The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1872-12-20

What is the use of money nowP TC
take the eighty cents and you may hav,
the forty dollars If you'll let me out. "
No, sir; I am going to call tn,
neighbors, " I said resolutely.
Going with that night-cap on
You'll make your fortune. But don't
hurry, that's dear. Let's have little
friendly talk. Say, I'll give you hun
dred dollars if you'll let me out.
g Yes, and leave you free to scare
some other woman nearly to death-no,
sir %
dred. -
ono, sir.
g Name your price then. I suppose
every woman has her price-they say
every woman has.
g" No; it wouldn't be right, I said,
hesitatingly, heard chuckle.
g First step to ward it she begins to
talk of what is right. "
thought of my poor girl out to work
by the week, and-sO anxious to get an
education, and Tn sure it isn't to be
wondered at if 1 did begin to think of
setting a price. But said not a word.
Look here I'll put five hundred
dollars in good sound gold under the
door, and you can count it as I push
it through piece by piece, if you only
let me out of this cursed hole. I'm
smothering.
''Try some chloroform, " whispered
through the keyhOIe.
g Curse the chIoroforml VIII you
let me out %
I had a light by this time, and had
slipped into a calico wrapper and my
slippers.
"E I got the money, how could I let
him out of the closet ?" I wondered.
'I shouldn't dare to meet him; he'd
rob me again, and perhaps murder me. -
But I said, "TI1 take the gold, :" re-
solving that I would try to get out of it
somehow, just for the sake of poor Re
beccca, who so much wanted to go to
school.
Your heart is in the right place, -
he said, and the next moment ig
round gold piece came through the wide
crack under the door.
I couldn't Withhold exclamation of de-
light.
cts all right enough now, isn't it p
he sneered. "There's nothing like
gliding over our our sins little. Bah !
all the worlds alike Here goes anoth-
er, and another, and another. Count
fast, my pious damsel I dare say
/ there's no confessional in your church %
is there in yours p
''WelI, if there was, gold gets in
that sometimes, they say. Hold fast
there; you've got the last clinker, now
set me free. 4"
g Wait a minute. "
"But I won't wait, swear won't p
"Can you help yourself?"
90 Well, no, not much but I'm smoth-
ering in here. Can't you take pity on q
poor fellow?"
"Sit down fiat on the floor, said.
I heard him plump down as obedient
as a school-boy.
What next %
1 turned to the kitchen door to see if
the lock was all right. Then 1 turned
the key with sharp click, which sound
ed to me like a report of pistol.
"There - cried, and sprang into the
kitchen, locking the door behind me.
He came out of his prison swearing
like a trooper.
"ShaTp old Satan she's locked her
self up somewhere, - trying the kitchen
door as he spoke. Good night, Madam
De'il-good night You've got the best
of this. You have robbed me, Good
night! Get down andsa your prayers. "
And I did. What is more, cried like
a baby over my money, thinking what it
would bring to us.
Inever saw the strange burglar again,
and in a few weeks Rebecca was com
| fortably settled at school. No one ever
knew where the money came from. An
uncle died about that time, and some of
my neighbors shrewdly suspected that
he had left us something; but I had
nothing to say on the subject.
About six months after my adventure
brother Joe came to me, one day, and
said that he had been stopped in the
street by strange man that morning,
and that he had begged him to say
to Madame Quinby that the frill of her
night cap was just little too wide So
saying, he passed on. "What did he
mean?" Joe asked.
Nothing, only he was crazy, an
swered but my face was red as blaze.