The Lakeland evening telegram., 1914-05-23

M|XED-UP ROMANCE
BY DONALD ALLEN.

HE must be handsome and gal
liant"
He's low-browed criminal
Il hope they won't catch him.
I'D like to be the one to shoot him
down."
"If they arrest him, I'll help him to
escape."
Look here, young lady, you don't
want to make an idiot of yourself over
this thing You can climb rope lad
ders, play ghost and scare the cook
into fits, but you stop there There
won't be anything in being arrested.
Its for father to talk to me-"
/ It's for me, and l am talking
There was Mr. Dalzelle. widower;
there was his son, Bob, twenty years
old; there was Aunt Phyllis at the
head of the house; there was Kitty,
aged eighteen, and there was the
cook
Brother and sister we're having
breakfast together when the above
| conversation took place AS rule,
brothers pay little attention to their
sisters, but Bob had taken it upon
himself to begin to boss when he was
seven years old.
Another country Raffles had broken
loose, and was plundering the county
residences for miles around. He had
not reached the Dalzelle place yet,
but in time he must, and Bob bought
revolver and carefully loaded it and
placed it under his pillow and then
slept so soundly that Mr.. Raffles or
any other gentlemanly burglar could
have stolen the chimneys off the
house.
The cook moved her bed and bureau
against her door every night and
slept with her mouth open and ready
to scream.
Aunt Phyllis had four extra bolts
put on her door, and never neglected
her prayers.
Mr.. Dalzelle hid the sugar tongs in
a vase and went to bed feeling that
1t was rather mean to serve Raffles
such trick
1t was Miss Kitty who made a hero
OF the despoiler, and the newspapers
were good deal to blame for that.
They said he must be a gentleman
and a college graduate; they said he
was handsome and debonair; they said
he carefully avoided houses where
there was illness, for humanity's
sake. The girl was appealed to. 1t
was romantic. 1t wasn't butter at As
cents a pound, and short weight at
that, but 1t was young man Of birth
and breeding driven to burglary to
get food for his starving mother, or
something of the Fort.
Miss Kitty sympathized with him
and admired him.
If Raffies would only call during the
daytime and relate his sad story she
would cheerfully give him all the
change in her savings bank and try
and get him a clerkship in grocery
in the nearest village. She sat for
hours on the veranda, but he didn't
appear. She lay awake half the
night, but he had business elsewhere.
On the night preceding the conver.
sation at the breakfast table, Mr. Raj
fles had plundered house half mile
away, and In a most charming way
had begged an old maids pardon for
having found her asleep with her hair
in curl papers, This was the cap
sheaf of romance,
If Miss Kitty were to go down and
sit on the bridge would the knightly
robber appear?
If she were to saunter into the
woods would her Robin Hood be
there?
II don't care a snap what Bob
says" she exclaimed at her other self
in her mirror. IF there is any way
! can help Mr.. Raffles to escape the
police and then reform and be good,
I'm going to do It,"
Half an hour later the cook told
her that as many as twenty officers
had Ratfles surrounded in an old barn
about a mile away, and the fellow was
sure to be captured.
He needs help and he shall have
IT," said the girl to herself; and ten
minutes later she was speeding away
in her runabout
There we're half dozen men around
an old barn, but there was no Raj
fies there. If he had been there he
had vanished. When Miss Kitty was
told this her face lighted up with
such relief that after she had passed
on one OF the officers asked:
"And who in the devil is that"
"The Dalzelle girl was answered
rs she related to Raffles?"
Don't think So"
"But she seems mighty we'll pleased
that he has outwitted us again"
"Oh, that's the girl of It"
! Miss Kitty sped on rejoicing. Raj.
fes was still free. They might have
run him so far that he wouldn't re-
turn, and the thought brought disap-