Zant, or you will hear her if she calls for help. In either case, you may be as rough and ready with my master as you find needful;it will be he who has frightened her, and not you. And who can blame the poor housekeeper because Mr. Rayburn did his duty, and protected a helpless woman? There is my plan, sir. Is it worth trying?"He answered, sharply enough: "I don't like it."The housekeeper opened the door again, and wished him good-by.
If Mr. Rayburn had felt no more than an ordinary interest in Mrs.
Zant, he would have let the woman go. As it was, he stopped her;and, after some further protest (which proved to be useless), he ended in giving way.
"You promise to follow my directions?" she stipulated.
He gave the promise. She smiled, nodded, and left him. True to his instructions, Mr. Rayburn reckoned five minutes by his watch, before he followed her.
XII.
THE housekeeper was waiting for him, with the street-door ajar.
"They are both in the drawing-room," she whispered, leading the way upstairs. "Step softly, and take him by surprise."A table of oblong shape stood midway between the drawing-room walls. At the end of it which was nearest to the window, Mrs.