At ten o’clock Mrs. Cunningham suggested that it was time to go to bed. “Paul, you will sleep in a little bedroom adjoining the library,” she said. “All right, ma’am.” “Come with me and I will show you your bedroom.” It was a pleasant room, though small, and seemed to Paul the height of luxury. “Shall I leave with you my husband’s revolver?” asked the lady. “Yes, ma’am, I would like it.” “Do you understand the use of revolvers?” “Yes; I have practiced some with them in a shooting gallery.” “I hope there will be no occasion to use it. I don’t think there will. But it is best to be prepared.” Paul threw himself on the bed in his uniform in order to be better prepared to meet any midnight intruder. “It won’t do to sleep too sound,” he thought, “or the house might be robbed without my knowing it.” He was soon fast asleep. It might have been because he had the matter on his mind that about midnight he woke up. A faint light had been left burning in the chandelier in the library. Was it imagination on Paul’s part that he thought he heard a noise in the adjoining room? Instantly he was on the alert. “It may be a burglar!” he thought, with a thrill of excitement. He got up softly, reached for the revolver, and with a stealthy step advanced to the door that opened into the library. What he saw was certainly startling. A man, tall and broad shouldered, was on his knees before the safe, preparing to open it. “What are you doing there?” demanded the telegraph boy, firmly. [Illustration: THE INTERRUPTED BURGLAR.--See page 27.] The man sprang to his feet, and confronted Paul standing with a revolver in his hand pointed in his direction. “O, it’s a kid!” he said, contemptuously. “What are you doing there?” repeated Paul. “None of yer business! Go back to bed!” “Leave this house or I fire!” The man thought of springing upon the boy, but there was something in his firm tone that made him think it best to parley. A revolver, even in a boy’s hand, might prove formidable. “Go to bed, or I’ll kill you!” said the burglar, with an ugly frown. “I will give you two minutes to leave this room and the house!” said Paul. “If you are here at the end of that time I fire!” There was an expression of baffled rage on the face of the low browed ruffian as he stood bending forward, as if ready to spring upon the undaunted boy. CHAPTER V. AN EXCITING INTERVIEW.