Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-12-27
TOMS MONEY.
by HARRIET P. spoFFoRD.

BY HARRIET P. SPOFFoRD.
Mrs. Laughton had found what she
had been looking for all her life-the
man under her bed.
Every night of her nearly thirty wears
OF existence this pretty little person had
stopped on her knees, before saving her
prayers, and had investigated the space
beneath her bed, light brass affair,
hung with chintz valance; had then
peered beneath the dark recess of the
dressing case, and having looked in the
deep drawer of the bureau and into tae
closet, she fastened her door and felt as
! secure as snail in a shell. As she
never, IN this particular business,
seemed to have any confidence in Mr..
Laughton, in spite of the fact that she
admired him and adored him, neither
his presence nor his absence ever made
any variation in the performance. She
had gone through the motions, however.
for so long time that they had come to
be in a manner perfunctory, and the
start she received on this night of which
speak made her prayers quite impossi-
BILE.
What was she to do? She, coward
par eminence, known to be the most
timorous of the whole family: her
tremors at all sorts of imagined dangers
affording laughter to the flock of sisters
and brothers. Should she stay on her knees
after having seen that dark shape, as if
going on with her prayers, while revolv-
ing some plan of procedure2 That was
out of the question. Scream2 She
couldn't have screamed to save her life.
RUM She could no more have set one
4 foot before the other than if her BODY
had melted from the waist down. She
was deadly faint and cold and shaking,
and allin second, in the fraction of
second, before she had risen from her
STOPPING posture.
Oh! why wasn't it Virginia instead of
she. Virginia had always had such
heroic plans of making the man come out
of his hiding place at the point of her
pistol; and Virginia could cock. a pistol,
and wasn't covered with cold shivers at
the sight of one, as she was. If it had
only been Francie, whose shrill voice
could have been heard over the side of
earth, or Juliet, whose long limbs would
have left burglar, and house, too, in the
background between the opening and
slamming of a door. Either of them
was so much more fit than she, the
chicken hearted one of the family, to
cope with this creature And they were
all gone TO the wedding with Fred, and
would not be home till tomorrow; and
Tom had just returned from the town
and handed her his roll of bills, and told
her to take care of it till he came back
from galloping down to the works with
Jules; and she had tucked it into her
belt, and had asked him, little quak-
ingly, what if any of the men of the
Dead Line that they had heard of or Red
Dan or an Apache came along; and he
had laughed, and said she had better
ask them in and reproach them for max
ing such strangers of themselves as not to
have called in the two years she had
been in this part of the country; and she
had the two maids with her and he
should be back directly. And she had
looked out after him a moment over the
wide prairie to the hills, all batted in
moonlight, and felt as if she were a
spirit alone in dead world And here
she was now, the two maids away in the
little wing, locked out by the main
house, alone with burglar, and not an-
other being nearer than the works, Il
half-mile off
How did this man know that she was
without any help herel How did he
know that Tom was coming back with
the money to pay the men that night.
How did he happen to be aware that
Toms money was all in the housed Evil
IDENTITY he was one of the men. No one
else could have known anything about it.
If that money was taken, nobody would
believe the story Tom would be cashiered
he never could live through the disgrace;
he would die of broken heart, and she
of another. They had come out to this
remote and lonesome country to build up
home and a fortune; and so many PEG
pie would be stricken with them! What
mischance for her to be left with the
whole thing in her hands, her little,
weak, trembling hands-Tom's honor,
his good name and his success, their for
tune, the welfare of the whole family,
the livelihood of all the men, the safety
of the enterprise! What made Tom risk
things sol How could he put her in such
jeopardy To be sure, he had thought
the dogs would be safeguard enough.
but they bad gone securing after him.
And if they hadn't how could dogs help
her with man under the bed?
Light and electricity are swift, but
thought is swifter. As / said. this was
all in the fraction of second. Then
Mrs Laughton was on her feet again and
before pendulum could have more than
swung backward. The man must know
she saw him. She took the light brass
bedstead and sent it rolling away from
her with all her might and main, leaving
the creature uncovered. He lay easily
on one side, stout little club like a
policeman's billy in his hand, some wea-
pons cleaning in his belt, putting up
the other hand to grasp the bedstead as
it rolled away.
"You look pretty, don't your" SAID
she.