"Walk!" The watchman cursed him foully. "How far could we walk? I'LL
bring him to," he swore. "He's scared of us, and he's shamming." He
gave a sudden start of alarm. "That's it, he's shamming. You fool!
You shouldn't have left him."
There was the swift patter of retreating footsteps, and then a sudden
halt, and they heard the watchman command: "Go back, and keep the
other two till I come."
The next instant from the outside the door was softly closed upon them.
It had no more than shut when to the surprise of Miss Forbes the young
man, with a delighted and vindictive chuckle, sprang to the desk and
began to drum upon it with his fingers. It were as though he were
practising upon a typewriter.
"He missed THESE," he muttered jubilantly. The girl leaned forward.
Beneath his fingers she saw, flush with the table, a roll of little
ivory buttons. She read the words "Stables," "Servants' hall." She
raised a pair of very beautiful and very bewildered eyes.
"But if he wanted the servants, why didn't the watchman do that?" she
asked.
"Because he isn't a watchman," answered the young man. "Because he's
robbing this house."
He took the revolver from his encumbering greatcoat, slipped it in his
pocket, and threw the coat from him. He motioned the girl into a
corner. "Keep out of the line of the door," he ordered.
"I don't understand," begged the girl.
"They came in a car," whispered the young man. "It's broken down, and
they can't get away. When the big fellow stopped us and I flashed my
torch, I saw their car behind him in the road with the front off and
the lights out. He'd seen the lamps of our car, and now they want it
to escape in. That's why he brought us here--to keep us away from our
car."
"And Fred!" gasped the girl. "Fred's hurt!"
"I guess Fred stumbled into the big fellow," assented the young man,
"and the big fellow put him out; then he saw Fred was a chauffeur, and
now they are trying to bring him to, so that he can run the car for
them. You needn't worry about Fred. He's been in four smash-ups."
The young man bent forward to listen, but from no part of the great
house came any sign. He exclaimed angrily.
"They must be drugged," he growled. He ran to the desk and made
vicious jabs at the ivory buttons.
"Suppose they're out of order!" he whispered.
There was the sound of leaping feet. The young man laughed nervously.
"No, it's all right," he cried. "They're coming!"
The door flung open and the big burglar and a small, rat-like figure of
a man burst upon them; the big one pointing a revolver.
"Come with me to your car!" he commanded. "You've got to take us to
Boston. Quick, or I'll blow your face off."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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