“No; I don’t think I should hesitate.”
“Good! I understand you, Carter, better than you think. Now another question: If Mercedes Danton were not in question, you would not even stop to consider that your premises in this case are correct, would you?”
“No; I don’t think I should.”
“That’s all right, Nick, old man. It would seem that I was not so far wrong as one might suppose when I teased Mercedes until she was angry. But we’ll drop all that now. You had got as far as saying that you would rather be shot than enter that room under certain circumstances. Go ahead from there.”
“If by any chance your sister is in that room, why, it would be no great crime for her brother to enter it without her knowledge, just to ascertain if she is really there, while, for me to do so, would be——”
“Terrible, eh? Let it go at that. But, I say; do you think for a moment that I’m going to burgle that room?”
“That is exactly what I expect you to do.”
“It strikes me that the shoe is on the other foot now, with a vengeance.”
“How so?”
“Why, this way: If I burgle the room, and it is my sister’s room, no harm is done. If I burgle it and it is not my sister’s room, then the devil is to pay.”