A MIDNIGHT ALARM
The dry, cold air of the outdoors, and the warm fires inside the old
house, certainly had the effect of making a very sleepy crowd of boys
and girls who were not sorry, after all, to turn in early.
Grace and Anne occupied a room together so large that it could easily
have been turned into two apartments and each have been the size of
ordinary bedrooms.
"I'm glad our beds are close together, anyway," said Grace. "The rest of
the furniture in this room seems to be miles apart."
Mrs. Gray's room was just in front; Nora and Jessica were in a smaller
one back of theirs, and across the hall were the boys' rooms.
"Isn't it a wonderful old house?" replied Anne. "I never slept in such a
big room in all my life. And how kind Mrs. Gray is! There is nothing she
hasn't remembered."
Each girl had found on her bed a pretty dressing gown of silk and wool
and beside it a pair of bedroom slippers. There was a bowl of fruit on a
table, and just before they dropped off to sleep a maid brought in a
tray of glasses with a pitcher of hot milk.
"Mrs. Gray says this will warm you up before you go to bed," explained
the maid.
"Dear, sweet Mrs. Gray," continued Anne, as she curled up on a rug
before the fire to sip the warm drink, "she has planned so many things
for this party. I am so sorry she has been disappointed."
"He's not a bit like her, Anne," replied her friend, not caring to
mention names. "I do wish she had never asked him."
"My only hope," said Anne, "is that we will all seem so young and
childish to him that he will get bored and leave."
"Well, just strictly between us and as man to man, as David is always
saying, don't you think he is horrid? He has no manners at all, and it's
hard to believe he's a product of the Gray family."
"He has such shifty eyes," said Anne, "and I had a feeling that his
dislike for America was all put on to shock us. I feel so warm and
sleepy," she continued drowsily when the lights were put out and they
had snuggled down in the soft, comfortable beds.
"I heard him drop an 'h' once," whispered Grace, in a sleepy voice.
But there was no reply. Anne was already dreaming of her four beautiful
new dresses.
It might have been midnight, perhaps a little later when Grace awoke
with a start. Not a sound disturbed the peace of the old house except
the ticking of the clock on the mantel and the occasional crackling of
dying embers in the fireplace. Yes; there was one sound and it aroused
her. A loose board creaked in the floor, or was it a door which opened
and closed softly? Perhaps it was nothing after all. And she closed her
eyes and drew the eiderdown quilt close about her shoulders.
No; there it was again. A distinct footfall. She raised herself on her
elbow and peered into the shadows. Far over at the other side of the
chamber--it seemed an infinite distance just then--stood a figure. Grace
looked at it calmly. She had never been a coward and she was not
frightened now, only she wondered who could be invading their room at
this hour. Perhaps Mrs. Gray; perhaps one of the servants. No, it was
neither; of course it couldn't be because it was the figure of a man.
She saw him now plainly enough hovering over the dressing table.
A small, cold hand slipped into hers. Anne was awake too. She had seen
the figure and lay quite still watching it. Grace silently returned the
pressure; then the two lay watching the man's stealthy motions for a
moment, while Grace's mind was busy devising a plan by which the robber
might be caught.
Oakdale was a quiet, prosperous place, and burglars were unusual.
Occasionally the hands in the silk mills made a disturbance, and there
had been a few highway robberies, but an actual house-breaker seldom
troubled the law-abiding town. The two girls, as they lay watching him
from under the covers, guessed that this man was a real burglar. He wore
a black soft hat and carried a small electric lantern, while, with a
practised hand, he picked the lock of a small drawer in the dressing
table where the girls had put their purses. Once he turned the light
toward the beds. Instantly the girls' eyelids dropped and they lay as
still as mice. Having satisfied himself that all was well, the prowler
went on with his work, finally tiptoeing into the front room where Mrs.
Gray was sleeping. Evidently he had made a circuit of the three bedrooms
on that side of the house. As he slipped out Grace leaped from the bed.
Now was the time for action. Putting on her dressing gown and slippers
she dashed to the door leading into the hall, only to come upon the
burglar again who had probably been frightened in his last venture and
had retired to the hall for safety.
Fortunately he was standing with his back to her while he closed the
door, and feeling that she was safe for the moment, she crouched in the
shadow of the doorway. The thief evidently thought he also was safe, for
he seized a large, heavy-looking valise from the floor and made straight
for the steps without looking to right or left.
Now a door across the hall opened and another figure appeared. Grace
trembled for a moment, fearing it might be another thief. She had always
heard they traveled in pairs. But it was David, wrapped in a long gray
dressing gown, looking for all the world like a monk.
