quite
likely he may come back tonight."

"What should I want him for?" growled Dunn, more and more, disconcerted,
as he saw that he was not playing his part too well.

"I don't know," she answered. "I suppose you do."

"You suppose a lot," he retorted roughly. "Now you listen to me. I don't
want to hurt you, but I don't mean to be interfered with. I'm going over
the house to see what I can find that's worth taking. Understand?"

"Oh, perfectly," she said.

She was watching him closely, and she noticed that he still made no
attempt to take possession of her jewellery, though it lay at his hand,
and that puzzled her very much, indeed, for she supposed the very first
thing a burglar did was always to seize such treasures as these of hers.
But this man paid them no attention whatever, and did not even notice
them.

He was feeling in his pockets now and he took out the revolver and the
coil of thin rope he had secured from the burglar.

"Now, do you know what I'm going to do?" he asked, with an air of
roughness and brutality that was a little overdone. He put the revolver
and the rope down on the bed, the revolver quite close to her.

"I'm going," he continued, "to tie you up to one of those chairs. I
can't risk your playing any tricks or giving an alarm, perhaps, while
I'm searching the house. I shall take what's worth having, and then I
shall clear off, and if your stepfather's coming home tonight you won't
have to wait long till he releases you, and if he don't come I can't
help it."

He turned his back to her as he spoke and took hold of one of the chairs
in the room, and then of another and looked at them as though carefully
considering which would be the best to use for the carrying out of his
threat.

He appeared to find it difficult to decide, for he kept his back turned
to her for two or three minutes, during all of which time the revolver
lay on the bed quite close to her hand.

He listened intently for he fully expected her to snatch it up, and he
wished to be ready to turn before she could actually fire. But, indeed,
nothing was further from her thoughts, for she did not know in the least
how to use the weapon or even how to fire it off, and the very thought
of employing it to kill any one would have terrified her far more even
than had done her experiences of this night.

So the pistol lay untouched by her side, while, very pale and trembling
a little, she waited what he would do, and on his side