Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-12-18
ANOTHER MAN
IN THE HOUSE.
He Was Mistaken For Lover, but
Confessed That He Was
Burglar.

Donag hue knelt at the door and put
a practiced ear at the keyhole. There
was a faint sound of breathing, so
faint that Donaghue pressed his rough
ear still closer to the brassy aperture
in the door and listened even more in
tently. His small eyes glistened in the
dark hallway like the eyes of a cat Che
had been nicknamed '"The Cat" for this
very popularity, but there was no one
in the house to see those glistenlng
eyes save the servants, fast asleep two
stories above, and the occupants Of
this one room. He had watched that
house three preceding days and nights.
He knew that it was occupied by a
young man and his wife - evidently
newly married and beyond doubt rich.
He knew that the servants were a
cook, two maids and a butler, and he
had almost worked out in his mind
just where the pretty wife placed her
jewelry when she went to bed in the
second floor room and just what means
the husband took to secure his proba-
bly, we'll filed purse
When one is in the habit of making
social calls Of the description that Don
aghue was making, it is much better to
find husbands away from home, the
servants and occupants of the house
all asleep and the policeman on the
beat quite out of hearing.
The fact was Donaghue shrank from
notoriety. He preferred a quiet en-
trance by The window wholly unob-
served if possible and, departing, left
not his card nor anything else that was
of value and at the same time porta-
BILE. Indeed Donaghue was not the
tall, handsome fellow that most heroes
are. On the contrary, he was Of medi-
I'm height, spare, slouchy and had a
general appearance that was anything
but prepossessing. He was not mem
Der of polite society.
Dead easy" said Donaghue to him
self. ga young married couple, as |
thought, and husbands away on the
loose. She's calling his name in her
sleep. But needn't expect him until
morning, and when he does come home
\ he'll probably be drunk. That's what
Il call dead easy"
He turned the knob of the door anil
" opened it the fraction of an inch. Il
small eyes glistened in the dark as l.
found that the door was not locked
squeak.
Slowly and with infinite care h
opened the door and entered the roo1
Four feet from him, as he stood /;
most breatbless, with his hand st
clasping the knob of the door. lay Il
sleeping form of a woman. A food
# moonlight from the window fell upo:!
w her and melted the pink of her cheek
the cream of her throat, the lace of the
nightdreSS and the white sheet the
wrapped her into one semigolden hue.
" The undulation caused by her breath
ing made her look like a dropping lily
swayed by the gentlest of breezes.
"Great heavensr' thought Donaghue
"what a beauty He could hear her
family mutter the name "Paul-Paul'
lat intervals, and he had a vague con-
seriousness CT a certain disrespect for
Paul, whoever he might be. A man
unjust be a brute to leave such a Wom-
AN alone at night. He fingered but a
moment, though. Beauty was a thing
#of little value to DOnaghue. His own
Maggie was hardly cursed with the
Natal gift of beauty, and she was quite
M as jealous as other wives. He stepped
Ny SOFTLY and quickly to the dressing case
at the other end of the room. He pick
ed up a perfumed lace handkerchief
hnd threw it away impatiently, al
though in his more youthful days a
ace handkerchief he would have con-
Bidered a prize of no mean value. Be
ow it he found what he wanted and
EeXpected-a locket and chain, jewel
I'D watch, a heavy bracelet, a pin and
what seemed to him a handful of
ings. He held them all up in the moon
light and noticed how they sparkled in
lis trembling hand, and he smiled with
elight.
He turned and looked at her. He
W cit like adding a stolen kiss to the
N Their jewels he had taken He almost
hughed aloud at the thought of such a
nan as he kissing such a peerless
beauty as the woman who lay on the
ed before him. And he was just
bout to depart as peacefully as a So
n ial caller when suddenly he heard the
H7 tanning of the front door in the hall
Glow.
"Her old man." said Donaghue, for
citing that he was probably a young
ban, "and I'm caught. Caught-bur-
hary-ten years at the least I'll kill
i'm. But I'll be caught whether |
III him or not, and"-self upbraiding-
MI could have got away easily
" bough if ! hadn't stopped to look at
err"
Again he stepped quickly to the door
lI hd listened. He heard footsteps in
e hall beneath. The man had STEP