“You put it plain,” answered the prisoner, “an’ I thank you for it, Luke. All the same, they may not hang me; an’ if I get penal servitude, Minnie can’t marry any other man. Now the reward for finding out that burglary job be twelve hundred an’ fifty pounds, as Mr Corder says. That divided betwixt the three of you would be four hundred odd apiece. An’ I want to know just what you’ll do about it. In exchange for the money an’ fame an’ glory this job will bring you men, I want two hundred pounds--not for myself, but for my poor girl. Ban’t much to ax, an’ not a penny less will I take. That’s my offer, an you’d best to think upon it. If you refuse, I shall make it to somebody else.” Silence followed. Then Dan spoke again. “’Tis terrible awkward eating bread an’ cheese wi’ handcuffs on. Will e’ take ’em off for a bit, please? I can’t get out of the winder, for ’tis too small; so if you stands afore the door, you needn’t fear I’ll give you the slip.” Mr Corder perceived the truth of this and freed the prisoner’s hands. “You’ve put a pretty problem afore us, young man,” he said; “an’ us must weigh it in all its parts. Can’t say as ever I had a similar case in my experience.” “Nor me neither,” declared Inspector Gregory. Bartley remained silent. He was asking himself what it would feel like to be the richer by hundreds of pounds. Daniel ate his bread and cheese, drank a pint of beer, and held out his wrists for the handcuffs. Then Mr Corder himself went to see to his horse, and while he was away Daniel spoke to the others. “You chaps know how hard a thing it is to get the public ear. Surely--surely ’tis worth your while to find out this great burglary job an’ put money in your pockets? You’m fools to hesitate. But if you be such greedy souls that you won’t spare a crumb to my poor wife, then you sha’n’t have a penny, so help me.” “’Tis throwing away money to refuse,” declared Bartley to Corder, who now returned. “You see, that money have got to be earned, an’ why for shouldn’t we earn it? There’s no under-handed dealings, or playing with the law.” “The hoss is all right again, an’ the sooner we go the better,” answered Mr Corder. “You won’t fall in then?” asked Daniel, with a sinking heart. “I don’t say that; but if you’m in earnest, you can tell us all about it as we go along.” “An’ you’ll swear, all three of you, to give Minnie Sweetland two hundred pounds of the reward?” “I will,” said Bartley. “’Tis flying in the face of Providence to do otherwise.” “If it can be proved we’m not straining the law, I’ll do the same,” declared Inspector Gregory. “What do you say, Corder?”