The weather the next day was so mild and pleasant that Max and Lulu
asked and obtained permission to take a ride of several miles on their
ponies.
They went alone, their father and Violet having driven out in the family
carriage, taking the three younger children with them.
On their return Max and his sister approached the house from a rear
entrance to the grounds, passing through the bit of woods belonging to
the estate, the garden and shrubbery, and across the lawn.
In traversing the wood they came upon a man leaning idly against a tree,
in a lounging attitude, with his hands in his pockets, a half consumed
cigar in his mouth.
He was a stranger to the children, and from, his shabby, soiled
clothing, unkempt locks, and unshaven face, it was evident he belonged
to the order of tramps.
He stood directly in the path the children were pursuing, just where it
made a sudden turn, and Lulu's pony had almost trodden upon his foot
before they were aware of his vicinity.
Fairy shied, snorting with fright, and almost unseated her young rider.
"Look out there, and don't ride a fellow down!" growled the man,
catching hold of Fairy's bridle and scowling into the face of her rider.
Lulu did not seem to be frightened. Her quick temper rose at the man's
insolence, and she exclaimed authoritatively, "Let go of my bridle this
instant, and get out of the path."
"I will when I get ready, and no sooner," returned the man insolently.
"What are you doing in these grounds, sir?" demanded Max, adding, "You
have no call to be here. Let go of that bridle and step out of the path
at once."
"I'm not under your orders, bubby," said the tramp with a disagreeable,
mocking laugh.
"These are my father's grounds," said Max, drawing himself up with a
determined air, "and we don't allow tramps and loafers here; so if you
don't let go of that bridle and be off I'll set my dog on you. Here,
Prince, Prince!"
At the sound of the call, answered by a loud bark, and the sight of
Prince's huge form making rapid bounds in his direction, the tramp
released Fairy's bridle, and growling out an oath, turned and made his
way with all celerity toward the public road, leaping the fence that
separated it from Capt. Raymond's grounds, barely in time to escape
Prince's teeth, as he made a dash to seize him by the leg.
"Oh," cried Lulu, drawing a long breath of relief, "what a happy thing
that Prince came running out to meet us!"
"Yes," said Max, "and I hope he has given that fellow a fright that will
keep him from ever coming into these grounds again. If he isn't a
scoundrel his looks certainly belie him very much."
They had held their ponies in check while watching the race between man
and dog, but now urged them forward in haste to reach the house; for the
short winter day was fast closing in.
The captain was standing on the veranda as they rode up.
"You are a trifle late, children," he said, as he stepped to the side of
Fairy and lifted Lulu from the saddle, but his tone was not stern.
"Yes, papa," said Max; "I'm afraid we went a little farther than we
ought; at any rate it took us longer than we expected to reach home
again; and we were detained a minute or two just now, out here in the
grove, by a tramp that caught hold of Fairy's bridle and wouldn't let go
till I called Prince and he showed his teeth."
"What! can it be possible?" cried the captain closing his fingers more
firmly over the hand Lulu had slipped into his, and gazing down into
her face with a look of mingled concern and relief. "It is well indeed
that Lulu was not alone, and that Prince was at hand. Come into the
library and tell me all about it."
He led Lulu in as he spoke, Max following, while a servant took the
ponies to their stable.
Capt. Raymond sat down and drew Lulu to his side, putting an arm
protectingly around her, while Max, standing near, went on to give the
particulars of their encounter with the tramp, Lulu now and then putting
in a word.
"Now, daughter," the captain said at the conclusion of the story, "I
hope you are quite convinced of the wisdom and kindness of your father's
prohibition of solitary rides and walks for you?"
"Yes, papa, I am, and do not intend ever to disobey you again by taking
them. I wasn't much frightened, but I know it would have been very
dangerous for me if I'd been alone."
"No doubt of it," he said, caressing her with grave tenderness, "it
almost makes me shudder to think of what might have happened had you
been without a protector."
"And I doubt if I could have protected her without Prince's help, papa,"
said Max. "I think he's a valuable fellow, and pays for his keep."
