Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1902-06-19
ParramOreS
Burglars
By WILFRBD MORRIS.
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.

WY ffHf ~ : -
accursed shutters? The street might
be threatened with a nightly siege.
There, my last match gone, tool
Grumbling Indignantly to himself,
Richard Parramore, junior partner
in the firm of Parramore 81 Sons,
lawyers, stalked in at the glass pam
,eled door which led directly from an
unhghted passage to his private
room in an old-fashioned suite of le-
gal offices. He paused to thrust into
a vest pocket the empty receptacle
which had provoked his concluding
observations, then CROPPED towards
an adjoining mantlepiece, hoping to
discover thereon a box of the de-
spised but often priceless tandstickor.
The entrance by which he had
come closed behind him, thanks to
a pneumatic buffer" noiselessly;
his own footsteps had been dead
ened by the substantial, if faded,
Brussels, that covered the floor of
the apartment.
Ills SOdICu lOI lllC DOooAOAN
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 shattered windows anathema-
tiled by the lawyer.
He drew open the door into the
further apartment with a 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 fgures-a mans and a
woman's, one cloaked and yelled, the
other muff1ed to the ears. The lat
ter was in the act of ripping up a
foolscap envelope which shone white
" in her gloved hands. 1t had evil
IDENTIFY been withdrawn, with the re-
mainder of those littering the floor
near the public entrance of the Of
fee, from a gaping and shattered let
ter-boX attached thereto.
The noise made by the opening
door aroused the two from their alb
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 life!"
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 a 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. cts
time we're out O. dis"
Falteringly, the girl-fof she was
but little more--unfastened and
dragged wide the clumsy steel panel
in a corner of the office. 1t revealed
an empty, metal-lined compartment,
stacked with documents.
"In wild ye," commanded the lead
er 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. -
Curry, hurry!" remarked his GUS
todian, sharply, waving threatening
" the extended arm and cleaning
barrel that had been so persistently
menacing the lawyer.
For answer Paramore 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, damned to the iron door, and
locked it; the man was a prisoner.
l. 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 1 would rath-
er not use violence unless you drive
me to it,"
The lantern was set down precip-
itately. Parramore strobe to it,
snatched it up, and turned its rays
on the mysterious crackswoman. 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 bewil-
dered, Parramore pursued her, but
she escaped him-she was tearing
something under her cloak, tearing
it desperately, viciously.
The. lawyer placed the lantern on
the mantel, darted- after her, and
seized her in a ruthless grasp. The
shoulders he had laid hold upon were
soft and rounded. A cry broke from
behind the thick chenille veil: 20,
Dick, Dick, you hurt mel"
At the sound of the broken words,
the fearful, girlish voice, the law
yer .trembled, recoiled, staggered,
paralyzed by incredulity. "Margie!"
he gasped, "what-what nightmare
is this?"
With petulent gesture the girl
raised a small hand and put up her
veil. The face exposed was flushed
and youthful, a pair of blue eyes
shone in the rays of the lantern, and
two red lips pouted under delicate
nostrils,/
30, Richard Parramore was told
with a stamp; chow you have spoiled