The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-06-05
IF YOU MET A BURGLAR?
And If You We're a Lone Young
Woman, What Would You
DO?
Experiences of the Typewriter, the
Barnard Girl and the Sketch
Artist. 5
One Rushed Out of the House, The Second
Hid in . Closet, the Third
tainted

1uey 6HU up luUo idsb uikAu3 Ouu VAoy AAou
fairly good excuses for prowling about in
the dark corridors of the boarding house in
the small hours. The red headed girl, who
is a stenographer. had a great many folios
to click ont on her typewriter, and the
colossus of a girl who ia studying at Bar
nard college was unable to 90 to sleep for
the clicking, and the jolly girl who was
drawing at Cooper Union sat with her head
on one side hour after hou trying to finish
a face that gave her no end of trouble, says
the New York Recorder. In the end she
threw her crayon at its nose and tip-toed
across the hall.
As she softly pushed the door open the
Barnard girl, who was bending sleepily
over something Greek. sprang with a start
from her chair. "What would you have
DONE" asked the Cooper Union girl, eff I
had really been a burglar?"
The typewriter who roomed with the Bar
nard girl turned up her machine. to make
sure of the last letter. II Think she an
swered, shat since it is always good policy
to be hospitable, I should have said, as l do
now, in my p%olitest name wont you
have a ohair?'"
"But, really" said the tall Barnard girl,
as she bent to pick up her scattered shests
of queer, grabbed characters, "Ioften think
of it when I have to go ava down stairs at
this hour of night, when they've turned out
the gas on every landing, to find a book I've
left in the front hall. l start with four or
five matches, bat there's always drauaht
that blows them out, or they won't light ex-
cept on the box. and l forget the box. and l
say to myself as l poke round on the cold
marble slab of that hat-stand, What should
] do if my fingers touched something"
Feel OF it, | should suppose, "replied the
Cooper Union girl; TO see II it weren't the
book you were looking for"
but in sober earnest" persisted the
ti,nid colossus, what would you do. if you
were all alone and you met a burglar?"
''Ill tell you,'' said the typewriter, facing
about in her chair, what / did when l met
mine."
you've really seen one?" The Cooper
Union girl and the Barnard girl bent for
ward. The clock struck one. It was a de-
lightfully wierd hour for story telling.
well. not to say a whole burglar, but !
saw his fingers. They were very long, and
slender. and dirty"
"Where was the rest of him?'
"Out on the garden path. You see, it was
Mt home, out on Long Island. two or three
summers ago. / wrote verses then. You
mightn't believe it, but one set WAS really
copied into a New York newspaper. l did
it mostly at night after the folks had gone
to bed, and this night there wasn't anybody
to 60 to bed, for mother and l were spend
ing a month alone and mother had been
sent for to watch with a sick %neighbor. z
1.-The verses were about q knight and
some pond lilies. / forgot the entire con-
nection between them, but il was very pa
thetic and it made me cry. l usually did
cry over my verses, and that is why / stop
nod writing thnm-thnt and the trnuhle il
was to find rhymes.
81 was very much interested in the knight.
But of q sudden l stopped crying and writ
ing, for l had the most curious sensation,
rs if somebody were looking at me-"
Tit Cooper union girl and the Barnard
girl said. go on"
II looked UP at the picture that was on
the wall. 1t had queer eyes and the man
it WIS painted from was dead, and / never
liked it, especially late i'll the evening, but
it didn't seem to be staring i'll my direction
any harder than usual. Then l noticed
that both doors were shut. ana then some
thing pulled my head around toward the
window"
Again the Cooper union girl and tho Bar
nard girl said, q on!'
There were outside blinds--green blinds.
You know; / had shut them when / lighted
the lamp and had left the window open. 1t
seemed to mo that one blind moved. L
winked the last of the tears away md looked
again. One blind was certainly ajar, but If
it had moved at all it had stopped moving.
/ bent my head over my aper, but / kent Il
sidewise lookout through my lashes. In n
minute or two the blind moved again; ! was
sure of it this time. My hentt thumped and
l forgot all about the knight and the pond
lilies. In n minute l SAW, as | told you,
fingers. A hand had taken u firm grasp of
the blind thnt it might not bang. and the
long brownish fingers had slipped around
on the inside"
The Barnard girl said breathlessly: "What
did you doT'
~ sat a moment in a cold PRESENTATION.
Then got up and walked straight to the
doc that was betido the widow, opened It,
and stepped out OH tho piazza"
And you saw"
Nothing; 1T WINS n very dark night, but 1
heard n jump and Il scainpe and then the
dogs next daos began to bark and the moon
came cut n hit and three dark figures went
tearing up the street with the dogs and two
or three mon from the neighbors' nfter
them. You see. after all. it's u very tame
story. The burslars were never caught.
Two of them had tried the house next door
and one was accommodating me. But I've
wondered sometimes, il l had stopped to
think. should | have gone and opened tho
door,"
Now snid the Cooper Union girl, ."I'm
going to tell You my burglar story"
"YouV' said both the others; ''have you