She was afraid if she sat directly opposite that window the magnetism and fascination, horrible though it was, of that terrible face and those fierce eyes, which affected her as face and eyes had never done before, would irresistibly draw her glance in that direction and betray her knowledge of the presence there. “Well, miss,” the sick man resumed at length—and the sound of his voice breaking the silence that had been so fraught with horror to her sent a painful shock through her whole being—“we got out of the house with our booty, which we carried in a bag, without disturbing any one, and we were congratulating ourselves that we had done a wonderful, neat and profitable job, when, just as we came around the corner by the front entrance, a young chap pounced out upon us and felled Tom to the ground with a swinging, unexpected blow. “He then came for me as brave as a young giant, and I grappled with him. He gave me a tough struggle of it, I can tell you; but, I knew the boxing game better than he, and it wasn’t long before I had him laid out as flat as a flounder. “I did it just in the nick of time, too, for a ‘cop’ having got wind that something wrong was up, came running down the street; so I just dropped a bracelet, which Tom had made me stuff in my pocket, down beside the fallen hero, to turn the scent upon him, and took to my heels. “Tom served me a mean trick, though,” the man went on, with a scowl, “for he had only been slightly stunned by his fall, and while I was fighting with the young chap, instead of coming to my help, he picked up the bag, cleared out and hid it, and it was only a piece of good luck that I got off at all. He said afterwards he thought I was able to take care of myself, and he was afraid if he did not slip off with the booty the noise of the rumpus would bring a cop along, and we’d lose it all. But he’d got it hid before I found him, and I never saw anything of it afterward, excepting the diamonds. “I coaxed, begged and threatened, but he kept putting me off with excuses; and, of course, I’d been with him so much in his dirty work that he knew I would not dare turn against him, for I should only get as deep into the mire as he would. “As long as I was well, and able to help him in his plots, I managed to squeezed enough out of him to keep us tolerably comfortable; but after I got sick we all began to suffer. “Miss Dalton,” the man said, excitedly, “Tom Drake is a rich man; he’s got money and swag enough hid up to keep a dozen families handsome all their lives. Why, those diamonds o’ your mother’s were a fortune in themselves, and we’ve been starving and freezing here for the last two months; _he’s known it, too_, and wouldn’t give us a dime to buy a loaf of bread with.