"Pot away!" I jeered. "You haven't done murder yet. You daren't do it now!" "I dare do anything," he growled. "But you--you'll never go and give a chap away, Beetle?" "You'll give yourself away if you don't get under that this instant. They're coming down, man! Stop where you are, and I'll see you later; try to get out of it, and I promise you you're a gone coon!" He disappeared without a word, and I ran out to salute my comrades in the hall. "Well," cried I, "what luck?" "None at all," replied the sergeant angrily. "I could have sworn it was this house, but I suppose we must try the next. How we've missed him is more than I can fathom!" A slaty sky denoted imminent dawn as we emerged from the house; the chill of dawn was in the air, and there was I in nothing but pyjamahs. One of the constables remarked upon my condition, and the sergeant (good man) made me a pathetic speech of thanks, and recommended me my bed. If they needed further assistance they could get it next door, but he was afraid his man had made a longer flight than that. And indeed when I returned to the spot, in my clothes, an hour later, there was no sign of the police in the road; and I was enabled to slip into the empty house unobserved. I got in through an open window, broken near the hasp, by which the fugitive himself had first effected an entry. In the early morning light the place looked different and very dirty; and as I entered the room with the burst door, I thought it also very still. I tore up the loose boards, and uttered an exclamation which resounded horribly in the desolation. Deedes was gone. I poked my head below the level of the floor, but there was no sign of him underneath. As I raised myself, however, a step just sounded on the threshold, and there he stood in his socks, smiling, with a revolver in his hand. For one instant I doubted his intention; the next, the weapon dropped into his pocket, and his smile broadened as though he had read my fear. "No fear, Beetle," said he; "it's not for you. I couldn't be sure it was you, that was all. So you're as good as your word! I hardly expected you so soon--if at all!" "Do you remember my word?" said I meaningly, for his coolness irritated me beyond measure. His very face and hands he had contrived to cleanse at some of the taps. He might have been in bed all night and neglected nothing but his chin and his hair. And this was the man of whom a whole colony would talk this morning, for whom a whole colony would hunt all day. "Your word?" said Deedes. "You promised to help me." "I didn't. I said I'd see you again. If I help you it will be on very definite terms." "Half-profits, eh? Well, I'm agreeable, and glad you haven't forgotten our conversation of last night." "And I'm glad," I retorted, "to see you make no more bones about your guilt. Where's the money? I want the lot." "You're greedy, Beetle!"