tch. Archie could hear its soft
rasping over the wall. As the switch snapped the room flooded with
light. The bewildering glare leaping out of the darkness held the man in
the doorway and he raised his arm and passed his hand over his eyes to
shield them from the light.

Between the front windows stood a long mirror swung in a movable frame,
and as he measured distances and calculated chances Archie found himself
staring at the reflection of a tall man with a cap pulled low over his
head and with the collar of a yellowish raincoat turned up about his
face. The eyes of the two met, the gaze of each gripping and holding
that of the other.

The burglar's shoulders drooped as he gaped at the mirrored apparition.
Then swiftly he jerked a pistol from his pocket and fired point blank
into the mirror. The report crashed horribly in the room, followed by
the tinkle of fragments of glass. Archie aimed at the doorway, but his
shot seemed only to hasten the man's flight. A rug slipped and the
fugitive fell with a frightened yell that rang eerily through the house.

In the hall Archie turned on all the lights and gaining the landing
fired at the retreating figure as it plunged toward the front door. At
the crack of the gun the fugitive stopped short, clapped his hand to his
shoulder and groaned, then sprang through the front door and Bennett
heard immediately the quick patter of his feet on the walk.

The lock bore no evidence of having been forced. It was a curious
business and Archie closed the door, placed a heavy chair against it,
and feeling a little giddy he threw himself down on a davenport in the
living-room. He began thinking very hard. He had shot a man and for all
he knew the victim might be lying dead somewhere on the premises. To be
sure the shooting of an armed housebreaker was justifiable, but the
thought of coroner's inquests and dallyings with the police filled him
with horror. The newspapers would seize upon the case with avidity, and
his friends would never cease twitting him about his valor in firing a
bullet into the back of a fleeing burglar.

The frame of the photograph of the young girl that had so charmed him
lay on the floor face down. Bennett picked it up and found that the
picture had been removed. He wondered a little at this but dismissed the
subject from his mind to consider the graver business of how to avoid
the disagreeable consequences of his encounter. He must leave the house
and escape from