Adjoining Miss Prim's boudoir was her bath and be-fore the door leading from the one to the other was a cretonne covered screen behind which the burglar now concealed himself the while he listened in rigid appre-hension for the approach of the enemy; but the only sound that came to him from the floor below was the deep laugh of Jonas Prim.A profound sigh of relief es-caped the beardless lips; for that laugh assured the youth that, after all, the noise of the fallen candlestick had not alarmed the household.
With knees that still trembled a bit he crossed the room and passed out into the hallway, descended the stairs, and stood again in the library.Here he paused a moment listening to the voices which came from the dining room.Mrs.Prim was speaking."I feel quite re-lieved about Abigail," she was saying."I believe that at last she sees the wisdom and the advantages of an alliance with Mr.Benham, and it was almost with en-thusiasm that she left this morning to visit his sister.
I am positive that a week or two of companionship with him will impress upon her the fine qualities of his nature.We are to be congratulated, Jonas, upon settling our daughter so advantageously both in the matter of family and wealth."Jonas Prim grunted."Sam Benham is old enough to be the girl's father," he growled."If she wants him, all right; but I can't imagine Abbie wanting a bald-headed husband with rheumatism.I wish you'd let her alone, Pudgy, to find her own mate in her own way--someone nearer her own age.""The child is not old enough to judge wisely for her-self," replied Mrs.Prim."It was my duty to arrange a proper alliance; and, Jonas, I will thank you not to call me Pudgy--it is perfectly ridiculous for a woman of my age--and position."The burglar did not hear Mr.Prim's reply for he had moved across the library and passed out onto the ve-randah.Once again he crossed the lawn, taking advan-tage of the several trees and shrubs which dotted it, scaled the low stone wall at the side and was in the concealing shadows of the unlighted side street which bounds the Prim estate upon the south.The streets of Oakdale are flanked by imposing battalions of elm and maple which over-arch and meet above the thorough-fares; and now, following an early Spring, their foliage eclipsed the infrequent arclights to the eminent satis-faction of those nocturnal wayfarers who prefer neither publicity nor the spot light.Of such there are few within the well ordered precincts of lawabiding Oakdale; but to-night there was at least one and this one was deeply grateful for the gloomy walks along which he hurried toward the limits of the city.
At last he found himself upon a country road with the odors of Spring in his nostrils and the world before him.The night noises of the open country fell strangely upon his ears accentuating rather than relieving the my-riad noted silence of Nature.Familiar sounds became unreal and weird, the deep bass of innumerable bull frogs took on an uncanny humanness which sent a half shudder through the slender frame.The burglar felt a sad loneliness creeping over him.He tried whistling in an effort to shake off the depressing effects of this seem-ing solitude through which he moved; but there re-mained with him still the hallucination that he moved alone through a strange, new world peopled by invisible and unfamiliar forms--menacing shapes which lurked in waiting behind each tree and shrub.
He ceased his whistling and went warily upon the balls of his feet, lest he unnecessarily call attention to his presence.If the truth were to be told it would chron-icle the fact that a very nervous and frightened burglar sneaked along the quiet and peaceful country road out-side of Oakdale.A lonesome burglar, this, who so craved the companionship of man that he would almost have welcomed joyously the detaining hand of the law had it fallen upon him in the guise of a flesh and blood po-lice officer from Oakdale.
In leaving the city the youth had given little thought to the practicalities of the open road.He had thought, rather vaguely, of sleeping in a bed of new clover in some hospitable fence corner; but the fence corners looked very dark and the wide expanse of fields be-yond suggested a mysterious country which might be peopled by almost anything but human beings.
At a farm house the youth hesitated and was almost upon the verge of entering and asking for a night's lodg-ing when a savage voiced dog shattered the peace of the universe and sent the burglar along the road at a rapid run.
A half mile further on a straw stack loomed large within a fenced enclosure.The youth wormed his way between the barbed wires determined at last to let nothing prevent him from making a cozy bed in the deep straw beside the stack.With courage radiating from every pore he strode toward the stack.His walk was almost a swagger, for thus does youth dissemble the bravery it yearns for but does not possess.He al-most whistled again; but not quite, since it seemed an unnecessary provocation to disaster to call particular attention to himself at this time.An instant later he was extremely glad that he had refrained, for as he ap-proached the stack a huge bulk slowly loomed from be-hind it; and silhouetted against the moonlit sky he saw the vast proportions of a great, shaggy bull.The burglar tore the inside of one trousers' leg and the back of his coat in his haste to pass through the barbed wire fence onto the open road.There he paused to mop the per-spiration from his forehead, though the night was now far from warm.
For another mile the now tired and discouraged house-breaker plodded, heavy footed, the unending road.Did vain compunction stir his youthful breast? Did he regret the safe respectability of the plumber's appren-tice? Or, if he had not been a plumber's apprentice did he yearn to once again assume the unharried peace of whatever legitimate calling had been his before he bent his steps upon the broad boulevard of sin? We think he did.
