nt
movement.

But this time, instead of closing it, she pulled it open and found
herself face to face with Dunn.

He did not speak or move, and she stood staring at him blankly. Slowly
her mouth opened as though to utter a cry that, however, could not rise
above her fluttering throat. Her face had taken on the pallor of death,
her great eyes showed the awful fear she felt.

Still without speaking, Dunn stepped forward into the room and, closing
the door, stood with his back to it.

She shrank away and put her hand upon a chair, but for the support of
which she must certainly have fallen, for her limbs were trembling so
violently they gave her little support.

"Don't hurt me," she panted.

In truth he presented a strange and terrifying appearance. The unkempt
hair that covered his face and through which his keen eyes glowed like
fire, gave him an unusual and formidable aspect. In one hand he held the
ugly-looking jemmy he had taken from the burglar, and the new clothes
he had donned, ill-fitting and soiled, served to accentuate the
ungainliness of his form.

The frightened girl was not even sure that he was human, and she shrank
yet further away from him till she sank down upon the bed, dizzy with
fear and almost swooning.

As yet he had not spoken, for his eyes had gone to the mantlepiece on
which he saw that the photograph signed with the name "Charley Wright,"
did not now stand upright, but had fallen forward on its face so that
one could no longer see what it represented.

It must have fallen just as he entered the room and this seemed to him
an omen, though whether of good or ill, he did not know.

"Who are you?" the girl stammered. "What do you want?"

He looked at her moodily and still without answering, though in his
bright and keen eyes a strange light burned.

She was lovely, he thought, of that there could be no question. But her
beauty made to him small appeal, for he was wondering what kind of soul
lay behind those perfect features, that smooth and delicate skin, those
luminous eyes. Yet his eyes were still hard and it was in his roughest,
gruffest tones that he said:

"You needn't be afraid, I won't hurt you."

"I'll give you everything I have," she panted, "if only you'll go away."

"Not so fast as all that," he answered, coolly, for indeed he had not
taken so mad a risk in order to go away again if he could help it. "Who
is there in the house besides you?"

"Only mother," she answered