stily,
"But you see I am trusting you with the three hundred dollars."

"I believe you, ma'am," he came back gallantly. "Though I just can't
help this nervousness."

"Shall I go and get it?"

But before she could receive consent, a slight muffled jar from the
distance came to her ear. She knew it for the swing-door of the butler's
pantry. But so slight was it--more a faint vibration than a sound--that
she would not have heard had not her ears been keyed and listening for
it. Yet the man had heard. He was startled in his composed way.

"What was that?" he demanded.

For answer, her left hand flashed out to the revolver and brought it
back. She had had the start of him, and she needed it, for the next
instant his hand leaped up from his side, clutching emptiness where the
revolver had been.

"Sit down!" she commanded sharply, in a voice new to him. "Don't move.
Keep your hands on the table."

She had taken a lesson from him. Instead of holding the heavy weapon
extended, the butt of it and her forearm rested on the table, the muzzle
pointed, not at his head, but his chest. And he, looking coolly and
obeying her commands, knew there was no chance of the kick-up of the
recoil producing a miss. Also, he saw that the revolver did not wabble,
nor the hand shake, and he was thoroughly conversant with the size of
hole the soft-nosed bullets could make. He had eyes, not for her, but
for the hammer, which had risen under the pressure of her forefinger on
the trigger.

"I reckon I'd best warn you that that there trigger-pull is filed
dreadful fine. Don't press too hard, or I'll have a hole in me the size
of a walnut."

She slacked the hammer partly down.

"That's better," he commented. "You'd best put it down all the way. You
see how easy it works. If you want to, a quick light pull will jiffy her
up and back and make a pretty mess all over your nice floor."

A door opened behind him, and he heard somebody enter the room. But he
did not turn his bead. He was looking at her, and he found it the face
of another woman--hard, cold, pitiless yet brilliant in its beauty. The
eyes, too, were hard, though blazing with a cold light.

"Thomas," she commanded, "go to the telephone and call the police. Why
were you so long in answering?"

"I came as soon as I heard the bell, madam," was the answer.

The robber never took his eyes from hers, nor did she from his, but
at mention of the bell she noticed that his eyes were puzzled