"You must take it! It is not a matter of choice, and I will ask nothing you can't do. You must only swear to keep a secret."
"Well, I'll try," said Cherrie, with a sigh, "but I hate to do it."
"I dare say you do!" he said, breaking into a slight smile; "it is not in your line, I know, to keep secrets, Cherrie; but at present there is no help for it. You know what an oath is, don't you, Cherrie?"
"Yes."
"And you swear never to reveal what I am about to say to you?"
"Yes," said Cherrie, her curiosity getting the better of her fear. "I swear! What is it?"
Was it the gloom of the place, or some inward struggle, that darkened so his handsome face. The silence lasted so long after her question, that Cherrie's heart began to beat with a cold and nameless fear. He turned to her at last, holding both her hands in his own, and so hard that she could have cried out with the pain.
"You have sworn, Cherrie, to help me. Say you hope you may die if you ever break that oath. Say it!"
The girl repeated the frightful words, with a shiver.
"Then, Cherrie, listen, and don't scream. I'm going to rob Lady Leroy to-morrow night."