Then he chuckled and laughed over the mischief he had done, and ended by laboriously dragging all the great leather bands and straps to the uncovered hole of a furnace, down which he dropped them, so that they fell far back from the mouth below, which opened on the stoke-hole; and he knew that the chances were ten to one that if the present heat did not destroy them, a fire would be lit by the careless stokers, and the bands consumed before they were missed, as, if business were resumed on the following day, the firemen would be there long before the ordinary workers. "Theer," said Sim, when he had finished, "I wonder what Joe Banks would say now if he knew o' this?" He resumed his coat, out of the pocket of which he took a piece of strong line, some fifteen feet long, and walked cautiously, listening the while, towards one of the windows which looked down on the lane, one side of which was formed by the works and the wall of the yard, and from which the little door before mentioned gave access to the proprietor's private room in the counting-house. Sim Slee had entered by this window, being a light, active man, and he was about to descend from it, and make his escape by hitching the strong light steel hook attached to the end of his rope to the sill, just as he had entered by throwing it up till it caught, it being so constructed that a sharp wave sent along the slackened rope would set it free. But before descending Sim stood, rope in hand, listening, watched by the cat at a respectable distance, that sage black animal being evidently impressed with the fact that the intruder in the works was wonderfully rat-like in his actions. Tommy did not approach him, nor yet purr, but crouched there watching while Sim stood with one ear close to the window, then sharply turned his head and thrust it out into the night air, drew it back again as sharply, and then cautiously thrust it out once more, so that unseen he could see and listen to what went on below. For there were two figures just below the opening, and as Sim listened, holding his breath, one of them exclaimed: "I won't, I won't, Mr Richard, and you've no business to ask me." "_Mr_. Richard," said the other, reproachfully; "I thought it was to be Dick--your own Dick." "Oh, don't--don't--don't talk like that," sobbed the other. "Oh, I wish I really, really knew whether you meant it all." "Meant it all, Daisy! how can you be so cruel, when you know how dearly I love you? But come into the counting-house, and we can sit there and talk." "I can't--I won't!" said Daisy; "and you know you oughtn't to ask me, Mr Richard. What would father say if he were to hear of it?" "Father would only be too pleased," whispered the young man, "for he believes in me, if you don't, Daisy. He'd like you to be my own beautiful darling little wife, that I should make a lady." "But, do you really, really mean it, Mr Richard?" said Daisy, with a hysterical sob.