They all followed me into the hall, and I stepped to the doorway. And then I almost pitched forward, I was so devilish startled. For, as a crowning example of his daring and reckless conduct, the hoary old reprobate was emerging from Billings' room, his fingers overhauling the contents of my friend's wallet, even as he waddled along, and so absorbed that he never even saw me. "Ah!" he breathed in a heavy sigh of satisfaction; and out came his fingers, and in them, poised aloft, he held the ruby I had given to Billings. His bleary eyes gloated at it. "Mine!" he whispered. "Mine now to keep forever!" CHAPTER XI IRON NERVE I just stood in the doorway, staring. Couldn't say a word, my throat was that paralyzed. First time, you know, I'd ever seen a real burglar or jolly hold-up man, and he looked so different from what I had expected. But I knew now, of course, that the policeman was right and that the respectable-looking old gentleman was no other than the desperate criminal described as "Foxy Grandpa." But for the intervention of outside assistance doubtless Billings and I might have had our throats cut by the conscienceless old geezer. He was so absorbed that he did not see me, nor the two helmets piking above my shoulder. "Up to his old tricks," O'Keefe whispered. "We've got him in the act, Tim!" "Great!" breathed Tim. "What won't the captain say!" O'Keefe's breath tickled my ear again and swept my nose. I've never seen beer or sauerkraut since but what I think of it! "Got your stick ready?" he was saying. "Best not take any chances; Braxton's a quick shooter, they say. When we jump him, better give him the club right off." Tim whispered an impatient demur. "That's all right; but I'm for coaxing him out here first. I don't want to tap him on the gentleman's rugs; if I do, I can tell you, it'll ruin 'em, that's all." He swept his hand across his tongue and gripped his stick tighter. Jenkins, at one side, bobbed his head up and down and smiled his admiration of this sentiment. He leaned nearer to me. "Just beckon him out, sir," his whisper advised. "Just tell him you want to show him something in the hall--cat, or anything will do. Just so you get him past the furniture and rugs, sir." I advanced a step into the room. I expected the old knave to be a bit dashed, don't you know. Not he; it never disquieted him a bit. Just gave me a careless leer and went back to the ruby. Somehow I began to feel riled. I'm not often taken that way, but this old scamp's persistent audacity and impudence went beyond anything I had ever heard of. "What in thunder's the matter with you, son?" he murmured, squinting hideously at the jewel. "You prowl around like you had a pain." Then he went right on: "Say, did you ever see anything so corking fine?" He looked up, holding the ruby in the light. "And to think how little I dreamed of scooping anything like that when I came in here to-night!"