The Burglar and the Blizzard: A Christmas Story

The Burglar and the Blizzard: A
Christmas Story

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Duer Miller, Illustrated by Charlotte Harding
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Title: The Burglar and the Blizzard
Author: Alice Duer Miller
Release Date: January 29, 2005 [eBook #14835]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
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THE BURGLAR AND THE BLIZZARD
A Christmas Story
by
ALICE DUER MILLER
Author of "The Blue Arch," etc.
With Illustrations by Charlotte Harding

Hearst's International Library Co., Inc.
1914

[Illustration: THE BURGLAR]

ILLUSTRATIONS
The Burglar (Frontispiece)
"It was a young lady who disposed of the silver"
"Good God," he cried, "what a night you have had"
He let McVay out of the closet
She was dressed in his sister's sables--ready for departure
"Please move a little back, Holland," he said, "I want to get nearer the
fire"
"My dear fellow--pray allow me"
"I have here a slight token, in honor of the day"

I
Geoffrey Holland stood up and for the second time surveyed the
restaurant in search of other members of his party, two fingers in the
pocket of his waistcoat, as if they had just relinquished his watch. He
was tall enough to be conspicuous and well bred enough to be
indifferent to the fact, good looking, in a bronzed, blond clean-shaven
way, and branded in the popular imagination as a young and active
millionaire.
At a neighbouring table a man lent forward and whispered to the other
men and women with him:
"Do you know who that is?--that is young Holland."
"What, that boy! He doesn't look as if he were out of school."
"No," said one of the women, elaborating the comment, "he does not
look old enough to order a dinner, let alone managing mines."
"Oh, I guess he can order a dinner all right," said the first man. "He is
older than he looks. He must be twenty-six."
"What do you suppose he does with all that money?"
The first thing he did with it, at the moment, was to purchase an
evening paper, for just then he snapped his fingers at a boy, who
promptly ran to get him one.

"Well, one thing he does," answered the man who had first given
information, "he has an apartment in this building, up stairs, and I bet
that costs him a pretty penny."
In the meantime Holland had opened his paper, scanned the head lines,
and was about to turn to the stock quotations when a paragraph of
interest caught his eye. So marked was the gesture with which he raised
it to his eyes that his admirers at the next table noticed it, and
speculated on the subject of the paragraph.
It was headed: "Millionaires' Summer Homes Looted," and said further:
"Hillsborough, December 21st. The fourth in a series of daring
robberies which have been taking place in this neighbourhood during
the past month occurred last night when the residence of C.B. Vaughan
of New York was entered and valuable wines and bric-a-brac removed.
The robbery was not discovered until this morning when a shutter was
observed unfastened on the second story. On entering the watchman
found the house had been carefully gone over, and although only a few
objects seem to be missing, these are of the greatest value. The thief
apparently had plenty of time, and probably occupied the whole night
in his search. This is the more remarkable because the watchman
asserts that he spent at least an hour on the piazza during the night.
How the thief effected an entrance by the second story is not clear.
During the past five weeks the houses of L.G. Innes, T. Wilson and
Abraham Marheim have been entered in a manner almost precisely
similar. There was a report yesterday that some of the Marheim silver
had been discovered with a dealer in Boston, but that he could not
identify the person from whom he bought them further than that she
was a young lady to whom they might very well have belonged. The
fact that it was a young lady who disposed of them to him suggests that
the goods must have changed hands several times. The Marheim family
is abroad, and the servants...."
Here a waiter