"Bah! You'll go quietly in by the back way, make your way along the passage to Van Heldre's room, take the keys down from the hook--" "How did you know that the keys hung there?" "Because, my dear little man, I have wormed it all out of you by degrees. To continue; you will go down the glass passage, open the office door, go to the safe, open that, get the two hundred--" "Two hundred! You said fifty would do." "Yes, but then I said a hundred, and now I think two will be better. Easier paid back. You can work more spiritedly with large sums than with small. You've got to do this, Harry Vine, so no nonsense." Harry was silent. "When you have the notes, you will lock all up as before, and then if they are missing before we return them, which is not likely, who can say that you have been there? Bah! don't be so squeamish. You've got to do that to-night. You have promised, and you shall. It is for your good, my lad." "Yes, and yours," said Harry gloomily. "Of course. Emancipation for us both." Harry was silent, and soon after they rose and strolled back to the old house, where through the open window came the strains of music, and the voices of Madelainc and Louise harmonised in a duet. "One less at Van Heldre's, lad. The old man will be having his evening pipe, and the doors open. Nothing could be better. Half-past nine, mind, while they are at tea. It will be quite dark then." Harry was silent, and the two young men entered and sat down, their coming seeming to cast a damp on the little party, for the music was put aside and work taken up, Vine being busy with some notes of his day's observations of the actions of a newly-found mollusc. Tea was brought in at about a quarter past nine, and Pradelle rose and went to the window. "What a beautiful night, Harry," he said. "Coming for half an hour's stroll before bed?" "Don't you want some tea?" said Harry, loudly. "No. Do you?" "No," said Harry shortly; and he rose and went out, followed by his friend. "You mean this then," he said, as soon as they were out on the cliff. "No; but you do. There is just time for it, so now go." Harry hesitated for a few minutes, and then strode off down toward the town, Pradelle keeping step with him, till they reached the street where a lane branched off, going round by the back of Van Heldre's house, but on a higher level, a flight of steps leading down into the half garden, half yard, overlooked by the houses at the back, whose basements were level with Van Heldre's first floor. The time selected by Pradelle for the carrying out of his scheme happened to be Crampton's club night, and, according to his weekly custom, he had gone to the old-fashioned inn where it was kept, passing a muffled-up figure as he went along, the said figure turning in at one of the low entrances leading to dock premises as the old clerk came out, so that he did not see the face.