The String of Pearls (1850), p. 586

about it at once; for I think we have spent time enough in this house; and no doubt our friends are upon the move off, if they have not gone long before this."
"Come on, then."
They both left the kitchen, and each being armed with a knife, they cautiously opened all the room doors on that floor ; but they only found the usual furniture of such apartments, and it was quite clear that no cash was to be had in that portion of the premises.
"Come up stairs," said Lupin, with a look of savage determination. "Come on, Tood; we will see what can be done up stairs."
They carefully ascended the staircase, but they only just peeped into the drawing-room, and then they went up to the floor upon which the bed-rooms were situated. They paused at the first door they came to, and Lupin very carefully tried the lock. It was only on the latch, and in the room a rushlight was burning. They both crept in, and their footsteps made no noise upon the soft carpetting of the apartment. A bed was in the room, and upon it lay a young lady. Lupin gave a hideous grin as he looked at her, and then stooping down by the bed-side he said, in a whisper—
"If you scream, everybody in this house will be murdered!—If you scream,
everybody in this house will be murdered! If you—Oh, that will do."
The young lady awakened with a start, but the words that were twice repeated still rung in her ears, and scream she did not, but she looked half dead from fright.
"Now, my dear," said Lupin, "Providence has brought us to your bed-side, and if you make any disturbance, we mean to submit you and the whole of the family to the operation of a carving. knife, the Lord willing. All we want is money, and if we can get that quietly, we will go and not so much as ask your pretty little lips for a kiss."
"Oh, Heaven protect me!" said the young lady.
"A—men!" said Lupin. "Now my dear, who is in the house besides you?"
"My father, the alderman, and my mother, and the servants above stairs.—Oh, spare my parents."
"Very good, where can any money be got hold of?"
"Will a hundred pounds content you?"
"Yes," said Todd, putting his head between the curtains at the foot of the bed. The young lady gave a faint cry, and Mr. Lupin flourished the carving-knife over her—"Where are the hundred pounds?" he said, "and we will go."
"In my father's room. It is the next room. His purse is on the dressing-table. If you will let me go and get it, I will give it to you upon your promise then to leave the house."
"How are we to trust you not to say that we are here?"
"I swear by all that is holy—I use the name of the great God. Oh, indeed
you may trust me."
"Go," said Lupin.
The young lady got out of bed, and both Todd and Lupin followed her from the room. She crossed the landing, and at once opened the door of a room. Then they heard a man's voice say—"Who's that?" and the young lady replied—'Only me, father. I want something out of your room. I shall not
be a minute.' "Bless the girl," said a female voice—" What can she want?"
In a minute or two the young lady came back to the landing where Todd and
Lupin were waiting for her.
"Now," said Lupin in a low voice—"Now, my little dear, have you got it?"
"Quick—quick!" said Todd, "or you die. I am half a mind to cut your throat as it is, just for the pleasure of the thing."
The young lady stood just upon the threshold of the door of her father's room, and then as Lupin held up his light, she raised both her hands, in each of which was a horse-pistol, and presenting one at Lupin's head and one at Todd's, she said—
"Thieves! thieves! thieves!"