“I can’t pretend I’m sorry,” I said, with a sigh of relief.  “As far as I am concerned, I’m perfectly willing that the drawer should go undiscovered.”

“Well, I am not!” retorted Godfrey, curtly, and he sat regarding the cabinet with puckered brows.  Then he rose and began tapping at the back.

I don’t know what it was—­for I was conscious of no noise—­but some mysterious attraction drew my eyes to the window at the farther side of the room.  Near the top of the wooden shutter, which Parks and I had put in place, was a small semi-circular opening, to allow the passage of a little light, perhaps, and peering through this opening were two eyes—­two burning eyes....

They were fixed upon Godfrey with such feverish intentness that they did not see my glance, and I lowered my head instantly.

“Godfrey,” I said, in a shaking voice, “don’t look up; don’t move your head; but there is some one peering through the hole in the shutter opposite us.”

Godfrey did not answer for quite a minute, but kept calmly on with his examination of the cabinet.

“Did he see you look at him?” he asked, at last.

“No, he was looking at you, with his eyes almost starting out of his head.  I never saw such eyes!”

“Did you see anything of his face?”

“No, the hole is too small.  I fancy I saw the fingers of one hand, which he had thrust through to steady himself.”

“How high is the hole?”

“Near the top of the window.”

Godfrey came back to his chair a moment later, sat down in it, and passed his handkerchief slowly over his face.  Then he leaned forward, apparently to examine the legs of the cabinet.

“I saw him,” he said.  “Or, rather, I saw his eyes.  Rather fierce, aren’t they?”

“They’re a tiger’s eyes,” I said, with conviction.

“Well, there is no use going ahead with this while he is out there.  Even if we found the drawer, we’d both be dead an instant later.”

“You mean he’d kill us?”

“He would shoot us instantly.  Imagine what a sensation that would make, Lester.  Parks hears two pistol shots, rushes in and finds us lying here dead.  Grady would have a convulsion—­and we should both be famous for a few days.”

“I’ll seek fame in some other way,” I said drily.  “What are you going to do about it?”

“We’ve got to try to capture him; and if we do—­well, we shall have the fame all right!  But it’s a good deal like trying to pick up a scorpion—­we’re pretty sure to get hurt.  If that fellow out there is who I think he is, he’s about the most dangerous man on earth.”

He went on tapping the surface of the cabinet.  As for me, I would have given anything for another look at those gleaming eyes.  They seemed to be burning into me; hot flashes were shooting up and down my back.

“Why can’t I go out as though I were going after something,” I suggested.  “Then Parks and I could charge around the corner and get him.”