Dan agreed. "Not physically, you understand," he said quietly, "but you seem to be so thoroughly wicked that the spiritual part of myself quails for the moment. But it doesn't matter much, you know, seeing that you have much more cause to fear that I may shoot you at sight," and he fumbled in his pocket for Curberry's revolver which he had picked up when leaving the room. "I removed that when you were insensible," gasped Mrs. Jarsell, wiping her eyes and turning a heavy white face in his direction. "Of course," said Miss Armour, in a hard voice. "I ordered the search to be made in case you had any weapons. Now you are quite defenceless, and at my mercy, you meddling ape." "How long have I been insensible," asked Dan, ignoring the feminine spite which led her to call him names. "For quite an hour," sighed Mrs. Jarsell, whose great body was shaking as if with the ague. "I had you brought here along with Miss Armour. You were both in a kind of faint. Now you are all right, and----" "And I am all right," finished Miss Armour, imperiously, "which is much more to the purpose. Better had you died when you fell from the aeroplane, Mr. Halliday, than have recovered so completely as you seem to have done." "You mean mischief?" "Oh, yes, I mean mischief," replied Queen Beelzebub amiably, "and I mean torture, such as will make you wince. I'll prove what sort of a man you are." "You had better make haste, then," said Dan, with a shrug, and bracing up his courage to beat this fiend with her own weapons, "by this time the police know all about Curberry." "What's that to me. The police can't connect me with his death?" "Not so far as you know, but as my friend, Laurance, promised to take action at five o'clock, if he did not hear from me, I expect with the Blackheath and Hampstead inspectors he is now in Lord Curberry's house. An explanation from him will soon bring the authorities to this den." Mrs. Jarsell burst into hysterical tears. "I knew there was great danger," she wailed. "I knew the end had come!" and she sank at Miss Armour's feet in a fit of despair, the picture of a beaten woman. "Oh, shut up, Eliza," said Queen Beelzebub savagely, and her eyes glittered more venomously than ever, "you always play the fool when wits are needed to keep things straight." "You can't keep them straight," said Dan calmly, lounging in his chair, "your career is at an end, Miss Armour." "We'll see about that, Mr. Halliday. Oh, you needn't look at me in that way, my friend. I still have the snake-poisoned lancet, you know, and if you try to spring on me, even though my arm is broken, you will meet with a sudden and unpleasant death." "I don't want to touch you," retorted Halliday. "I shall leave the hangman to finish you off."