ost.

I by now cared little for the Reward but everything for honor.

The second Theif was now aproaching. I sank behind a steamer chair and
waited.

Need I say here that I meant to kill no one? Have I not, in every page,
shown that I am one for peace and have no desire for bloodshed? I think
I have. Yet, when the Theif apeared on the verandah and turned a pocket
flash on the leather bag, which I percieved was one belonging to the
Familey, I felt indeed like shooting him, although not in a fatal spot.

He then entered the room and spoke in a low tone.

THE REWARD WAS MINE.

I but slipped to the window and closed it from the outside, at the same
time putting in a nail as mentioned before, so that it could not be
raised, and then, raising my revolver in the air, I fired the remaining
four bullets, forgeting the roof of the verandah which now has four
holes in it.

Can I go on? Have I the strength to finish? Can I tell how the Theif
cursed and tried to raise the window, and how every one came downstairs
in their night clothes and broke in the library door, while carrying
pokers, and knives, et cetera. And how, when they had met with no
violence but only sulkey silence, and turned on the lights, there was
Leila dressed ready to elope, and the Theif had his arms around her,
and she was weeping? Because he was poor, although of good familey, and
lived in another city, where he was a broker, my familey had objected to
him. Had I but been taken into Leila's confidence, which he considered I
had, or at least that I understood, how I would have helped, instead of
thwarting! If any parents or older sisters read this, let them see how
wrong it is to leave any member of the familey in the dark, especialy in
AFFAIRES DE COUER.

Having seen from the verandah window that I had comitted an enor, and
unable to bear any more, I crawled in the pantrey window again and went
up stairs to my Chamber. There I undressed and having hid my weapon,
pretended to be asleep.

Some time later I heard my father open the door and look in.

"Bab!" he said, in a stealthy tone.

I then pretended to wake up, and he came in and turned on a light.

"I suppose you've been asleep all night," he said, looking at me with a
searching glanse.

"Not lately," I said. "I--wasn't there a Noise or somthing?"

"There was," he said. "Quite a racket. You're a sound sleeper. Well,
turn over and settle down. I don't want my little girl to lose her
Beauty Sl