, looking up at him very pleadingly as if in
hopes that he must relent when he saw her in distress. "Please, won't
you take what you want and go away? Please don't disturb mother, it
would nearly kill her."

"I'm not going to hurt either you or your mother if you'll be sensible,"
he said irritably, for, unreasonably enough, the extreme fear she showed
and her pleading tones annoyed him. He had a feeling that he would
like to shake her, it was so absurd of her to look at him as though she
expected him to gobble her up in a mouthful.

She seemed a little reassured.

"Mother will be so dreadfully frightened," she repeated, "I'll give you
everything there is in the house if only you'll go at once."

"I can take everything I want without your giving it me," he retorted.
"How do I know you're telling the truth when you say there's no one else
in the house? How many servants have you?"

"None," she answered. "There's a woman comes every day, but she doesn't
sleep here."

"Do you live all alone here with your mother?" he asked, watching her
keenly.

"There's my stepfather," she answered. "But he's not here tonight."

"Oh, is he away?" Dunn asked, his expression almost one of
disappointment.

The girl, whose first extreme fear had passed and who was watching him
as keenly as he watched her, noticed this manner of disappointment, and
could not help wondering what sort of burglar it was who was not pleased
to hear that the man of the house was away, and that he had only two
women to deal with.

And it appeared to her that he seemed not only disappointed, but rather
at a loss what to do next.

As in truth he was, for that the stepfather should be away, and this
girl and her mother all alone, was, perhaps, the one possibility that he
had never considered.

She noticed, too, that he did not pay any attention to her jewellery,
which was lying close to his hand on the toilet-table, and though in
point of actual fact this jewellery was not of any great value, it was
exceedingly precious in her eyes, and she did not understand a burglar
who showed no eagerness to seize on it.

"Did you want to see Mr. Dawson?" she asked, her voice more confident
now and even with a questioning note in it.

"Mr. Dawson! Who's he?" Dunn asked, disconcerted by the question, but
not wishing to seem so.

"My stepfather, Mr. Deede Dawson," she answered. "I think you knew that.
If you want him, he went to London early today, but I think it's