These words came upon Max with a great shock. In the excitement of his own adventures in this place, he had quite forgotten his friend, Dudley Horne, and the errand which had first brought him into the neighborhood. He had forgotten, also, what he had from the first only half believed--the girl's words connecting Dudley with a murder committed within those walls. Now that the remembrance was thus abruptly brought back to him, he felt as if he wanted to gasp for breath. Carrie watched him, and presently made a sign to him to follow her. Scrambling out to the open space on the wharf, she made for the spot close to the water where Max had stood to watch the man whom Carrie had called "Dick." When Max came up to her, the girl was standing close under the eaves of the outhouse on the bank, leaning against the wall. He could scarcely see anything of her face in the darkness, but he was struck by something strangely moving in the tones of her voice as she broke the silence. "Look here," she said, "I want you to make me a promise. Come, it ought not to be difficult; for I got you out of a nice mess; remember that. You've got to give me your word that you will say nothing about your adventures to-day, either to the police or to anybody else." "I can't promise that. And why on earth do you want me to do so? Surely you can have no real sympathy with the people who do the things that are done in there--" Carrie interrupted him, breaking in upon him abruptly: "What things?" "Murders, and--" "The murder was done by your friend, not by us." "'Us?' Surely you don't identify yourself with these people?" "I do. They are my friends--the only friends I have." "But they are thieves, blackmailers!" said Max, saying not what he knew but what he guessed. "What have they stolen from you? What harm have they done to you or anybody that you know of? All this is because my Granny didn't approve of my having a stranger in, and had you shut into a dark room to give you a fright." "But you forget you said just now you had got me out of a nice mess." "I--I meant that you were frightened." "And with good reason. After what I saw and heard in that room, I should be worse than a criminal myself if I didn't inform the police about the existence of the place. I believe it's one of the vilest dens in London." Carrie was silent. She did not attempt to ask him what it was that he had heard and seen while in that room. And Max felt his heart sink within him. He would have had her question, protest, deny. And instead she seemed tacitly to take the truth of all his accusations for granted.