“I can’t tell you any more at present: you will learn everything in good time. Only, I promise you he will be here. What’s more, I’m going to make things easy for him. As soon as the servants have gone to bed, and the house is locked up, I’m going to unlatch the pantry window. It would be rather a lark to see him cut out a pane of glass, but on the whole it’s better to make things as simple as possible.... And I’ve got this for _you_.” He dived again into the drawer, and brought out a life-preserver. “But that’s grandpapa’s!” “I know. I got it from his room when he was out at Mr. Bradley’s.” Edward gripped it, and described two or three flourishes before bringing it down remorselessly upon the head of an imaginary burglar. “You’ll be a great man, Dorset,” he whispered, “if this comes off. And I’ll take back what I said about Raffles.... Only――you don’t think anything will happen to Grif?” “Nothing will happen to him, because, for one thing, he won’t find the circus. _We_ couldn’t find it, and he didn’t start till long afterwards. He may have got lost, but somebody will bring him home either to-night or to-morrow morning; and when he does come we’ll have Pouncer for him.” Edward had suddenly grown thoughtful. “But suppose the other chap――the man with the earrings――has a revolver too?” “He won’t get a chance to use it. That’s why I’m leaving a window open for him――a rather small window, at a fair height from the ground. When he’s half way through I’ll bag him.” “I see. It sounds all right, but wouldn’t it be better to have Robert here――just in case of accidents.” “We don’t require Robert. If we can’t do a simple job like this on our own, we’d better go to bed and lock the door and latch the windows.... While I keep him covered you’ll tie his hands. Then we’ll shut him into a room till the police turn up: or we can take him ourselves to the station.... In the meantime, while we’re waiting, we may as well read or something. We might have a game of bézique.” All this dialogue had been carried on in an undertone, so as not to awaken Jim; and Edward, who had gone to the window, now whispered over his shoulder, “I believe I hear grandpapa and Aunt Caroline coming back.” They both peeped out. “Yes; here they are! I think I’ll slip down and see if there’s any news.” “Don’t say a word about what we’re going to do,” Palmer warned him. “Of course not. All the same, I think it’s a bit risky――supposing the fellow _should_ happen to turn up. I mean, if it came to the point, you couldn’t really fire at him.” “I’m going to fire if it’s necessary,” said Palmer quietly, and his tone was so convincing that Edward felt uneasy.