I was combing my hair at the time and so of course
they recognized me. Instantly they gave a secret signal I, alas,
remembered only too well, and crouching back, bade me put out the
light that they might enter with safety. I was at first too much
startled to realize the consequences of my action, and with some
vague idea that they had discovered my retreat and come for purposes
of advice or assistance, I did what they bid. Immediately they threw
back the shade and came in, their huge figures looming frightfully in
the faint light made by a distant gas lamp in the street below. 'What
do you want?' were my first words uttered in a voice I scarcely
recognized for my own; 'why do you steal on me like this in the night
and through an open window fifty feet from the ground? Aren't you
afraid you will be discovered and sent back to the prison from which
you have escaped?' Their reply sent a chill through my blood and
awoke me to a realization of what I had done in thus allowing two
escaped convicts to enter a house not my own. 'We want money and
we're not afraid of anything now you are here.' And without heeding
my exclamation of horror, they coolly told me that they would wait
where they were till the household was asleep, when they would expect
me to show them the way to the silver closet or what was better, the
safe or wherever it was Mr.
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