Jerrys Reward | Page 8

and the discovery of the plot was an absolute secret.
There would be no occasion for such sudden neighbourliness.
Then Jerry's heart stood still, for he heard a sound like a muffled cry. It
seemed to come from behind the convent wall; so he crept softly into
the narrow passageway just as the burglars had done. Here he could see
without being seen.
At first everything was so still that he thought he must have imagined

the cry, but soon heard the murmuring sound of voices so low that he
could not tell whether of men or women.
Jerry was frightened to death. If he alone had been in danger he would
have been brave, but with his delicate wife away, he knew not where,
and more conspiracies going on behind the convent wall, he found it
hard to decide just what he ought to do. Conflicting feelings put him in
a sort of panic, but he had sense enough left to keep absolutely still.
Before going in search of his wife he must find out what new plan the
rascals were hatching, so he stood, hardly daring to breathe.
The wind was sharp and keen. It swept across the wide common,
whirling up the dust, lifting the paper and rags and making them waltz.
Ashes fell like rain in the narrow passage where Jerry stood. Then a
whooping gust caught a lot of stuff, and forming a miniature cyclone,
headed straight for Jerry. Before the poor fellow knew what he was
doing, he had sneezed three times. The sound reverberated through the
close passage as if he had blown through a gigantic horn.
Now he was lost! The men must do either one of two things; they might
think they had been discovered, and run away, but the probability was
that they would first look over the convent wall to find out who had
sneezed. And then what?
Jerry seized a large boulder that lay at his feet. Though little and old, he
had good strength, and the first head that rose over the wall meant a
cracked skull.
"Jerry, Jerry?" He heard his name whispered by a strange voice. Where
did the sound come from? Under his very feet.
"Jerry, Jer-ry," a little louder, "where are you?"
"Here behind the wall," whispered Jerry. "Who are you?"
Then there came a sound of steps, a window was raised, a shutter flung
back.

At this Jerry could stand no more. He left his hiding-place, and strode
boldly, the big stone in his hand, to the front of his cottage in time to
see a sturdy leg emerging from his front window.
When the rest of the body followed, the mother of the little Outcasts
stood before Jerry's astonished eyes.
"For the land's sake! Are you the burglar?" says Jerry.
"For the land's sake, are you?" asked Mrs. Outcast, and both began to
laugh.
"And where's Peggy?" says Jerry.
"Inside with chattering teeth for fear of the men hid between the walls."
"How, when, what!" exclaimed the bewildered man.
"Stop talking, man, and come to your scared wife."
"I'm not scared now that I know who's there," piped a weak voice.
"Come in right away out of the cold."
"And is it by the door or by the window ye'll have me enter, Missis
Myer?" asked Jerry. And with that he took out the two tenpenny nails
with his fingers just as easy as if they had been put in by women.
[Illustration: "A STURDY LEG EMERGING FROM HIS FRONT
WINDOW."]
"Wait till I unlock," said Mrs. Outcast, as she climbed back, and
presently the key turned, and Jerry was allowed to enter.
"And now, perhaps," said he, after he had kissed his wife, "ye'll be kind
enough to tell me what it all means, for I'll be switched if I understand a
word of it!"
Mrs. Outcast explained: "When Mimy came home with her story I felt
in my bones that something was wrong, so I came as fast as I could to

help. I found this little body scared to death, and you gone for no
knowing how long. When she told her story I felt real uneasy myself,
and wanted to take her home with me where she'd be safe. But she was
faint-like, and besides she said she did not want you to come back and
find her gone. Heaven knows where."
Jerry pretended to cough behind his hand.
"But two women alone," continued Mrs. Outcast, "are not apt to be
exactly quiet in their minds when burglars are about, so I suggested that
we shut up the house as if no one were living here, and to make it seem
more natural like, I put two nails in the door, and climbed in by the
window."
"Wasn't it a