"Yes; I am very glad I selected him as a Christmas gift to you," said
his father. "But now I must warn you both to say nothing to, or before
Gracie, about this occurrence; for timid as she is, it would be apt to
cause her much suffering from apprehension."
"We will try to keep it a secret from her, papa," replied both children.
"And in order to succeed in that you will have to be on your guard and
give no hint of the matter in presence of any of the servants."
"We will try to remember, papa," they promised with evident intention to
do so.
"That is right," he said. "I think I can trust you not to forget or
disobey. I know you would be loath to have your little sister tortured
with nervous terrors. Now go and get yourselves ready for tea."
Lulu was full of excitement over her adventure, and through the evening
found it difficult to refrain from speaking of it before Grace; but
equally desirous to obey her father and to save her little sister from
needless suffering, she resolutely put a curb upon her tongue till she
found herself alone with him at bedtime.
Then she must needs go over the whole scene again, and seeing that it
was a relief to her excitement, he let her run on about it to her
heart's content.
"Has it made you feel at all timid to-night, daughter?" he asked
kindly.
"No, papa," she answered promptly; "I don't think the man could get into
the house; do you?"
"I think it most probable he has walked on till he is miles away from
here by this time," the captain answered. "But even did we know him to
be prowling round outside, we might rest and sleep in peace and
security, assured that nothing can harm us without the will of our
heavenly Father who loves us more than any earthly parent loves his
child."
He drew her very close to his heart and imprinted a tender kiss upon her
lips as he spoke.
"Yes, papa, it makes me feel very safe to remember that, thinking how
dearly you love me; so that I know you would never let anything harm me
if you could help it," she returned, putting an arm round his neck and
hugging him tight. "Oh I am so glad that the Bible tells us that about
God's love to us!"
"So am I; and that my children have early learned to love and trust in
him.
"'Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life
that now is, and of that which is to come.' That is not a promise that
God's faithful followers shall be rich in this world's goods, but faith
in God's loving care makes life happy even in the midst of poverty and
pain. Riches have not the power to make us happy, but the love of God
has.
"And those who begin to serve God in the morning of life and press
onward and upward all their days, keeping near to Jesus and growing more
and more like him, will be happier in heaven--because of their greater
capacity for the enjoyment of God and holiness--than the saved ones who
sought him late in life, or were less earnest in their endeavors to live
in constant communion with him, and to bear more and more resemblance to
him.
"The Bible speaks of some who are 'scarcely saved,' and of others to
whom 'an entrance shall be ministered abundantly into the everlasting
kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.'"
"Papa," said Lulu earnestly, "I want to be one of those; I want to live
near to Jesus and grow every day more like him. (Oh I am so little like
him now; sometimes I fear not at all). Won't you help me all you can?"
"I will, my darling," he replied, speaking with emotion. "Every day I
ask wisdom from on high for that very work;--the work of helping you and
all my dear children to be earnest, faithful servants of God."
The talk with her father had done much to quiet Lulu's excitement, and
she fell asleep very soon after laying her head on her pillow.
It was still night when she awoke suddenly with the feeling that
something unusual was going on in the house.
She sat up in the bed and listened. She thought she heard a faint sound
coming from the room below, and slipping from the bed she stole softly
across the floor to the chimney, where there was a hot air flue beside
the open fireplace.
Dropping down on her hands and knees, she put her ear close to the
register and listened again, almost holding her breath in the effort to
hear.
The chimney ran up between her bedroom and the little tower room opening
into it; the library was under her bedroom, and opening from it was the
ground floor room of the tower, which was very strongly built, had only
the one door and very narrow slits of windows set high up in the thick
stone walls.
In a safe in that small room were kept the family plate, jewelry, and
money; though no very great amount of the last named, as the captain
considered it far wiser to deposit it in the nearest bank.
The door of the strong room, as it was called, was of thick oak plank
crossed with iron bars, and had a ponderous bolt and stout lock whose
key was carried up stairs every night by the captain.
Listening with bated breath, Lulu's ear presently caught again a faint
sound as of a file moving cautiously to and fro on metal.
"Burglars! I do believe it's burglars trying to steal the money and
silver and Mamma Vi's jewelry that are in the safe," she said to herself
with a thrill of mingled fear and excitement.
