“I’m prepared to take all the consequences,” was her calm reply.
“Take care!” he said threateningly, in a low hoarse voice. “I’m a desperate man when driven into a corner.”
“You mean rather that you’re a coward when cornered,” she said coldly. “I am glad to have this opportunity of meeting, in order to repay you for the gross injustice which you have done me.”
“You’re a little fool!” he said in a hard tone. “Keep quiet, or somebody will hear you.”
“You entrapped me in that place. I have now entrapped you—in my own house,” she exclaimed, with a look of triumph.
“Not for long,” he said determinedly. “Do you know that I could strangle you where you stand, and still get clear. Even though you screamed. I already have a rope on the balcony yonder, down into the street. But don’t be alarmed. I have no wish to injure you, my dear little girl—not in the least. We will just make an arrangement, and cry quits.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, listen. You’ve discovered me here, and you could give me away. But I want to buy your silence.”
“Buy my silence!” she exclaimed, staring at him. “Yes. Why not? You must buy mine. Shall we not then be quits?”
She regarded him with a puzzled air. He was her bitterest foe, and she was wondering what was the true meaning of the suggestion. She was undecided, too, whether not to alarm the house, instead of parleying further. She had caught the fellow in her father’s room wearing the apparel of the modern burglar, therefore the police would, without doubt, arrest him as such.