The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1900-01-21
THE RETIRED BURGLAR.
Experience That He Looks Upon rs Ono OF
the Queerest in His Career.

Experience That He Looks pom u o"o U
the Queerest in His Career.
-Ons OF the queerest experiences ! ever had"
said the retired burglar, was In a house half a
mile from nowhere, that Is 70 say, half a mile
from the next nearest house, on the outskirts OF
a village that | was on the way TO visit AS on a
previous occasion that l have told you about
thought / could take this house in incidentally
Just as q flyer; something that could be turned oil
In a minute without interfering with the other
lob, and, ar on the other occasion. 1, turned out to
DO very different from what | expected,
II didn't even reconnoiue this house by walk
ing around it TO see If there was anybody up:
the houss itself looked at this hour so still and
| quiet away out there in the lonesome fields, that
II didn't seem possible that there could be anybody
awake inside Of it, and SO l didn't look around IL
at all. The result went to show for about the
millionth time In my experience tina! you cant
always tell. | walked up the path from the road.
and up on the steps, and tried the front door;
lust on a chance. Ihave known people TO lock up
their windows very carefully and then forget
the front door. Just that had been done here.
This door had been left unlocked, and l opened II
without, the slightest trouble and simply walked
In and closed the door behind me.
TT was a plain, substantial. old-fashioned home.
with a rather narrow hall running back half way
through It, with doors opening of. There was a
rather narrow stairs that came down almost to
the front door. | prospected the lower part OF
the house without finding much that was any good
TO me, and gradually worked around again ~
the front room door, opening on the hall, where
I'd started In. As | came near 10 that door IT
seemed 70 me that | could see some signs OF light
IN the hall, where there had been absolutely mono
when l came In.
when | got to the door the lightin the hall was
plain enough. and also where 1t came from. II
was from some room upstairs. the door OF which
had been opened after / had gone into the front
room and oil around that part Of the house down
stairs. | moved out swiftly into the hall 10 the
stair railing and looked up. As looked the light
grew into a bright light, shed from a lamp carried
by a woman who had come out OF that room,
| wherever it was, and across the hall so rapidly
that she was standing there, leaning over the up
stairs railing, and looking down at me, before l
had q chance " get away. She stood with the
lamp, a kerosene lamp, without any shade on the
| chimney, held up higher than her head, so that
the light wouldn't get into her eyes, and SO she
could see me, and II brought her out Just as plain
TO me as though we had been stun opposite TO
each ether in a room In that sort of a situation
| got lust as clear an impression OF her in a second
as ( | had looked at her for half an hour.
She was more than middle aged. gray haired.
but not old counting by what she could do. She
was rather spare. but perfectly straight, and trim
and resolute. a little hard, maybe but a firm and
able woman and a better man than was, as
| did not for a moment hesitate 70 admit 10 my self
Sull, as I'd been downstairs, and there couldn't
anybody have been any stuleI, she d heard me
ali the time, and followed me with her ears. She
opened that door upstairs when Id gone around
I'm the back rooms downstairs, and she came out
To meet mo when I'd come around " the hall.
And now she was standing there, looking at
me, and she called down TO me, with a pretty hard
cor ~ a ybiTa. hut lust as calm and cool and coll
lected as anybody could be.
Burglar, come up!
I don't suppose she gave at that moment any
thought at all ~ my occupation, except 10 identify
me with IT, Just as If I'd been a loCksml,h, and at
work in the daytime, she might have called mo
TOcksmith!' She needed help for some reason
or other at Just this time, and she called on ms
without the slightest hesitation. So iar as was
concerned | responded without the slightest
question. bera Use she was the boss.
"She led the way into a front room upstairs,
where there had been no light before. OF should
have seen il, coming up the road, and told me
briefly that she wanted me 10 witness a signature.
Then she took me into a room IN the back Of the
house. There was lying IN bed an old man, very
clearly the womans husband, and the person
whose signature was 10 witness lie was a good
deal older than she, but, like her, always resolute;
narrow minded, maybe, but a maj Nth a strong
grip not o mlseT, but a moneymaker, and a man
Mat liked h. hold on to his money, and hated 10
let go oft But he'd got N let go Of IL now, pretty
soon, that was clear enough. lie wasn't dying,
not a bit but he was called for, and il was only a
question II time, q few days, probably: and he
! hadn't signed his will. lie knew le whs going,
well enough, but still he hated even the idea Of
letting 60 Of the money, and So he kept putting
of signing.
"But he wasn't quite 30 resolute now IA he was,
He was Just stubborn now, and obstinate, and sort
Of htiul, and he had times when he sDftened, or
weakened, or let 90, OF whatever you might call IL.
and was ready ~ sign, and then finally. when It
came IN the actual signing, wouldn tslgn, after all,
but now had come a time when he talked about
signing. and maybe when he would sign. This
was at 2 o'clock IN the morning, and half a mile
from the neSt neighhOr Then | came In.
All this, you understand, In the main, guessed
hut | don't doubt that II was substantially
correct and suppose that whether the man left
a will or not would make a heap ~ difference to
the widow, There was another lampl in this room,
ono with a shade on H. standing on a table. When
we came IN the woman put the lamp that she was
carrying up on one end Of n shelf, behind a screen
that WAS evidently placed there for this lamp Ia
stand behind There was in this room, too, an
other man; an old man, not quite SO old In years
as the man in the bed, but, even though he was
apparently we'll and up and around and able 70
work, yet actually more bent md broken. .Ho
was q help around the place, somebody who had
been with these folks always, and was now an old
man. lie was u be the other witness
We two got the man 10 the bed ZIP so that be
could write, and We were going To hold the will In
front Of him o. a book, hut he insisted on Slowing
around, with his feet out so that he could sit on
the edge Of the bed and sign the will lying on the
table. We fixed him 50, doing UP his legs and
feet after We got him around And then he signed.
He was an old man, but he knew what he was
about He might have wondered a little az me,
family, but in his way, about me, he was Just like
his wife was. in hsrs He was more concerned
about his own affairs He groaned when we
slowed him round again, and got him slaughtered
out and covered UP in bed again The help signed