was a man on the floor and the yellow dog had him
by the throat. Father stood in the door-way with his pistol cocked, and
he said in a quiet kind of way (just as father always speaks when he
means business): "If you stir you are a dead man!" But I should like to
know how he could stir with that grip on his throat!

"'Then there came a banging and ringing at our front door, and Fred ran
to open it, and in rushed our policeman--I mean the one that takes our
street on his beat. He had heard the noise outside, you see, and, for a
wonder, was on hand when he was wanted; and he just went for that fellow
on the floor and clapped a pair of handcuffs on his wrists as quick as
you could turn your hand over; and when he got a look at him he says:
"Oh, it's you, Bill Long, is it? We've been wanting you for some time at
the lodge (that was his name for the police-station). Well, get up and
come along!"

"'But I called the dog off.

"'We didn't one of us go to bed again that night. Father and Fred looked
through the house, and father said it was the neatest piece of work in
the burglary line he ever saw done--real professionals, they were. There
was two of 'em. They'd taken plenty of time. The forks and the spoons
and the two hundred dollars in money was all done up in neat packages,
and they'd been through father's desk and the secretary drawers; and
they'd had a lunch of cold chicken and mince-pie, and left the marks of
their greasy hands on the best damask napkins Bridget had ironed that
day and left to air by the kitchen range. And then, you see, while one
stayed below to keep watch, the other went up to finish the job; and he
would have finished it, too, and both would have got away with all the
things if it hadn't have been for that dog. Look at him! will you? I
believe he understands every word I say as well as you do.

"'Well, right at the door of father's room, Grip took him. How did he
lay the fellow on his back? We suppose he was creeping into the room on
his hands and knees,--they often do, father says,--and the dog made a
rush at him in front and gripped him in the throat, and the weight of
the dog threw him backward; and once down, Grip kept him there--see?

"'Next morning at breakfast father said: "Tommy, how came the dog in the
upper hall last night? I told you to tie him up in the shed-chamber."
Then I had to own up, and tell how I went late in the evening and
brought him to my room because he howled so. I said