He glanced up and down the hall for a moment, then tapped on the door of
the next room and without waiting for an answer walked in. In an instant
he was out again and had started swiftly down the stairs, Grace
following him. She had intended to speak to him, but it had all taken
place so quickly there was no time. David made straight for the dining
room, opening the heavy door. The room was brightly lighted. In a flash,
Grace saw on the table a pile of the beautiful Gray silver, brought over
from England by past generations of Grays. Grace never knew what
instinct prompted her to enter the dining room by the butler's pantry at
the very end of the long hall. As she pushed the swinging door, she
heard David say:
"You low blackguard, what do you mean by stealing your aunt's silver?"
Grace started at the mention of the word "aunt." It was, then, the
wretched Tom Gray who was robbing his own relative!
"Get out!" returned the other coldly, "and attend to your own business.
You are only a kid."
"Give up those things you have stolen, or I'll pound you to a jelly!"
cried David, making a rush at the burglar, who dodged nimbly.
Then Grace had an inspiration, which assuredly saved David from very
disagreeable consequences. Real burglars, like rattlesnakes, are not
likely to be dangerous except when they are disturbed. It is then that
they become dangerous characters. Grace slipped back into the pantry,
swiftly opened one of the linen drawers and drew forth what turned out
later to be a breakfast cloth, which was lucky because it was small and
easy to manage.
When, in the next instant, she had pushed the door open, what she saw
made her blood run cold. Tom Gray had whipped out a small pistol and
pointed it straight at David's head.
"Get out of here, quick!" he said just as Grace opened the table cloth
with a jerk and flung it over his head. A pistol shot rang out, but
David had dodged in time and the bullet was buried in the mahogany
wainscot back of him. The astonished burglar dropped the weapon, and
began to struggle violently to release himself.
Instantly David pinioned his arms from the back. But the fellow might
even then have struggled free, if Reddy Brooks and Hippy Wingate had not
burst into the room, followed by Anne, who had roused them after Grace
had gone. The three boys swiftly overpowered Tom Gray and tied him to a
chair with cord Grace had found in the pantry.
But now, what was to be done? Undoubtedly the noise would awaken Mrs.
Gray and she would have to be told that her nephew was a burglar about
to make off with the family silver.
Perhaps the loss of the silver would hurt less than family disgrace.
In the midst of their council Mrs. Gray herself appeared.
"What in the world is the matter?" she demanded.
No one replied for a moment. It was a very uncomfortable situation for
the young guests of the house party. If only the burglar had not been a
member of the Gray family!
Then Tom Gray himself spoke.
"I must say this is a nice 'ospitable way to treat a guest and a
relation. 'Ere I am taken by a lot of silly children for a burglar. I,
your own nephew, awnt, who 'ad come down stairs on the h'innocent
h'errand of finding some h'ice water."
Mrs. Gray looked from one to another of the silent group. Her eyes took
in the silver piled on the table, the pistol on the floor and the
burglar's tools and lantern.
"You are a burglar," she said, "a wretched, common thief. I knew it as
soon as you entered my house last night. I could not then explain the
feeling of repugnance I had, but I know now what it meant. I shall not
offer hospitality to a coward, for all thieves are cowards. Boys, take
what he has stolen from his pockets."
Reddy and Hippy searched the bulging pockets of the thief's coat and
waistcoat, and brought forth a quantity of jewelry, watches and purses.
"Now, David," continued Mrs. Gray, firmly, "be kind enough to give me
that pistol."
David obeyed her, wondering if she meant to shoot her own nephew.
Mrs. Gray pointed the pistol at the thief with as steady a hand as if
she had been shooting at targets all her life.
"Untie the cords," she commanded.
They cut the cords with a carving knife.
"Now, go!" said the old lady, still pointing the pistol at his head.
"Leave my house quickly. I shall not punish you, because a thief is
always punished sooner or later."
Tom Gray looked immensely relieved, Grace thought, in spite of his
crestfallen, hangdog air. They followed him down the hall, Mrs. Gray in
the lead, until he slammed the front door after him and disappeared in
the night.
Then, turning with her old, sweet manner, she continued:
"My dear children, I want to thank you for helping me rid my house of
this man. I know I can depend on all of you never to mention it to
anyone. It would have been a great blow to me if I had not been so
angry; but now let us all go to our beds and forget this horrid episode.
To-morrow we shall be as happy as ever. I am determined it shall not
interfere with our good time."