nd
it was on his lips now in an agony of tenderness and appeal. "Don't! You
mustn't speak like that!"

"I'm tired," she said. "I--I can't fight any more."

She did not cry. She lay there in his arms quite still--like a weary
child.

The minutes passed. When Jimmie Dale spoke again it was
irrelevantly--and his face was very white:

"Marie, describe the upper floor of that house over there for me."

She roused herself with a start.

"The upper floor?" she repeated slowly. "Why--why do you ask that?"

"Have YOU forgotten in turn?" he said, with a steady smile. "That money
in the safe--it's yours--we can at least save that out of the wreck. You
only drew the basement plan and the first floor for the Magpie--the
more I know about the house the better, of course, in case anything goes
wrong. Now, see, try and be brave--and tell me quickly, for I must get
through before the Magpie comes, and I have barely half an hour."

"No, Jimmie--no!" She slipped out of his arms. "Let it alone! I am
afraid. Something--I--I have a feeling that something will happen."

"It is the only way." He said it involuntarily, more to himself than to
her.

"Jimmie, let it alone!" she said again.

"No," he said. "I am going--so tell me quickly. Every minute that we
wait is one that counts against us."

She hesitated an instant--and then, speaking rapidly, made a verbal
sketch of the upper portion of the house for him.

"It's a very large house, isn't it?" he commented innocently--to pave
the way for the question, above all others, that he had to ask. "Which
is your uncle's, I mean that man's room?"

"The first on the right, at the head of the landing," she answered.
"Only, Jimmie, don't--don't go!"

He drew her close to him again.

"Now, listen," he said quietly. "When the Magpie comes and finds I am
not here, lead him to think that the money he gave me was too much for
me; that I am probably in some den, doped with drug--and hold him as
long as you can on the pretext that there is always the possibility I
may, after all, show up before he goes in there. You understand? And
now about yourself--you must do exactly as I say. On no account allow
yourself to be seen by ANY ONE except the Magpie. I would tell you to
go now, only, unless it is vitally necessary, we cannot afford to
arouse the Magpie's suspicions--he'd have every crook in the underworld
snarling at our heels. But you are not to wait, even for him, if you
detect the slighte