Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1902-05-06
ParramOre'S
Burglars
BY wILFRED MORRIS.

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ssTTS as dark as VOLTS mouth
Why will Craggs put up those
.accursed shutters? The street might
he threatened with a nightly siege
There, my last match gone, tool"
Grumbling Indignantly to himself
Richard Parramore, junior partner
in the firm of Parramore a. Sons,
lawyers, stalked in at the glass pan
seled door which led directly from an
'unlighted passage 10 his private
room in an old-fashioned suite of lie.
gal Offices. He paused TO thrust into
IN vest pocket the empty receptacle
which had provoked his concluding
observations, then CROPPED towards
an adjoining mantlepiece, hoping to
discover thereon n box of the de-
ispised but often priceless tandstickor.
The entrance by which he had
scome closed behind him, thanks to
pneumatic buffer" noiselessly;
his own footsteps had been dead
ened by the substantial, If faded,
Brussels, that covered the floor of
the apartment.
His search for the possible rather
than probable matchbox proving in
effective, the young solicitor moved
in the direction of the silent general
office without. He found his way
instinctively - the gloom was unre-
lieved by the faintest glimmer from
the suffered windows anathema-
tiled by the lawyer.
He drew open the door into the
further apartment with jerk, and
halted, amazed. 1t was not empty.
nor unmitigatedly dark. A small
bullseye lantern threw steady ra-
dance upon a patch of worn mat
ting, strewn with packets and en-
velopes 70 various sizes and more or
less legal appearance. by them were
crouched two figures-a mans and a
woman's, one cloaked and yelled, the
other muffied TO the ears. The lat
ter was in the act of ripping up n
foolscap envelope which shone white
ly in her gloved hands. II had evil
IDENTIFY been withdrawn, with the re-
mainder of those littering the floor
near the public entrance of the Of
flee, from a gaping and shattered let
ter-box attached thereto.
The noise made by the opening
door aroused the two from their abb
sorption, and one of the figures
sprang up. 1t was the man's--a
square, yet huddled and ungainly
form-and he leveled something,
something vague but threatening.
"Stand where we are, if We don't
wanter lay down fur de last time in
yer lifel"
The woman moved up close to the
man and whispered something in his
ear, but he shook his head.
"Here, gent, hand over the key"
he commanded of Parramore. "Then
Wen just ask we to step inside yer
own little iron box here"
With apparent reluctance the law
yer extracted bunch of keys from
his pocket and tossed them over.
"Whiz de door OPEN" instructed
the craftsman, turning TO the girl
and motioning to the steelvault. "It's
time we're out o. dis"
Falteringly, the girl-for she was
but little more-unfastened and
dragged wide the clumsy steel panel
in n corner of the office. 1t revealed
an empty, metal-lined compartment,
stacked with documents.
"In wild ye," commanded the lead
err Of the odd couple who had so sud
denly become Parramore's captors
The lawyer advanced, guarded Wig
ilantly by the man. Parramore lin
gered irritatingly on the threshold
of the strong room.
'Hurry, hurryi" remarked his Gus
todian, sharply, waving threatening.
ly the extended arm and cleaning
barrel that had been so persistently
menacing the lawyer.
For answer Paramorc dropped to
his knees and rolled over. His body
met the feet and ankles of the man
pitching him forward into the yawn-
ing strongroom. The lawyer leaped
up, jammed to the iron door, and
locked 1t; the man was prisoner.
Then Parramore turned TO that
discounted persons yelled and
cloaked companion. She had shrunk
back into the shadows--the lantern
she held trembling suggestively.
'Now." said the lawyer, sternly
'give me that light, woman, or it will
be worse for you. Yet would rath.
er not use violence unless you drive
me to It,"
The lantern was set down precip.
stately. Parramore strobe to Il,
snatched il up, and turned its rays
on the mysterious prackswoman. She
hid her face hastily. Yet something
In her bearing and in the 1.-THE young
shape that moved so obviously under
her Disgusting garment made the
lawyer start. Shewas retreating from
him. At once alarmed and Devil.
dered, Parramore pursued her, but
she escaped him-she was tearing
something under her cloak, tearing
II desperately, viciously.