The String of Pearls (1850), p. 195

make a signal that he was safe, did attack the house, they would not do so for some minutes. It was their duty not to be precipitate. He leant on the ballustrade, and listened with an intentness that was perfectly painful. He heard the
cough again from quite the lower part of the house, and then he became aware that some one was slowly creeping up the stairs. He had placed the slide over the bull's eye of his little lamp, so that all was darkness, but he heard the breathe-
ing of the person who was coming up towards him. He shrunk back close to the wall, determined to seize, and with an iron hand, any one who should reach the landing. Suddenly, from quite the lower part of the building, he heard the
cough again. The thought, then, that it must be Crotchet who was coming up, impressed itself upon him, but he would not speak. In a few moments some one reached the landing, and stretching out his right arm, Sir Richard caught whoever it was, and said in a whisper—
"Any resistance will cost you your life."
"Crotchet it is," said the new comer.
"Ah, how glad I am it is you!"
"Reether. Hush. The old 'un is below. Ain't I shook a bit. It's a precious good thing as my bones is in the blessed habit o' holding on, one of 'em to the rest and all the rest to one, or else I should have tumbled to bits."
"Hush! hush!"
"Oh, he's a good way off. That 'ere cupboard has got a descending floor with ropes and pullies, so down I went and was rolled out into a room below and up went the bit of flooring again. I was very nearly startled a little."
"Nearly!"
"Reether, but here I is. I got out and crept up stairs as soon as I could, cos, says I, the governor will wonder what the deuce has become of me."
"I did, indeed."
"Just as I thought Sir Richard, just listen to me? I've got a fancy for Todd."
"A fancy for Todd?"
"Yes, and I want to stay here a few hours—yes, go and let them as is outside know all's right, and leave me here, I think somehow I shall like to be in this crib alone with Todd for an hour or two. You have got other business to see to, you know, so just leave me here; and mind yer, if I don't get here by six in the
morning, just consider as he's got the better of me."
"No, Crotchet, I cannot."
"Can't what?"
"Consent to leave you here alone."
"Bother! what's the row, and where's the danger, I should like to know? Who's Todd? Who am I? Gammon!"
Sir Richard shook his head, although Crotchet could not very well see him shake it, and after a pause he added—
"I don't suppose exactly that there is much danger, Crotchet, but, at all events, I don't like it said that I brought you into this place and then left you here."
"Bother!"
"You go and leave me."
"A likely joke that. No, I tell yer what it is, Sir Richard. You knows me and I knows you, so what does it matter what other folks say ? Business is business I hope, and don't you believe that I'm going to be such a flat as to throw away my life upon such a fellow as Todd. I think I can do some good by staying
here; if I can't I'll come away, but I don't think, in either case, that Todd will see me. If he does I shall, perhaps, be forced to nab him, and that, after all, is the worst that can come of it."
"Well, Crotchet, you shall have your own way,
"Good."
"I will return to the attic as soon as I conveniently can, and, let what will happen to you, remember that you are not deserted. *
"I knows it."