Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1914-05-12
After the Burglar

1t was night. Deep, dark night
all over Reno, including the home
of Tom Ramsey. The darkness In
the rooms of the Ramsey home was
SO dense It coud have been discover
ed by a barkeeper's convention. Tom
Ramsey discovered it as soon as he
got home, but he went to bed Just
the same, and, enjoying the posses
sion of clear conscience, he went to
sleep without loss Of time or any
thing else. Tom didn't sleep long.
however, Notwithstanding the clear
ness Of his conscience. and when he
awoke 1t was with the well-deaned
thought that there was something
unusual doing in the house.
Cautiously and with stealth he
arose and, securing his trusty auto
matte from the refrigerator, and
wrapping his clinging kimono about
his shapely form, he sailed forth
from the bedroom into the darkness,
now freighted with lurking, mysteri-
Gus danger, into the rooms beyond.
First, he awakened his son In low.
tense tones, babe him arise without
noise, and arm himself, because
there was an anarchist In the base
ment preparing to blow the house
up, or something like that, and.
anyway, it was necessary to get a
move on.
Mr.. Ramsey, Jr., climbed prompt
ly out of bed, and arming himself
with a miners candlestick of the
latest and most deadly pattern, fol-
lowed his war-like father forth to the
fray.
There was a roomer upstairs, and
he, too, was served with a notice to
come forth and do battle in defense
of the house Of Ramsey. and hastily
drawing his trousers from the place
between the mattresses, where he
kept them to keep the creases from
going away while he slept, he was
soon a member of the now fully as
sembled army. ..
Hist" came from Ramsey, in
low, vibrating tones which made the
hair on the back of the roomer's
neck turn it's ends upward and his
toes curl in eagerness to be moving
(away from the scene of the threat
ened carnage), and In his heart he
considered the question whether or
not 1t would not be best to desert,
then and there. and so avoid taking
the life of the man lurking some
where in the gloom, all unknowing,
waiting for an awful death.
The son of Ramsey and the room
er followed the lead of the grizzled
veteran, guided by the soft, almost
inaudible froufrou of his silk kimo-
no. From room to room the sleuths
moved as silently as the shadows
they would have cast II there had
been any light, and poked around
the corner of every door-jamb In
advance of the party was the trusty
automatic and the deadly candle
stick, and ever and anon came the
threatening chatter of the teeth OF
the roomer, who longed for the fray
and CORY glory which was sure to
follow the onset.
There was nothing doing in the
anarchist or dynamiter line above
stairs, and then the party silently de-
ployed on to the floor below, where
it was mt kept long waiting.
Suddenly, and with appalling noise
from far corner of the room came
the sound of the enemy. There was
a spitting-thudding sound, followed
by the crash of a heavy weight strik-
ing something with great force. fol-
lowed in turn by a slighter sound
from various parts Of the room. and
the dauntless three were just on the
point Of opening fire in an attempt
to sell their lives as dearly as pos
sible, when the roomer and the
younger Ramsey were startled and
somewhat relieved to hear the voice
of the older Ramsey reverberating In
clarion tones: "Oh, fudge, it's only
q cat"
Silently. and with the gravity be-
coming the release from the neces-
sity Of shedding human blood, the
roomer, Ramsey, and Ramesy Junior
returned to the slumber regions
above, thinking Of the goodness Of
providence in sparing them from the
necessity Of blood-shed. - Reno
Evening Gazette.