er 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