The Stories of the Three Burglars | Page 3

wife. Secrecy would be an important element in
its success.
Our library was a large and pleasant room on the ground floor of the
house, and here I set my trap. It was my habit to remain in this room an
hour or so after the rest of the family had gone to bed, and, as I was an
early riser, I was always in it again before it was necessary for a servant
to enter it in the morning.
Before leaving the library for the night I placed in a conspicuous
position in the room a small table, on which was a tray holding two
decanters partially filled with wine, in the one red and in the other
white. There was also upon the tray an open box of biscuit and three
wine-glasses, two of them with a little wine at the bottom. I took pains
to make it appear that these refreshments had been recently partaken of.
There were biscuit crumbs upon the tray, and a drop or two of wine was
freshly spilled upon it every time the trap was set. The table, thus
arranged, was left in the room during the night, and early in the
morning I put the tray and its contents into a closet and locked it up.
A portion of my narcotic preparation was thoroughly mixed with the
contents of each of the decanters in such proportions that a glass of the
wine would be sufficient to produce the desired effect.
It was my opinion that there were few men who, after a night walk and
perhaps some labour in forcibly opening a door or a window-shutter,
would not cease for a moment in pursuance of their self-imposed task
to partake of the refreshments so conveniently left behind them by the
occupants of the house when they retired to rest. Should my surmises

be correct, I might reasonably expect, should my house be broken into,
to find an unconscious burglar in the library when I went down in the
morning. And I was sure, and my wife agreed with me, that if I should
find a burglar in that room or any other part of the house, it was highly
desirable that he should be an unconscious one.
Night after night I set my burglar trap, and morning after morning I
locked it up in the closet. I cannot say that I was exactly disappointed
that no opportunity offered to test the value of my plan, but it did seem
a pity that I should take so much trouble for nothing. It had been some
weeks since any burglaries had been committed in the neighbourhood,
and it was the general opinion that the miscreants had considered this
field worked out and had transferred their labours to a better-paying
place. The insult of having been considered unworthy the attention of
the knights of the midnight jimmy remained with us, but as all our
goods and chattels also remained with us we could afford to brook the
indignity.
As the trap cost nothing my wife did not object to my setting it every
night for the present. Something might happen, she remarked, and it
was just as well to be prepared in more ways than one; but there was a
point upon which she was very positive.
"When George William is old enough to go about the house by
himself," she said, "those decanters must not be left exposed upon the
table. Of course I do not expect him to go about the house drinking
wine and everything that he finds, but there is no knowing what a child
in the first moments of his investigative existence may do."
For myself, I became somewhat tired of acting my part in this little
farce every night and morning, but when I have undertaken anything of
this sort I am slow to drop it.
It was about three weeks since I had begun to set my trap when I was
awakened in the night by a sudden noise. I sat up in bed, and as I did so
my wife said to me sleepily,--
"What is that? Was it thunder? There it is again!" she exclaimed,
starting up. "What a crash! It must have struck somewhere." I did not
answer. It was not thunder. It was something in the house, and it
flashed into my mind that perhaps my trap had been sprung. I got out of
bed and began rapidly to dress.
"What are you going to do?" anxiously asked my wife.

"I'm going to see what has happened," said I. At that moment there was
another noise. This was like two or three heavy footsteps, followed by a
sudden thump; but it was not so loud as the others.
"John," cried my wife, "don't stir an