The Stories of the Three Burglars Read online

preparation was thoroughly mixed with thecontents of each of the decanters in such proportions that a glass ofthe wine would be sufficient to produce the desired effect.

  It was my opinion that there were few men who, after a night walk andperhaps some labour in forcibly opening a door or a window-shutter,would not cease for a moment in pursuance of their self-imposed task topartake of the refreshments so conveniently left behind them by theoccupants of the house when they retired to rest. Should my surmises becorrect, I might reasonably expect, should my house be broken into, tofind an unconscious burglar in the library when I went down in themorning. And I was sure, and my wife agreed with me, that if I shouldfind a burglar in that room or any other part of the house, it washighly desirable that he should be an unconscious one.

  Night after night I set my burglar trap, and morning after morning Ilocked it up in the closet. I cannot say that I was exactly disappointedthat no opportunity offered to test the value of my plan, but it didseem a pity that I should take so much trouble for nothing. It had beensome weeks since any burglaries had been committed in the neighbourhood,and it was the general opinion that the miscreants had considered thisfield worked out and had transferred their labours to a better-payingplace. The insult of having been considered unworthy the attention ofthe knights of the midnight jimmy remained with us, but as all our goodsand chattels also remained with us we could afford to brook theindignity.

  As the trap cost nothing my wife did not object to my setting it everynight for the present. Something might happen, she remarked, and it wasjust as well to be prepared in more ways than one; but there was a pointupon which she was very positive.

  "When George William is old enough to go about the house by himself,"she said, "those decanters must not be left exposed upon the table. Ofcourse I do not expect him to go about the house drinking wine andeverything that he finds, but there is no knowing what a child in thefirst moments of his investigative existence may do."

  For myself, I became somewhat tired of acting my part in this littlefarce every night and morning, but when I have undertaken anything ofthis sort I am slow to drop it.

  It was about three weeks since I had begun to set my trap when I wasawakened in the night by a sudden noise. I sat up in bed, and as I didso my wife said to me sleepily,--

  "What is that? Was it thunder? There it is again!" she exclaimed,starting up. "What a crash! It must have struck somewhere." I did notanswer. It was not thunder. It was something in the house, and itflashed into my mind that perhaps my trap had been sprung. I got out ofbed and began rapidly to dress.

  "What are you going to do?" anxiously asked my wife.

  "I'm going to see what has happened," said I. At that moment there wasanother noise. This was like two or three heavy footsteps, followed by asudden thump; but it was not so loud as the others.

  "John," cried my wife, "don't stir an inch, it's burglars!" and shesprang out of bed and seized me by the arm.

  "I must go down," I said; "but there is really no reason for your beingfrightened. I shall call David, and shall carry my pistol, so there isreally no danger. If there are thieves in the house they have probablydecamped by this time--that is, if they are able to do so, for of coursethey must know that noise would awaken the soundest sleepers."

  My wife looked at me and then slowly withdrew her hands from my arm.

  "You promise me," she said, "if you find a burglar downstairs in thepossession of his senses you will immediately come back to me and GeorgeWilliam?"

  I promised her, and, slipping on some clothes, I went out into thesecond-story hall. I carried no light. Before I had reached the bottomof the back stairs I heard David, my man, coming down. To be sure it washe and not a burglar I spoke to him in a low voice, my pistol raised incase of an unsatisfactory reply.

  "I heard that noise, sir," he whispered, "and was going down to seeabout it."

  "Are you ready if it's thieves?" I whispered.

  "I have got the biscuit-beater," he replied.

  "Come on, then," said I, and we went downstairs.

  I had left no light in the library, but there was one there now, and itshone through the open door into the hallway. We stopped and listened.There was no sound, and then slowly and cautiously we approached thedoor of the library. The scene I beheld astounded me, and involuntarilyI sprang back a step or two. So did David; but in an instant we saw thatthere was no need of retreat or defence. Stretched upon the floor, notfar from the doorway, lay a tall man, his face upturned to the light ofa bull's-eye lantern which stood by the mantel-piece. His eyes wereshut, and it was evident that he was perfectly insensible. Near by, inthe wreck of the small table, glasses, and decanters, lay another man,apparently of heavier build. He also was as still as a corpse. A littlefurther back, half sitting on the floor, with the upper part of his bodyresting against the lounge, was another man with a black mask over hisface.

  "Are they dead?" exclaimed David, in an undertone of horror.

  "No," said I, "they are not dead; they have been caught in my trap."

  And I must admit that the consciousness of this created a proudexultation of spirit within me. I had overmatched these rascals; theywere prostrated before me. If one of them moved, David and I could killhim. But I did not believe there would be any killing, nor any movingfor the present.

  In a high whisper, which could have been heard distinctly all over thehouse, my wife now called to me from the top of the stairs. "What isit?" she said. "What has happened?"

  I stepped quickly to the stairway.

  "Everything is all right," I said in a loud, distinct voice, intendedto assure my wife that there was no necessity for caution or alarm. "Iwill be with you presently."

  "I am glad to hear that nothing is the matter," said Aunt Martha, nowfor the first time opening her door. "I was afraid something hadhappened."

  But I had business to attend to before I could go upstairs. In thinkingover and arranging this plan for the capture of burglars, I hadcarefully considered its various processes, and had provided against allthe contingencies I could think of; therefore I was not now obliged todeliberate what I should do. "Keep your eye on them," said I to David,"and if one of them moves be ready for him. The first thing to do is totie them hand and foot."

  I quickly lighted a lamp, and then took from another shelf of the closeta large coil of strong cotton rope, which I had provided for such anoccasion as the present.

  "Now," said I to David, "I will tie them while you stand by to knockover any one of them who attempts to get up."

  The instrument with which David was prepared to carry out my orders wasa formidable one. In the days of my youth my family was very fond of"Maryland biscuit," which owes much of its delicacy to the fact thatbefore baking it is pounded and beaten by a piece of heavy iron. Somepeople used one kind of a beater and some another, but we had had madefor the purpose a heavy iron club a little over a foot long, large andheavy at one end and a handle at the other. In my present householdMaryland biscuits were never made, but I had preserved this iron beateras a memento of my boyhood, and when the burglaries began in ourvicinity I gave it to David to keep in his room, to be used as a weaponif necessary. I did not allow him to have a pistol, having a regard formy own safety in a sudden night alarm, and nothing could be moreformidable in a hand-to-hand encounter than this skull-crushing club.

  I began with the tall man, and rapidly tied his feet together with manytwists of the rope and as many knots. I then turned him over and tiedhis elbows behind him in the same secure way. I had given so muchthought to the best method of securing a man by cords, that I do notthink this fellow could possibly have released himself when I hadfinished with him.

  David was obeying my orders and keeping a strict watch on the prostratemen; but his emotions of amazement were so great that he could not keepthem down.

  "What is the matter with them, sir?" he said. "How did they come so?"

  "There is no time for talking now," I answered. "I will tell you allabout it when t
he men have been secured." I now turned my attention tothe man who was partly resting against the lounge. I first tied hisfeet, and before letting him down to the floor, so as to get to hisarms, I removed his hat and his mask, which was made of black muslin. Iwas surprised to see the beardless face of a young and very good-lookingman. He was well dressed, and had the general appearance of a personbelonging to theatrical circles. When his arms had been tied, I toldDavid he might lay down his biscuit-beater, and help me with the thirdman, who was badly mixed up with the _debris_ of the refreshments. Wehauled him out and tied him up. He was rather a short man, but veryheavy, and I could see no signs of his having been hurt by the smash-uphe made in falling.

  We now proceeded to search the insensible burglars