"The lady may sit down, sir," he said courteously.
"Thank you, I will," replied the girl, plumping down on an empty
winecase. (She afterward confessed that if she had not sat down on the
box, she would have sat down on the cellar-floor, as a sort of
paralysis had seized her knees.)
I stepped into the coal-bin, and rested the candle on the little shelf
for that purpose. I was downright anxious to see the fellow safely
away. There wasn't room in that cellar for the three of us. His
presence doubly endangered us and multiplied the complications. I was
in no position to force the gems from him. A man who has ten thousand
dollars' worth of jewels on his person doesn't stop at shooting; and I
possessed a healthy regard for my skin. I opened the window and caught
it to the ceiling by a hook I found there.
"There is a stout screen, my man."
"Take this, sir, and cut it out,"--handing me a pair of wire-clippers,
holding his lantern under his arm meanwhile. The muzzle of the
revolver, during all this time, never wavered in its aim at my head.