"Recognized him!" repeated Ross, aghast. "Do you mean that you were dragged into even this? You knew him?"
"I saw him once." Betty hesitated and then went on impetuously as if glad to rid herself of the hideous burden she had borne so long. "I came downstairs alone at midnight, and I found him lying dead upon the floor. I don't know how he got in or who killed him. There wasn't the slightest trace left in the morning and it all seemed like an awful dream."
Ross groaned.
"And you told no one? You kept it to yourself and stayed on? Good God, what is it that has held you here? What obsession controls you, stronger than the fear of death!! How could you, a tender, highly-strung girl, force yourself to intimate association with desperate criminals whom you knew had not hesitated to take human life? What manner of woman are you?"
"I don't know," Betty answered truthfully enough. "If anyone had told me that I could endure what I have gone through I should have fancied them quite mad, but I have not given up my purpose and I cannot leave while a single chance remains for its fulfillment. You must think what you please of me. I shall not attempt to explain or defend myself to you, and if the worst comes and I am taken with the others, I will face the consequences. No one can help me, and no one can stop me."
"I mean to take you away now, tonight, if I have to do it by force!" Ross spoke through set teeth. "I know who you are and everything about you except the mission which brought you here, and that I can guess. I mean to save you from yourself and the result of your mad recklessness!"
"You know?" Betty echoed faintly.
"Oh, my dear, give it up and come away with me!" He had drawn close to her and the thrilling tenderness in his tone made the blood leap in her veins. "I will take you where you will be safe, where not a breath of this hideous monster of crime can touch you. You are the bravest little woman in the world but you are acting from a mistaken sense of loyalty, I know, I feel it. Dear, I love you! Whatever you think of me, whatever the future may hold, I love you! When I have seemed to be hounding you down I was trying always to protect you. Before I knew the truth, when everything seemed blackest against you and I believed the worst I loved you. Criminal or not, I wanted to hold you against all the world! Won't you trust me, dear? Won't you let me save you while there is yet time?"
"Oh, please!" Betty cried a trifle breathlessly. "You cannot realize what you are saying. You know nothing of me, nothing, and as to my leaving here, I—I am not free to go."
"And do you think that I will allow you to remain here another hour?" he cried. "Do you think that I will let you face this unspeakable danger, you whom I love?—For I do love you, Betty! Whether you believe me or not, whether you listen or turn from me, I love you! That is why I trusted you from the first, believed in you when appearances were blackest, had faith, blindly, instinctively against reason and logic and circumstantial evidence of the most conclusive kind! The net is closing around this horrible high priestess of crime and her accomplices; it will be only a matter of hours now before the end. Oh, my dear, drive this mad, quixotic idea from your thoughts and come with me!"