"Thank you," she said, smiling faintly. "I feel much better now."
The burglar fidgeted, as he invariably did when she fixed her eyes squarely upon him. "But I don't see, miss," he began—"I don't see how you've helped yourself much, after all. What's to prevent me from breaking that door down?"
"Well, I'll explain it to you," she said. She was making desperate efforts to get on friendly terms with him. "You cannot possibly break that door without rousing everybody. There are three men-servants, and there is Dr. Langsdale. They will come up here armed. You cannot kill all of them. One of them will be sure to kill or wound you. And if you are wounded, you will be captured. And if you are captured after killing somebody, why, you'll—I don't know just what the law is."
"Why, I'll hang, miss," said the burglar, laughing at his own grim humor.
"Well, you don't want to get killed or to hang, do you?" went on Miss Burton. She was now feeling almost at ease. "So this is my offer: If you will stay quietly here until five o'clock, the servants will be astir. I'll ring the bell, and when my maid comes I'll ask her to go and get the extra key and unlock the door. I'll send her away, and take you downstairs and let you out myself. And so that you won't have your night for nothing, I'll give you the hundred dollars I have in my purse in the drawer over there—that, or anything else you want."
She was waiting eagerly for his answer, smiling persuasively at him. He kept his eyes down, shifted in the chair, crossed and recrossed his legs. He rose, went to the window, and leaning out, looked down. He came back and stood before her.
"How do I know that you will not play a sharp trick on me, and then get me into trouble?" he said, trying to make his voice rough.
"I promise that I will deal fairly, if you will. I don't break promises. But if that is not enough, remember, if there were to be any noise, it would kill father."
"I'll go you," he said, after he had looked out of the window again and had examined the heavy door. "And here's my hand on it."