With that she crept into the tower room, softly opened the register
there, and applied her ear to it. The sound of the file seemed a trifle
louder and presently she was sure she heard gruff voices, though she
could not distinguish the words.
Her first impulse was to hurry to her father and tell him of her
discovery; the second thought, "If I do, papa will go down there and
maybe they'll kill him; and that would be a great, great deal worse than
if they should carry off everything in the house. I wish I could catch
them myself and lock them in there before I wake papa. Why couldn't I?"
starting to her feet in extreme excitement; "they're in the strong room,
the bolt's on the library side of the door, and probably they've left
the key there, too, in the lock. If I'm going to try to do it, the
sooner the better. I'll ask God to show me how and help me."
She knelt on the carpet for a moment, sending up her petition in a few
earnest words, then rising, stood for an instant thinking very fast.
She could gain the library by a door opening into a back hall and very
near that into the strong room, whose door, if open, would be in a
position to conceal her approach from the burglars till she could step
behind it; so that her scheme seemed not impracticable.
She hastily put on a dark dressing-gown over her white night dress, and
thick felt slippers on her feet.
Her heart beat very fast as the thought occurred to her that there might
be an accomplice in the library or hall, or that the door from the one
into the other might creak and bring the miscreants rushing out upon her
before she could accomplish the task she had set herself.
"Well what if they should, Lulu Raymond?" she asked, shutting her teeth
hard together, "'twouldn't be half so bad as if they should harm your
father. You could be very well spared, but he couldn't; Mamma Vi, Max
and Gracie would break their hearts if anything dreadful happened to
him, and so would you too; I'll try, trusting to God to take care of
me."
With swift, noiseless steps she passed out of her room, down a back
stairway into the hall just spoken of, and gained the library door,
finding it, to her great joy, wide enough open for her to slip in
without touching it.
She could see nothing there; the room was quite dark; but the sounds she
had heard were still going in the strong room, seeming a little louder
now. The men must be in there at work on the safe; with the door ajar,
for a streak of light at the back between it and the jamb, told her it
was not quite shut.
She crept to it and peeping in at that crack, saw a man down on his
knees working at the lock of the safe, while another stood close beside
him, holding a dark lantern, open, so that the rays of light fell full
and strongly upon the lock his confederate was trying to break.
Lulu could not see the face of the latter, his back being toward her,
but as the other bent forward for a moment, to watch the progress of the
work, the light fell on his face, and she instantly recognized him as
the tramp who had seized Fairy's bridle in the wood.
Trembling like a leaf she put up her hand and cautiously felt for the
bolt; holding tight to it and exerting all her strength, she suddenly
slammed the door to and shot it into its socket. She heard the villains
drop their tools, spring toward and try the door with muttered oaths and
curses; but she waited to feel for the key and turn it in the lock; even
to pull it out and thrust it into the pocket of her gown, as a swift
thought came to her, that there might be an accomplice lurking about who
would release them if she left it there.
Then she ran as fast as her feet could carry her, through the library
and hall, up the stairs and on through the rooms, never stopping until
she stood panting for breath beside her sleeping father.
She could not speak for a moment, but laid her face on the pillow beside
his and put her arm round his neck.
The touch roused him and he asked, "Who is it? you, Lulu?"
"Yes, papa," she panted; "I--I've locked some burglars into the strong
room and--"
"_You? you_ have locked them in there?" he exclaimed in astonishment
starting up and drawing her into his arms. "Surely, my child, you have
been dreaming."
"No, papa, not a bit; I've locked them in there and here's the key,"
putting it into his hand. "I slammed the door to on them. I shot the
bolt too, and I don't think they can get out. But what will we do? Papa,
can you get somebody to help you take them to jail?"
"Yes; I shall telephone at once to the sheriff at Union."
"Who is it? What's the matter?" asked Violet waking.
"I can not wait at this moment to explain matters my love," the captain
said hastily picking up Lulu and putting her in the place in the bed
which he had just vacated. "I must act, leaving Lulu to tell you her
story."
With the last word he hurried from the room and the next moment they
heard the telephone bell.