ace was solitary; but the
opposite door was open also. Losely's fine ear caught the sound of a
slight movement of a footstep in the room just below, to which that
opposite door admitted. In an instant the robber glided within the
chamber--closed and locked the door by which he had entered, retaining
the key about his person. The next stride brought him to the hearth.
Beside it hung the bell-rope common in old-fashioned houses. Losely
looked round; on the table, by the writing implements, lay a pen-knife.
In another moment the rope was cut, high out of Darrell's reach, and
flung aside. The hearth, being adapted but for logwood fires, furnished
not those implements in which, at a moment of need, the owner may find
an available weapon--only a slight pair of brass wood-pincers, and a
shovel equally frail. Such as they were, however, Jasper quietly removed
and hid them behind a heavy old bureau. Steps were now heard mounting
the stair that led into the chamber; Losely shrunk back into the recess
beside the mantelpiece. Darrell entered, with a book in his hand, for
which he had indeed quitted his chamber--a volume containing the last
Act of Parliament relating to Public Trusts, which had been sent to him
by his solicitor; for he is creating a deed of trust, to insure to
the nation the Darrell antiquities, in the name of his father, the
antiquarian.

Darrell advanced to the writing-table, which stood in the centre of the
room; laid down the book, and sighed--the short, quick, impatient sigh
which had become one of his peculiar habits. The robber stole from the
recess, and, gliding round to the door by which Darrell had entered,
while the back of the master was still towards him, set fast the lock,
and appropriated the key as he had done at the door which had admitted
himself. Though the noise in that operation was but slight, it roused
Darrell from his abstracted thoughts. He turned quickly, and at the same
moment Losely advanced towards him.

At once Darrell comprehended his danger. His rapid glance took in
all the precautions by which the intruder proclaimed his lawless
purpose--the closed door, the bell rope cut off. There, between those
four secret walls, must pass the interview between himself and the
desperado. He was unarmed, but he was not daunted. It was but man to
man. Losely had for him his vast physical strength, his penury, despair,
and vindictive purpose. Darrell had in his favour the intellect which
gives pres