Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1896-02-01


to my door. He paused on the TIRES
hold, listened in silence a moment and
then started upstairs. In that mo-
ment suffered such a reasonless agony
of terror as cannot be explained on or
binary grounds. held my breath Until
was nearly suffocated, and when the
man turned to leave was cold to the
marrow.
'He reascended the stairs, tied up his
bundle, passed through the window
and closed it, dropped the parcel over
the rail, clambered down the lattice
and went away as he had come, shut
ting the gate behind him.
81 felt intensely relieved when he had
gone, and reaction set in that COM
posed my nerves for slumber. Drowsi-
ness was already approaching when
was startled by the soft clicking of the
gate latch. It Yves very unlikely that
the same burglar had returned, and
would have been extraordinary if an
other had come. And yet, try as hard
as l might to reason out some other pos
sibility, there came the steady foot
steps of thief on the boards of the
outer passage. l studied this step SO
i1ltently and analytically that l was
certain the intruder was not the same
rs the first. Then began to wonder
what he would do.
81 was not surprised to hear him try
the door of the lower porch and find it
strongly barred within, nor greatly to
hear him climb the lattice as the other
had done. was curious TO see whether
he would attack the door or the window
after he landed on the porch. By a sin
eular coincidence he chose the window.
l heard him try it, and imagined that he
started on discovering that the latch
had been broken. 1t was evident that
upon entering the room he was sur
prised and confused to see it's disorder.
But he drew O sheet from the bed and
spread it out on the floor and proceeded
to ransack the room. Evidently his be-
wilderment increased, and he must
have been discouraged to find so little
worth taking.
''He was not long in completing the
looting of the room, and then he went
to the door and stood a moment in the
passage, listening intently. After that
he began carefully to descend the
stairs. His conduct thenceforward was
cXactlya repetition of his predecessors
He passed my door, tinkled the plated
siiverware in the diniDg-room, left it
alone, returned to the vestibule, stood
moment listening at my open door,
cautiously retraced his steps upstairs,
passed through the window, closed it.
dropped his parcel to the ground, clam
bered down the lattice and passed out,
closing the gate behind him.
1T may be supposed that the coinci-
dence amazed me beyond measure.
This, more than anything else, seemed
to unnerve me all the more. All this
time I realized I had been acting the
part of a coward. Merely to have light
cd the gas in my room would have
cleared the house of the second bur-
Clar, but I had not the courage to do
that.
my alarm and nervousness became
so great that arose from bed and was
just about to strike a match with
which to light the gas in the chandelier
when I heard the gate latch click for
the third time. My match renamed
innsbruck, and I listened with a fasci-
mated intentness to this last invasion.
In all particulars it was identical with
the second, down to the point when the
burglar descended the stairs and
passed my own door on his way to the
dining-room. To light the gas then
would have been to place the man in
a corner and compel him to fight. L
realized not only that it is taking ones
in l- -
glars retreat before attacking him (as
a knowledge of a chance of escape di-
verts his attention from the necessity
for self-defense and renders him
easier to overcome) but that l was now
| in condition in which lacked both
the courage and the strength to make
| the attempt.
"The position which 1 now occupied
in the room was half way between the
| bed and the window. AS i was so
much nearer the window than before,
L could hear sounds from without with
much more distinctness. While /
stood there listening to the third bur-
| glar tinkle the plated ware l was
startled to hear the gate latch click
again and the football of fourth bur-
/ gar on the bOard-paved passage. AS
he was climbing the lattice fifth en-
tered the gate, then a sixth, then 9TH
ers, until burglars in an endless pro-
cession were entering my premises ard
rif1ing my house on one common and
unvarying plan.
1T is useless to say that an intelli-
gent man should not have entertained
such an idea for moment. We know
that | might have reasoned that per-
haps that there had been only one. or.
at most, two, burglars, after all. and
that the fright which they gave me
caused me to conjure up the others
from a fear-deranged Imagination. 1t
might be profitable to indulge in a
great many other speculations on this
subject, but the truth remains that
could not reason at all.