I would tell you to
go now, only, unless it is vitally necessary, we cannot afford to
arouse the Magpie's suspicions--he'd have every crook in the underworld
snarling at our heels. But you are not to wait, even for him, if you
detect the slightest disturbance in that house before he comes. And,
equally, after he has gone in, whether I have come out or not, at the
first indication of anything unusual you are to get away at once. You
understand--Marie?"
"Yes," she said. "But--but, Jimmie, you--"
"Just one thing more." He smiled at her reassuringly. "Did the Magpie
say anything about how he intended to get in?"
"Yes--by the side away from the corner of the street," she said
tremulously. "You see, there's quite a space between the house and the
one next door; and, besides, the house next door is closed up, there's
nobody there, the family has gone away for the summer. The library
window there is low enough to reach from the ground."
For a moment longer he held her close to him, as though he could not let
her go--then bent and kissed her passionately. And in that moment all
the emotions he had known as he had walked blindly from Spider Jack's
that night surged again upon him; and that voice was whispering,
whispering, whispering: "It is the only way--it is the only way."
And then, not daring to trust his voice, he released her suddenly,
and stepped back out from under the stoop--and the next instant he was
across the deserted avenue.
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