Heedless of her displeasure, Maitland seized the girl by the arm
and urged her over to the open Window. "Don't hang back!" he told
her nervously. "You must get out of this before they see you. Do
as I tell you, please, and we'll save ourselves yet! If we both
make a run for it, we're lost. Don't you understand?"
"No. Why?" she demanded, reluctant, spirited, obstinate--and
lovely in his eyes.
"If he were anybody else," Maitland indicated, with a jerk of his
head toward the burglar. "But didn't you see? He must be
Maitland--and he's my double. I'll stay, brazen it out, then, as
soon as possible, make my escape and join you by the gate. Your
motor's there--what? Be ready for me...."
But she had grasped his intention and was suddenly become pliant
to his will. "You're wonderful!" she told him with a little low
laugh; and was gone, silently as a spirit.
The curtains fell behind her in long, straight folds; Maitland
stilled their swaying with a touch, and stepped back into the
room. For a moment he caught the eye of the fellow on the floor;
and it was upturned to his, sardonically intelligent. But the lord
of the manor had little time to debate consequences.
Abruptly the door was flung wide and a short stout man, clutching
up his trousers with a frantic hand, burst into the library,
brandishing overhead a rampant revolver.
"'Ands hup!" he cried, leveling at Maitland. And then, with a
fallen countenance; "G-r-r-reat 'eavins, sir! _You_, Mister
Maitland, sir!"
"Ah, Higgins," his employer greeted the butler blandly.
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