The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1873-05-10
A THRILLING ADVENTURE.
Iadamc Lucca as n THIEF Catcher.

THRILLING ADVENTURE.
Madame Lucca as IL THIEF Catcher.
For cool resolution, the following Incl
dent related to me by my friend. cannot
well be surpassed. Madame Pauline Lucca
usually resides in the Victoria Strassc.
Berlin. Last spring; however she occu-
pied temporarily, at some distance outside
the city, a garden-hOus, or country-house.
consisting of only a spacious, rambling
basement story, surrounded by a veranda.
One night, about ten o'clock, she was sit
ting there in her bedroom. Her chair was
placed before her toilet table, which was
lighted by wax taper on each side of the
glass. The two tapers were not sufficient
| to illuminate the room very brilliantly, and
the further end lay buried in a sort of semi
obscurity. Madame Lucca was busy read
ing some letters concerning engagements,
when suddenly she imagined she heard a
noise. She looked round, but seeing moth
ing concluded she had made mistake.
and resumed the pcrusal of the letters.
| She had forgotten all about the noise when
| she heard it again. This time, instead of
looking around, she happened, without
| moving her head, merely to raise her ewes
to the glass. She bchcld reflected in it the
face of Il man pcerng cautiously from out
a cupboard behind her. At first she fan
ced she was dreaming. She quietly looked
again. No, it was no dream. There was
the man, whom she now recognized as
having been formerly in her service,
whence he had been discharged for bad be-
havior. She had also suspected him of
purloining several objects, which she had
missed from time to time, but not being
certain on this point, she had kept her sus-
picions to herself Yes, there he was
there could be no mistake about the mat
ter. Madamcs Lucca's first impulse was
to start up and give the alarm. But there
was not another habitation within Il mile
or two. and she rccolccted that the only
person beside herself in the house was her
maid, who, though a very good girl, and
extremely attached to her mistress, was by
no means celebrated for her nerve. The
other servants, including the gardener and
coachman. had been granted permission to
attend n friends wedding some miles off.
and were not to return till the next day.
1t flashed across her mind that the man,
who, as she knew, had been lettering about
the neighborhood for two or three days.
and learned that she would be alone and
meant to rob the house, or perhaps murder
her, if his project of robbery could not be
executed without the preparation of the
greater crime. What was to be done !?
Again she glanced toward the mirror. The
eyes were still there, glaring on her through
the gloom. All at once she remembered
that Il revolver belonging to her husband,
the Baron Won Rhaden, ought to be lying
on shelf in the dining-room but she was
not quite sure. IF it is there, and if
could only get it," she thought, g | should
not mind" While she was rejecting a
knock was heard on the door of the room.
She saw the man instantly draw back into
the cupboard. and close it after him. She
felt relieved that those two horrible eyes
were taken off her; they seemed to pierce
rcr like daggers.
Come in" she said.
Her maid entered.
Il thought you had gone to bed, my
good girl" observed Madame Lucca, in IA
tone of unconccrn.
Il was going, please your ladyship-but
| thought you might perhaps want some
thing. replied the maid.
Il told you | would be my own J6mme
de chdmJro tonight No. the only thing
want is to stretch my limbs little, for
they are cramped from long sitting"
Speaking thus, Madame Lucca arose with
an air of admirably acted Indifference and
took a turn or two across the room, pass
She afterwards declared she thought she
could hear the man breathe in his hiding
place. He, ON his part, might have heard
her heart beat, she said, when, on looking
at the keyholc. she found the key had been
removed. She was foiled in her plan,
which had been to lock him in. Still her
presence of mind did not desert her
I" All, dear me-" she said, gasping,
feel very sleepy"
"Scepy, your ladyslip! wish did"
replied her maid. Il don't feel sleepy.
I'm too frightend."
Enlightened What are you frightened
| of, you foolish goose? Nonsense! :" replied
Madame Lucca.
"Oh. begging your ladyships pardon, it
| is not nonsense, and that's just it. How
can you be sure that some william, hearing
that you and | were alone in the house,
may not murder us in our beds? But he
shan't murder me in mine, for with your
ladyships permission, will sit up all night
in your ladyship's easy chair
Madame Pauline Lucca glanced ut the
cupboard. Her blood ran cold she
thought she saw the handle turn. What
course was she to adopt? She dared not
give her maid the slightest hint of the real
state of matters she felt that the girl
would go into fit then and there, and
| thus bring on crisis. Scarcely knowing
what she was doing, Madame Lucca re-
piled at random Murder lis What
for p
"What for, your ladyship Why, for
your money-for your jewels, to he sure
Everybody knows you have plenty of
them"
The girl might have been unconsciously
sharpening, so to speak, the knife by
which she and her mistress were doomed
to perish.
"What absurlity ~ said Madame Lucca,
with forced laugh. As she spoke her
eye wandered from the keyhole of the
dreaded cupboard to that of an adjoining
room. In the latter were was key. Her
face flushed, and a smile, as II were, of
proud inspiration lighted it up, though
only for second.
''Jewcls p she replied, "Why, every
one with grain of sense must know that
| should not have them about me ms rule.
They, of course, are generally under lock
and key at Berlin 1t is strange thing,
though, Editha, that to-day Is an exccp-
ton. | expected the Countess Won War
tensteau to call, and brought down all the
jewels presented to me at may last visit TO
st. Petersburg, to show her.
"Your ladyship did Oh Int suppos-
ing thief ="
"Well, if thief did know it, he might
easily make his fortune !" she observed,
interrupting her companion.
''By numbering us and running oil with