!" Mary cried. Her eyes darkened and distended
with fear. They darted from Garson to the other three men, and back
again in rebuke. "Yes, fools! This is burglary. I can't protect you if
you are caught. How can I? Oh, come!" She held out her hands pleadingly
toward Garson, and her voice dropped to beseeching. "Joe, Joe, you must
get away from this house at once, all of you. Joe, make them go."

"It's too late," was the stern answer. There was no least relaxation in
the stubborn lines of his face. "We're here now, and we'll stay till the
business is done."

Mary went a step forward. The cloak she was wearing was thrown back by
her gesture of appeal so that those watching saw the snowy slope of the
shoulders and the quick rise and fall of the gently curving bosom. The
beautiful face within the framing scarf was colorless with a great fear,
save only the crimson lips, of which the bow was bent tremulously as she
spoke her prayer.

"Joe, for my sake!"

But the man was inexorable. He had set himself to this thing, and even
the urging of the one person in the world for whom he most cared was
powerless against his resolve.

"I can't quit now until we've got what we came here after," he declared
roughly.

Of a sudden, the girl made shift to employ another sort of supplication.

"But there are reasons," she said, faltering. A certain embarrassment
swept her, and the ivory of her cheeks bloomed rosily. "I--I can't have
you rob this house, this particular house of all the world." Her eyes
leaped from the still obdurate face of the forger to the group of three
back of him. Her voice was shaken with a great dread as she called out
to them.

"Boys, let's get away! Please, oh, please! Joe, for God's sake!" Her
tone was a sob.

Her anguish of fear did not swerve Garson from his purpose.

"I'm going to see this through," he said, doggedly.

"But, Joe----"

"It's settled, I tell you."

In the man's emphasis the girl realized at last the inefficacy of her
efforts to combat his will. She seemed to droop visibly before their
eyes. Her head sank on her breast. Her voice was husky as she tried to
speak.

"Then----" She broke off with a gesture of despair, and turned away
toward the door by which she had entered.

But, with a movement of great swiftness, Garson got in front of her,
and barred her going. For a few seconds the two stared at each other
searchingly as if learning new and strange things, each of the other. In
th