“Let’s cut this short,” he said impatiently. “I’ll put the whole thing in a few words. I’m not going back to Roxbury. I need money, and need it bad! Those folks at Kill Kare have plenty of it, or what can be turned into money, and I want you to help me get it.”
“It’s either that or jail,” he said menacingly. “And I know that you won’t choose jail when you come to think it over. I’ll give you a day to make up your mind. You be here at this same time to-morrow, or it will be the worse for you.”
She pleaded with him to renounce his purpose and leave her in peace, but he laughed at her and went away with a parting threat.
Nina retraced her steps to the house in a state of great agitation. She felt sure that Higby was in desperate earnest and would denounce her to the authorities if she should fail to do his bidding. But she would have died before helping him to rob her benefactors.
What resource then was left? Flight! Once more to become a fugitive—to live under the ban of the law—to fear any moment the touch of an officer’s hand upon her shoulder.
The castle of dreams that she had been building in the last few happy days seemed ready to dissolve in mist.
She tried to assume her usual cheerful manner when she entered the house, but the girls noticed at once that she was pale and anxious.
“What’s the matter, Nina?” asked Bess. “You’re as white as though you’d seen a ghost?”
“I hope you haven’t run across any of the gypsies!” exclaimed Cora, in quick apprehension.
Nina faltered, and at this the others jumped to their feet in great excitement.
“Do you mean to say that that cur is lurking around here yet?” demanded Cora.
Nina broke down then, and told them all the details of her meeting with Higby.
The girls were aghast at the plan to rob the house.
“He’s getting along fast,” remarked Belle bitterly. “He’s graduating from the sneak thief to the burglar class.”
“I wonder what we ought to do,” said Bess. “It’s too bad the boys are away to-day. I suppose the police ought to be told about it.”
“There’s nothing yet to tell,” said Cora. “He’d simply deny that he ever suggested anything of the kind to Nina. It would be only her word against his, and she has no witnesses. Besides, for revenge, he’d blurt out all about that Roxbury matter.”