, "always a whimpering cry-baby. I wouldn't have had her in the society but that I wished to use this house, which belongs to her, and of course when we started her money was useful." Halliday, being alone, glanced around to see if he could escape. He could not attack Miss Armour, old and feeble as she was, because of the poisoned piece of steel which she had concealed about her. He had seen the effects on Sir Charles Moon, and did not wish to risk so sudden a death. For the sake of Lillian it was necessary that he should live, since, if he did not, there was no one left to protect her; therefore, he did not think of meddling with Queen Beelzebub, but cast an anxious look at windows and door. Escape that way was equally impossible, as all were guarded. There seemed to be nothing for it but to wait and take what chance offered itself later. He could see none at the moment. The position was unpleasant, especially when he remembered that he was to be tortured, but his manhood prevented his showing the least sign of fear. To intimate that he cared nothing for her threats, he took out his pipe and tobacco pouch. "Do you mind my smoking, Miss Armour?"
"Not at all, unless you would rather eat. There's food on the table behind you. Oh," she laughed, when she saw the expression on his face, as he glanced around, "don't be alarmed, I don't intend to poison you. That death will be too easy. You can eat and drink and smoke with perfect safety. I intend to end your life in a less merciful manner."
"Well," said Dan, going to the table and taking a sandwich, together with a glass of port wine. "I think you are spiteful enough to give me a bad time before dying, so I am quite sure that I can eat and drink with safety!"
"Oh, what a pity; what a pity," said Miss Armour thoughtfully, when the young man returned to his seat and began to make a hurried meal. "What's a pity?" asked Dan carelessly. "That you and I should be enemies. I gave you the chance to be friendly with me, you know, but you wouldn't take it. Yet I admire you, and have always admired you. You have courage, brains, coolness, and persistence. These are valuable qualities such as I needed for a member of my society. If I had not seen that you possessed them and wished to make use of them by binding you to my society, I should have ended your life long ago."