"I think I shall--I don't think you'll find I'll keep you waiting." She looked into his blue eyes, as if she were trying to decipher what was in them; then, glancing half affrightedly over her shoulder, she went up the steps into the caravan. She paused on the ledge to give a flying look at Mr Frazer, and another at the lad among the bushes, then passed inside, drawing the door to behind her. Mr Frazer said: "I think that, if I were you, I should bolt the door, and close the window." The lad called out: "That won't keep the cops out, miss, don't you think it!" Mr Frazer waited, as if to ascertain that his hint had been acted on. Then he crossed the little hollow, towards the bushes on the slope among which the lad was standing. "Don't you come too close," observed the lad. "I don't intend to; I only wish to come close enough to enable you to hear what I have to say without making it necessary for me to raise my voice." He ascended the slope until he was within a few feet of the other. "That's near enough; none of your games." "There's a bush between us; that is something. Now, sir, what is it you want?" "What do I want? Why, I want five and twenty pounds, that's what I want." "What for?" "You know what for." "Since, from your appearance, you never had so much money in your life, I suppose, in a general way, I do know what for. But do you expect me to give you five and twenty pounds?" "That's for you to say. If you don't I can get it from someone else--that all." "From whom?" "From the police over at Newcaster." "Indeed; why should they give you five and twenty pounds?" "Oh, come off of it!--what do you think you're playing at? You know very well why they'll give me five and twenty pound, and if you don't I'll tell you--I'm not afraid." "Why?" "Why!--for putting them on to Miss Dorothy Gilbert, what's wanted for that little job last night at 'The Bolton Arms.' Now do you understand?" "I hope I don't." "Then you needn't hope; because you do. I speak plainly enough, Mr Frazer." "From your post of vantage, behind these bushes, did you hear all that was said?" "I did; every blessed word; and I'm not going to forget one either, so don't you make any blooming error." "Then, in that case, you are aware that this lady is guiltless." "If she didn't, her father did, or one of her lot--you told her yourself his name was Gilbert--so what's the odds? She can explain all about that to them when they've got her, and I hope she'll like the job. Anyhow, it's no business of mine, all that; it's the pieces I'm after. I lay they offer more than twenty-five, and I'm going to have it. All the same, I'll take twenty-five from you, if I lose by it. You give me five and twenty pounds, where I'm standing now, and I'll keep my mouth shut--I don't wish no harm to no one; I can't say nothing fairer." "Till when will you keep it shut?" "Why, till----" The youth seemed to hesitate; Mr Frazer finished his sentence for him.