“You did! You’ll be handed over to the police tomorrow,” said Dick, still furious.

“I didn’t come back to steal. I came back for something else,” insisted Jo, her eyes peering through her tangled hair like a frightened animal’s.

“Ho! So you say! And what did you come back for? To find another dog to dope?” jeered Dick.

“No,” said Jo, miserably. “I came back to tell you I’d take you to where George was, if you wouldn’t tell on me. My Dad would half kill me if he thought I’d split on him. I know I took the parcel — I had to. I didn’t know what it was or anything. I took it to the place I was told to. Jake told me. And then I came back to tell you all I could. And you set on me like that.”

Four pairs of eyes bored into Jo, and she covered her face. Dick took her hands away and made her look at him.

“Look here,” he said, “this matters a lot to us, whether you are speaking the truth or not. Do you know where George is?”

Jo nodded.

“And will you take us there?” said Julian, his voice stern and cold.

Jo nodded again. “Yes I will. You’ve been mean to me, but I’ll show you I’m not as bad as you make out. I’ll take you to George.”

Chapter Twelve

Jo begins to talk

The hall clock suddenly struck loudly. “DONG!”

“One o’clock,” said Joan. “One o’clock in the morning! Master Julian, we can’t do any more tonight. This gipsy child here, she’s not fit to take you trapesing out anywhere else. She’s done for — she can hardly stand.”

“Yes, you’re right Joan,” said Julian, at once giving up the idea of going out to find George that night. “We’ll have to wait till tomorrow. It’s a pity the telephone wires are cut. I do really think we ought to let the police know something about all this.”

Jo looked up at once. “Then I won’t tell you where George is,” she said. “Do you know what the police will do to me if they get hold of me? They’ll put me into a Home for Bad Girls, and I’ll never get out again — because I am a bad girl and I do bad things. I’ve never had a chance.”

“Every one gets a chance sooner or later,” said Julian gently. “You’ll get yours, Jo — but see you take it when it comes. All right — we’ll leave the police out of it if you promise you’ll take us to where George is. That’s a bargain.”

Jo understood bargains. She nodded. Joan pulled her to her feet and half led, half carried her upstairs.

“There’s a couch in my room,” she told Julian. “She can bed down there for the night — but late or not she’s going to have a bath first. She smells like something the dog brought in!”