Tombstone epitaph., 1915-08-22

SsNsSsSsSSSHA.So1N.N4SeSe2A SeSe2AAN.S.SsSsSsAsA9AsAS3J forgot 1t last night; they might get through the gate and steal 1t Hurry!" Where are the robbers?' "Gone!" cried Dubois. straining his wrinkled neck forward. and moisten- ing his throa, with an effort as he spoke.
 Everything! Look!" Dubois had pushed the watchman up the stairs to the second floor. and pointed a shaking | finger through an open door, holding to the wall for support and gasping for | breath as he spoke. Everything look! All my money in bills; stacks stacks of bills!'
 There was a rickety antique Shera- ton fourposter. Dubois bed. and on 1t was the cloth-covered box of a bed spring. gaping open. half filled with a scattering of crumpled papers. The bed-clothes were thrown in a heap in one corner of the room. Hopkins stepped back in surprise. His foot came down on a wad of cotton; he picked it up. and stood lingering it ab- sently as he stared at the wrecked | bed
 Then you did sleep on your money in place of mattress. as people al ways said?" be queried.
 Yes. yes. There is no use." the quaking old man stood glassy-eyed, glaring at the empty spring box, there is no use to deny it now. kep, every | thing-all-in that box, packed in among the springs. Stacks, stacks and stacks of bills, I did-did-" He stopped, clawed forward one of his large Tapping ears. and stood strain ing to catch the repetition of a sharp sound he had picked from other noises rising from below. Hopkins was snifing a, the piece of cotton he had picked up beside the ! bed.
 "Chloroform," he exclaimed. drop ping it
 Eli" cried old Dubois. jerking his hand from his ear, and thrusting it in to the opening of his nightshirt- They chloroformed you. and threw you into the corner with your shoes and the bed-clothes. while they rified the treasure chest
 "Eh? Yes. I-I heard them at my | bedside. then I was on the floor, and | couldn't use my arms, my legs. my tongue. and I knew they were taking | my poor bills. in stacks-stacks and | stacks of them!" His veinridged hand shot to his Tapping ear, and he broke | of again: Listen, What's that? There's somebody fooling with the front gate
 He rushed to the window, which he had again carefully locked after recov- l ering from his faint. craned his cordy neck toward the front Of the house, | and tottered as he shook his quivering fist at a nondescript fellow in a mod. est. business suit and ordinary derby locked iron gate regardless of its pricking points, and was busily at work stretching out the limp form of Alert. Leave that dog alone! Get our of l there, or I1l-"
 Dubois in an insane moment tore an antique French firearm tremblingly from the bosom of his nightshirt, where. to Hopkins surprise. he had been concealing it Don't" cried the watchman, jump ing forward to grasp the quivering hand attempting an aim.
 "Ill protect my place-my right III-"
 Dubois twitching jaws dropped open; he stared at the man below who. aroused ny the commotion in the window, glanced up. picked a small | filmy object like a sausage-skin from one of the points of Alert's massive studded collar. and slipped through the front gate, which he opened with an easy twist as though it were not locked.
 You left 1t unlocked?" cried Dubois. 'I did not!" Hopkins denied. "Who the devil is the fellow! I never saw him before. Do you suppose he-" T don't suppose anything" Du. bois thrust out his lower jaw threat eningly. You're hired to protect me f: why do you let him run away? May. be-"
 Hopkins, having leaped to the same l unexpressed conclusion, turned. and rushed down the stairs. stopped at the gate. unlocked 1t, and cried to the ! group of newsboys. neighbors. tamale men, market boys. and other early birds collected in front, "Where'd he go?"
 "Wbere'd he Ro1-
 "who?"
 The man-the man" Hopkins strove for some description-"the man with the black derby"
 A boy in front grinned. and glanced around at the circle Of men towering above him. Every feller in the bunch's got on black derby 'cept us kids."
 Hopkins stood chagrined. He had seen the man. front. side. and rear view for a full minute, but was at an utter loss to describe him.
 The man who just came out of the
 gate. He took something that looked
 like the rubber of toy balloon from
 the dogs collar. he cried.
 "Oh, him?" answered the boy. "Tht
 feiler that monkeyed with the dog?
 thought he belonged there. He had q
 key. Where did he go, now"
 Some said one way, and some saic