rary.
I am going down to see them."

My Aunt Martha gasped, and looked as if she were going to sit down on
the floor.

"Goodness gracious!" she said, "if you're going I'll go too. I can't let
you go alone, and I never did see a burglar."

I hurried down and left the two ladies on the stairs until I was sure
everything was still safe; and when I saw that there had been no change
in the state of affairs, I told them to come down.

When my wife and Aunt Martha timidly looked in at the library door, the
effect upon them and the burglars was equally interesting. The ladies
each gave a start and a little scream, and huddled themselves close to
me, and the three burglars gazed at them with faces that expressed more
astonishment than any I had ever seen before. The stout fellow gave vent
to a smothered exclamation, and the face of the young man flushed, but
not one of them spoke.

"Are you sure they are tied fast?" whispered my Aunt Martha to me.

"Perfectly," I answered; "if I had not been sure I should not have
allowed you to come down."

Thereupon the ladies picked up courage and stepped further into the
room.

"Did you and David catch them?" asked my aunt; "and how in the world did
you do it?"

"I'll tell you all about that another time," I said, "and you had better
go upstairs as soon as you two have seen what sort of people are these
cowardly burglars who sneak or break into the houses of respectable
people at night, and rob and steal and ruin other people's property with
no more conscience or human feeling than is possessed by the rats which
steal your corn, or the polecats which kill your chickens."

"I can scarcely believe," said Aunt Martha, "that that young man is a
real burglar."

At these words the eyes of the fellow spoken of glowed as he fixed them
on Aunt Martha, but he did not say a word, and the paleness which had
returned to his face did not change.

"Have they told you who they are?" asked my wife.

"I haven't asked them," I said. "And now don't you think you had better
go upstairs?"

"It seems to me," said Aunt Martha, "that those ropes must hurt them."

The tall man now spoke. "Indeed they do, madam," he said in a low voice
and very respectful manner, "they are very tight."

I told David to look at all the cords and see if any of them were too
tightly drawn.

"It's all nonsense, sir," said he, when he had finished the examination;
"not one of the ropes is a bit too tight. All they wa