"Frightened? Perhaps he was; but he would not have been in a hurry to get rid of such good customers without good cause. He's had a matter of a hundred pounds already out of me, and he knew I had enough left to go on with a pretty long time yet. But I kept the diamond bracelet from him, with all his cunning. He wormed and wormed, but he never got out of me that I had it safe about me. I was his match there. Let's have a look at it, mother. It does one's heart good. It's the only thing that keeps me up." He crouched down by the side of the hedge and drew forth a dark lantern, which he lighted. Then he rose, and looked about him, projecting the light into dark spaces around to make sure that no person was near. He saw nothing, heard nothing. Down he crouched again, and from an inner pocket pulled out a jewel-case, which he opened. "Look at them, mother--how they glitter and shine! Ah, you beauties, there's nothing false about you! If we were safe in a foreign country, or in America--I prefer America, mother; looking for us there would be like looking for a needle in a bottle of hay--if we were safe there, with this in our pockets, we could live a long life of pleasure and comfort. I should know how to dispose of the stones one by one, secretly, secretly! It's the land for diamonds. Then I could have my fling." Neither of the pair saw or had any suspicion of the shadow that was creeping through thicker shadows than itself, closer, closer, closer. Neither of them saw, or had any suspicion of, the hand of doom coming nearer, nearer, nearer, to strike terror to their guilty souls. "Here, take a pull at this, mother," said Jeremiah, handing her a bottle. "It warms me, it warms me!" murmured Mrs. Pamflett. "Don't empty the bottle," cried Jeremiah, snatching it from her. "You're a selfish cat!" "What did the landlord tell you, Jeremiah, about our being hunted down?" "There's been a man making inquiries about the lodgers, and offering money to find out things. He didn't know who he was, but it looked suspicious, and we were safer out of the house than in it. Take another look at the beauties, mother, before I put them away." Closer, closer, closer crept the shadow. Closer, closer, closer came the hand of doom. "Do you think we _shall_ get safe away?" whispered Mrs. Pamflett, as Jeremiah crouched, gloating over the diamonds. "Do I think it?--I'm sure of it! The police have been too long off the scent for them to get on to it again. All we've got to do is to be cunning, cunning--" "Jeremiah!" screamed Mrs. Pamflett. The shadow loomed over them, fell upon them, and seized them and the diamond bracelet. In a moment Jeremiah had wrested it back again, and three human beings were engaged in a deadly struggle. "I arrest you," cried Tom Barley, "for the murder of Miser Farebrother and Maria Baily!"