ROBERTS, with as much returning dignity as can comport with his dishevelled appearance: ‘Yes; I took it from him.’ At his wife’s speechless astonishment: ‘I went after him and took it from him.’ He sits down, and continues with resolute calm, while his wife remains standing before him motionless: ‘Agnes, I don’t know how I came to do it. I wouldn’t have believed I could do it. I’ve never thought that I had much courage—physical courage; but when I felt my watch was gone, a sort of frenzy came over me. I wasn’t hurt; and for the first time in my life I realised what an abominable outrage theft was. The thought that at six o’clock in the evening, in the very heart of a great city like Boston, an inoffensive citizen could be assaulted and robbed, made me furious. I didn’t call out. I simply buttoned my coat tight round me and turned and ran after the fellow.’ MRS. ROBERTS: ‘Edward!’ ROBERTS: ‘Yes, I did. He hadn’t got half-a-dozen rods away—it all took place in a flash—and I could easily run him down. He was considerably larger than I—’ MRS. ROBERTS: ‘Oh!’ ROBERTS: ‘—and he looked young and very athletic; but these things didn’t seem to make any impression on me.’ MRS. ROBERTS: ‘Oh, I wonder that you live to tell the tale, Edward!’ ROBERTS: ‘Well, I wonder a little at myself. I don’t set up for a great deal of—’ MRS. ROBERTS: ‘But I always knew you had it! Go on. Oh, when I tell Willis of this! Had the robber any accomplices? Were there many of them?’ ROBERTS: ‘I only saw one. And I saw that my only chance was to take him at a disadvantage. I sprang upon him, and pulled him over on his back. I merely said, “I’ll trouble you for that watch of mine, if you please,” jerked open his coat, snatched the watch from his pocket—I broke the chain, I see—and then left him and ran again. He didn’t make the slightest resistance nor utter a word. Of course it wouldn’t do for him to make any noise about it, and I dare say he was glad to get off so easily.’ With affected nonchalance: ‘I’m pretty badly rumpled, I see. He fell against me, and a scuffle like that doesn’t improve one’s appearance.’ MRS. ROBERTS, very solemnly: ‘Edward! I don’t know what to say! Of course it makes my blood run cold to realise what you have been through, and to think what might have happened; but I think you behaved splendidly. Why, I never heard of such perfect heroism! You needn’t tell _me_ that he made no resistance. There was a deadly struggle—your necktie and everything about you shows it. And you needn’t think there was only one of them—’ ROBERTS, modestly: ‘I don’t believe there was more.’ MRS. ROBERTS: ‘Nonsense! There are _always_ two! I’ve read the accounts of those garottings. And to think you not only got out of their clutches alive, but got your property back—Willis’s watch! Oh, what _will_ Willis say? But I know how proud of you he’ll be. Oh, I wish I could scream it from the house-tops. Why didn’t you call the police?’