"There's nothing like taking things comfortably," he said. "What a fanny girl you are," he added presently. "I thought when you heard how I had bowled out the scoundrel who had blasted both your life and mine, that the least you could say would be, 'Well done!' But there you sit as cool as a cucumber, and as mum as a mouse--just as if I had been telling you a bit of news out of yesterday's paper."
"Your news has taken me so much by surprise, that I don't know what to say," replied Jessie; "I want time to think it all over."
"But aren't you glad, girl, that we've got the villain fast? Isn't it sweet to you to feel that his turn has come at last? My wrongs are deep, but yours are deeper. You ought to exult in what I've done!"
"So I do, but I can hardly realize it yet. I keep on fancying it must all be a dream."
"It's an uncommon ugly reality as far as he's concerned," answered Pringle. "I don't think he'll trouble us long. I think another day and night will about finish him."
Gradually the warmth of the fire, and the brandy he had taken and was still taking, had a somnolent effect upon Pringle. He found his eyelids closing involuntarily.
"I don't think an hour or two's snooze would be a bad sort of thing," he said.
"Where is this strong-room that you talk about?" asked Jessie.
"Why, close by here--on the bottom floor--just at the end of that passage."
"And the keys--who keeps them?"