, and threw it downward with all her
force, lifting up her voice at the same time to give the alarm.

Whether the man were hurt or not, it is certain that he was not so
disabled as to impede his flight, and that he had lost his lantern, for
that lay on the floor at the foot of the staircase; so did the
rocking-chair, broken all to pieces.

When we came to go over the house, it had been thoroughly ransacked.
Every bit of silver, from the old-fashioned tea-pot and coffee-pot and
the great flat porringer which Grandmother Graham's mother had brought
over from Scotland to the cup which had belonged to the baby that died
twenty years ago, and which Aunt Janet loved for his sake, the spoons,
forks, all were collected in a large basket, with a quantity of linen
and some articles of clothing.

If the thief had been content with these, he might probably have secured
them, for he had already placed them on a table just beneath an open
window; but, hoping to gain additional booty, he lost and we saved it
all,---or rather Rhoda saved it for us. We were extremely glad, for it
would have been a great mischance losing those things, apart from the
shame, as grandmother said, of keeping house so poorly while uncle and
aunt were away.

Will Bright thought, from Rhoda's account, that the man might be Luke
Potter; for Luke lived nobody knew how, and he had recently returned
from a two years' absence, strongly suspected to have been a resident in
a New York State-prison. His family occupied a little brown house, half
a mile up the road to uncle's wood-lot.

So Will went up there the next day, pretending he wanted Luke to come
and help about some mowing that was in hand. Luke's wife said that her
husband had not been out of bed for two days, with a hurt he got on the
cars the Saturday before. Then Will offered to go in and see if he could
not do something for him; but Mrs. Potter said that he was asleep, and,
having had a wakeful night, she guessed he had better not be disturbed.

Will felt sure of his man, and, knowing Potter's reckless audacity, made
extensive preparations for defence. He brought down from the garret a
rusty old gun and a powder-horn, hunted up the bullet-moulds, and run
ever so many little leaden balls before he discovered that they did not
fit the gun; but that, as he said, was of no consequence, because there
would be just as much noise, and it was not likely that any thief would
stay to be shot at twice.

So, n