The question was wrung from me; I felt that the sweat was standingin great drops upon my brow.

'I will show it you.'

'Shall you go with me?'

'Ay,--I shall go with you. All the time I shall be with you. Youwill not look at me, but I shall be there. Be not afraid.'

His claim to supernatural powers, for what he exclaimed amounted tonothing less, was, on the face of it, preposterous, but, then, Iwas in no condition to even hint at its absurdity. He continued.

'When you have gained the study, you will go to a certain drawer,which is in a certain bureau, in a corner of the chamber--I see itnow; when you are there you shall see it too--and you will openit.'

'Should it be locked?'

'You still will open it.'

'But how shall I open it if it is locked?'

'By those arts in which a thief is skilled. I say to you againthat that is your affair, not mine.'

I made no attempt to answer him. Even supposing that he forced me,by the wicked, and unconscionable exercise of what, I presumed,were the hypnotic powers with which nature had to such a dangerousdegree endowed him, to carry the adventure to a certain stage,since he could hardly, at an instant's notice, endow me with theknack of picking locks, should the drawer he alluded to be locked--which might Providence permit!--nothing serious might issue fromit after all. He read my thoughts.

'You will open it,--though it be doubly and trebly locked, I saythat you will open it.--In it you will find--' he hesitated, as ifto reflect--'some letters; it may be two or three,--I know notjust how many,--they are bound about by a silken ribbon. You willtake them out of the drawer, and, having taken them, you will makethe best of your way out of the home, and bear them back to me.'

'And should anyone come upon me while engaged in these nefariousproceedings,--for instance, should I encounter Mr Lessinghamhimself, what then?'

'Paul Lessingham?--You need have no fear if you encounter him.'

'I need have no fear!--If he finds me, in his own home, at deadof night, committing burglary!'

'You need have no fear of him.'