The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1900-02-16

Della Broke a Good Deal of China,
g but She Made Up For 1t.
Observation-Disclosures
The crash of shattered china had be-
come an altogether too frequent sound
within the Thurston domestic precincts.
| Mrs. Alice Thurston saw her treasured
| table adornments melt away with sink
ing heart. She had cautioned, warned
and scolded, but it availed nothing. Plates.
| would slip from fiaccid fingers to the I'M
yielding surface of the slate drain board,
cups would bump against the brass fau-
Gets above the enameled sink. If ever in
| animate things were possessed with
| rage for self destruction the chinaware
of the Thurstons certainly took the sui
cidal palm.
Unfortunately for this theory all these
brcakagcs were traced directly to Della
Mann.
Della was n good girl and fairly capa-
Bile girl, and she meant to please, but
when 1t came to dish washing and wiping
she seemed marked with n smashing ma
MIA. Alice Thurston was patient and
long suffering. She liked Della and bore
with her weakness in a most exemplary
way. Once she told her she would have to
pny for the ware she had broken, and
Della, who was weak on mathematics,
eagerly consented. But when the end of
the month came the breakagc total was
80 large that Alice felt ashamed to take
II out of the poor girls wages and said
no more about it.
Della was an admirable cook and Of
neat and steady habits She was as hon
est as the day and as careful Of the
Thurston supplies as il they were her
own.
But one day poor Della let slip hand
some platter against the cruel slate, and
a shower of fragments scattered over the
hardwood floor. Then the wrath Of Alice
Thurston blazcd forth.
"Delia," she holly said, this Is past all
endurance. II you break another thing
this week, l will certainly be obliged to
let you 60"
Poor Della said nothing. She bent low
over her broom and dustpan as she gath
cred up the debris. She knew the mis-
tress was entirely justified in her out
burst.
Well, for a wonder, she didn't break a
thing for three whole days. 1t required
great self possession and a most painful
watchfulness, but she broke her record
handsomely.
Then came Friday, and after the usucl
simple luncheon which George Thurston
ate with Alice whenever he could spare
the time to make hurried dash home
and back. bit which Alice ate alone on
this particular Friday, she said to Della:
I'm going down town to do some
Christmas shopping and will probably
wait and come home with Mr.. Thurston.
Be sure to answer the bell and have din
ner ready to serve at G."
"Yes'm," said Della, and soon she
heard the front door slam and knew her
pretty young mistress had started forth.
Della was doing up" the dishes, but
she stopped short and stepped into the
dining room. From the dining room she
passed into a storeroom that adjoined the
former apartment. 1t was q dark room,
with one window opening on a prospect
of brick wall. Its only piece Of furniture
was the new telephone that stood on its
little table against the west wall.
Della didn't like the telephone. She
could use it, but it bothered her. Della
was a slow thinker, and the rapid pace of
a telephone conversation was too confus-
ing to be agreeable. She took from a
hook the ancient black shawl which she
was wont to toss about her shoulders
when she made hurried excursions to the
little grocery in the next street and threw
1t over the phone and its table. Then
she went out with smile of satisfaction
and locked the door behind her. She fan
cied she had effectually gagged the an
noying instrument. She certainly didn't
mean to hear the warning bell if she
could help it.
To still further enhance the impossibili-
ty Of telephone interruption, Della, as
she resumed her dish drying labor, lifted
her by no means unmusical voice in a
song of her childhood days. She warbled
on with her back to the door, quite I'M
conscious of the fact that it was being
slowly pushed open.
A moment or two later a heavy hand
caught her firmly by the shoulder, and q
harsh voice growled fierce threat in her
ear.
The plate In her hands fell to the floor
with heavy crash.
THAT settles it," said Della Mann.
Then she was dragged into the dining
room and the door closed behind. She
looked up. There were two men, and one
of them held n revolver close under her
nose. She looked at them stupidity. Della
reasoned slowly.
fellow with the revolver.
Gag her and tie her in a chair and
hide her away somewhere" was the re-
spouse. And they did it with incredible
swiftness. Her ankles were dashed to the
chair with q stout cord that one of the
men quickly produced. Her hands were
securely fastened behind the back Of the
chair, and then IN extra large handker-
chief was tied around her head and over
her mouth. One of the men stepped to
the storeroom door. turned the key and
opened it. He gave the gloomy interior
hasty glance.
empty" he said. "Just the place for
her," And they carried her in and left
her there with n parting injunction to
keep quiet or have her head dubbed off.
But Della scarcely minded the threat
nor the click of the lock as they turned
the key. She was still regretting that she
had dropped the plate.
Then it suddenly dawncd on her that
the house was being ransacked by two
daring scoundrels, that the beloved treas
ures of her dear mistress were in immi-
nent danger and that she, Della Mann,
was in some sense to blame for their
presence in the hnIse.
She gave n violent wrigSle, but the
cords held fast. She tried to cry out, but
the gag chung too closely. Then Della sat
quite still for n moment. And her anger
rose And her wits sharpened. She must
do something to circumvent those scoun-
drcls.
Presently she opened her mouth to its
widest limit-and Delia's was generous
mouth-and when the gag sank in she
seized what she could of 1t with her
sharp, white teeth. She gnawed and tore
at it and presently had the satisfaction
of feeling the severed ends drop from her
face. Should she cry out? She knew an
outcry would probably have but one re-
sult-the robbers would hear and come
back and silence her more effectually.
The window was double one, and her
voice, shrill and powerful though it was,
couldn't penetrate that brick wall. Della
Mann looked about her in the gloom.
The telephone!
1t was evident that the robbers hadn't
noticed it beneath the shrouding shawl.
Could she get to it? With violent mus
cular elfort-and Della was n strong girl
she managed to hitch the chair little
to one side; again and yet again. Slow
ly but surely she was approaching the
phone. The cords cut her ankles, but she
fnrrOd ono foot down so the toe of her