—“I've thought the whole thing over. You're mighty kind to listen to all my harassments, and all that—and if I didn't—well, like you, I'd jump at your offer to help because I'm going to try to do something that I've never done before and”
“Burglary,” he said, smiling, “is more than a profession. It's an art.”
She stopped and looked as if taken unawares, and he continued:
“Yes, thieving, for that's what it is, is the result of a highly needful youth, a growth and development in sordid surroundings, thievish environment, and the example of others. Now I've got an idea that you've not had many of these advantages in the profession. You're tackling a job that would appal an expert. You've got it in your very charming head that you are going to find a way to enter, burglarize or loot the palace of one Lemuel Harnway, ex-senator of the United States, who may in his time have done a bit of robbing himself, and therefore may know how to guard against it. I have volunteered in the enterprise and in a spasm of momentary weakness you consented to accept my assistance. Do you keep your word, or don't you?”
“I do, but I didn't say how best you could assist me, did I? Suppose I decided you could be of the most help by remaining here in the hotel? Or, if you are religiously inclined, suppose I suggested you go to some church and pray for my success?”
“Prayer as a help to burglary is something I never thought of,” he said with a grin. “Think of the poor but honest burglar's wife keeping prayerful vigil while her adored husband is out perilously earning their nightly bread and pãté de foie gras.”
An ominous silence followed his badinage and when, after a time, she lifted her eyes they were cold and angry.
“You talk as though I were a thief—all the time you speak of my enterprise that way. And I think I explained to you that I'm not, and that I'm trying to recover only that which rightfully belongs to me. If you can't accept my attitude, I certainly decline to accept your help or encouragement.”
“My dear girl,” he said, assuming a gravity that he did not at all feel, “I appreciate all your high motives. If I didn't, do you think I should suggest—nay, insist!—that if you plan to force Harnway's palace for the purpose of capturing that relic it must be myself and none other who does it?”
She looked at him incredulously and then her mood softened.
“But you couldn't find it, because you don't even know where it is, and I do!” she remarked triumphantly.
He dared not offer an argument against this, but said, “I'm certain I could find where it's kept, if you were to tell me how it may be reached.”
“No,” she said, “I do appreciate your bravery and your generosity, but I couldn't direct you to it.”
Again he fell to the old arguments, warning her of the dangers, calling attention to the fact that any servant of the house would be justified in shooting her if she were surprised in her act; that she was contemplating a double felony, that of burglary and of attempting to carry from Italy an undeclared object of art.
“Well,” he said in desperation when he found her as immovable as ever in her determination, “I shall go with you.”
“I might consent to your going in the boat,” she yielded, displaying at least a certain amount of weakness and desire for support. “I can't entirely feel trust in Pietro. He's too impulsive. He isn't cool enough to be depended upon in a pinch. Although I think he is willing to defy the law when his dander is up, as we used to say down home.”
Jimmy smiled to himself and thought, “Defy the law? I should say he would. Don't I know! The young devil!”
He then comforted himself in the hope that within the thirty-six hours that must intervene before her desperate attempt could be made, she might weaken in her resolve, and wisely decided that his dissuasion must be masked lest open argument but strengthen her stubbornness.
Together they crossed over the Grand Canal to a little basin behind the Chiesa della Salute, where they found Pietro superintending the decoration of her launch. Jimmy met the guide's stare with a grin and complimented him on the work. He saw at once that the lights of the launch and the decorations had been so arranged that they did not interfere with each other. Furthermore, by a cunning manipulation, the decorations had been so arranged on nets that they could be stripped and discarded at an instant's notice.
“I don't quite get the idea, of course,” Jimmy said, with a note of interrogation in
