Another
muffled foot-fall - felt rather than heard - and we exchanged grim
nods of simultaneous excitement. But by this time Medlicott was
as helpless as he had been before; the flush had faded from his
face, and his breathing alone would have spoiled everything. In
dumb show I had to order him to stay where he was, to leave my man
to me. And then it was that in a gusty whisper, with the same
shrewd look that had disconcerted me more than once during our vigil,
young Medlicott froze and fired my blood by turns.
"I've been unjust to you," he said, with his right hand in his
dressing-gown pocket. "I thought for a bit - never mind what I
thought - I soon saw I was wrong. But - I've had this thing in my
pocket all. the time!"
And he would have thrust his revolver upon me as a peace-offering,
but I would not even take his hand, as I tapped the life-preserver
in my pocket, and crept out to earn his honest grip or to fall in
the attempt. On the landing I drew Raffles's little weapon, slipped
my right wrist through the leathern loop, and held it in readiness
over my right shoulder.
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