Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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I RUDENC ES~TO f ,f (Copyright, by the Bobbs-Morrill Con. pany.) But the children loudly objeeted to this. If Prue and Fairy went, they would go! So down the stairs they trooped, a timorous trembling crowd. Prudence went at once to the tele phone, and called up the residence of the Allans, their neighbors across the street. After a seemingly never-ending watt, the kind-hearted neighbor left his bed to answer the insistent tele phone. Falteringly Prudence explained their predicament, and asked him to come and search the house. He prom ised to be there in five minutes, with his son to help. "Now," said Prudence more cheer fully, "we'll just go out to the kitehen and walt. It's quiet there, and away from the rest of the house, and we'll be perfectly safe." To the kitchen, then, they hurried, and found real comfort in its smallness and secure ness. Prudence raked up the dying embers of the fire, and Fairy drew the blinds to their lowest limits. The twins and Connie trailed them fear. fully at every step. Every breath of wind ngninst the windows drew startled cries fromh the younger girls, and both Fairy and Pru. dence were white with anxiety wi-hen they heard the loud voices of the Al. lans outside the kitchen door. Pru dience began crying nervously the mo. ment the two angels of mercy ap peared before her, and Fairy told their tale of woe. "Well, there now," Mr. Allan said with rough sympathy, "you just got scared, that's all. Everything's sus. piclous when folks get scared. I told my wife the other day I bet you girls would get a good frightr sometime, left here alone. Come on, Jim, and we'll go over the house in a jiffy." lie was standing near the (lining. -"t. , don". Tin Ufted this head sud. HA * We Have I- OEv t Ever lenly, and semed' to sniff a little. ('here wats tuIoubtedly a faint odor )f tobacco In the house. "Been any men in here tonight?" he isked. "Or this afternoon? Think, low I" "No one," answered Prudence. "I was alone all afternoon, and there has Teen no one In this evening." Ie passed slowly through the din. ing room Into the hall, closely followed by his son axud the five girls, already much reassured. As he passed the lungeon door he paused for a moment, listening intently, his head bent. "Oh, Mr, Allan," cried Prudence, "let's look in the dungeon first. I want to see if the money is safe." Her hand was already on the lock, but he shoved her away quickly. "Is there any way out of that closet besides this door?" he asked. "No. We call it the dungeon," laughed Prudence, her self-possession uiuite recovered. "It is right under the stairs, and not even at mouse could gnaw its way out, with this door shut." "Who shut the door?" he Inquired, still holding Prudence's hand from the lock. 'T'hen, without waiting for an answer, lie went on, "Let's go back in the other room a minute. Come on, all of you." In the living room he hur rled to the telephone, and spoke to the operator in a low voice. "Call the po. lice headquarters, and have them send two or three mien to the Methodist par nonage, right away. We've got a bur. glar locked in a closet, and they'll have to get him out. Please hurry." At this, the girls crowded around him again in renewed fear. "Don't he scared," he said calmly, "we're all right. lie's In there safe enough and can't get out for a while. Now, tell mre about it. Ilow did you get him in the closet? Begin at the beginning, and tell me all about it." Carol began the story with keen rel ish. "I woke up, and thought I heard someone in the room. I supiposed it was Prudence. I said, 'Prudence.' and nobody answered, and everything was quiet. But I felt there was someone in there. I nudged Lark, and she woke up. 1le moved then, and we both heard him. lie was fumbling it, the dresser, and our ruby rings are gone. We heard himi step aeross the roomi and into a close(. Ile closed the door after him, didn't he Lark?" "Yes, he (lid," agreed Lark. "His hand was on the knob." "So we sneaked out of bed, and went Into Prudence's room and woke her and Fairy." She looked at Connie and blushed. "Connie was asleep, and we didn't waken her because we didn't want to frighten her. We woko the girls-and you tell the rest, Prudence," "We didn't believe her, of course. We went back into their room and there was no one there. But the rings were gone. Whille they were looking at the dresser, I remembered that I forgot to lock the dungeon door. wherc we keep the money and the silver. wave, and I ran downstairs and slammed the loor and locked it. an' Sthe Most Extensiv Attractive Pai ything to vent hack Ip). . ulun-t neair a noun, downstairs." Mr. Alsan laughed heartily. "Well, your burglar was in that closet after the money, no doubt, and he didn't hear you coiing, and got locked in." In a few minutes they heard foot steps around the house and knew the officers had arrived. Mr. Allan let them into the house, four of them, and led them out to the hall. There could be no doubt whatever that the burglar was In the dumgeon. lie had been busy with his knife, and the lock was nearly removed. If the oficers had been two minutes later, the dungeon would have been empty. The girls were sent upstairs at once, with the Allan boy as guard-us guard, without re gard for the fact that he was probably more frightened than any one of them. The chief olicer rapped briskly on the dungeon (oo'. Then ihe clicked his revolver. "There are enough of its to over power three of you," he said curtly. "And we I.. ve men outside the house, too. If you ilt your firearis on the floor, and hol both hands over your head, you'll be well treated. If your hands Ire not up, we fire on sight. Get your revolvers ready, boys." Then the oflicer opened tie door. Evidently the birglar was wise enough to appreilate the futility of lighting against otits. Ills hands were above his head, and in less than it second he was secu rely mna itacled. The chief oflicer had been eying himn closely. "Say !" he exclailmned. "Aren't you Limber-Linb (rant?" The burglar grinned, but did not answer. "Ily Jove !" shouted the ofileer. "It is! "Aren't You Limber-Limb Grant?" AT, e Line of Christmas -ts About Them. Bi 3HOP EARLY AND Delight th Call the girls down here," he ordered, and when they appeared, gazing at the burglar with mingled admiration, pity and fear, he congratulated them with considerable excitement. "It's Limber-Limb Grant," he ex plained. "There's a reward of five hundred dollars for him. You'll get the money, as sure as you're born." Then he turned again to the burglar. "Say, Grant, what's a fellow like you doing on such a fifth-rate job as this? j A Methodist parsonage is not just in your line, is it?" Limber-Limb laughed sheepishly. "Well," he explained good-naturedly, "Chicago got too hot for me. I had to get out in a hurry, and I couldn't got my hands on any money. I had a line lot of jewels, but I was so pushed I couldn't use them. I caine here and loafed around town for a while, be cause folks said Mount Mark was so fast asleep it did not. even wake up long enough to rend the (hilly papers. I heard about this parsonage hunch, and knew the old man had gone oifl to get mol ire relIgiol. 'T'his afternoon at the station I saw a detective from Chi cago get oil the train, and I knew what that meant. But I needed soiie cash, iUid so I wasn't above a little job of this kind. I never dreamed of gettimt done up by a,buneh of preacher's kids. I went upstairs to get those fatilly jewels I've heard about, and one of the little ones gave the ilarmi. I ai ready had some of them, so I caie' down at once. I stopped in the dun geon to get that money, and first thing I knew the door banged shut. 'Tliat's all. You're welcome to (lie five huin dred dol !ar's', ladies. Someone was bound to get it sooner or liter, and I'm partial to the ladies, every time." Mr. Starr on Thursday morning had taken the early eastbound train to Burlington. Ile attended the evange listic services at the tabernacle in the afternoon and evening, and then went to bed at the hotel. He slept late the next morning. When he finally ap pea'ed the clerk camne at once from behind the desk to speak to him. Two or three other guests, who had been lounging about, drew near. "We've just been reading about your girls, sir," said the clerki respectfully. "It's a pretty nervy little hunch! You must be proud of them !" "My girls!" ejaculated Mr. STarr. "Ilaven't. you Seen the hnorning pa per? You're Air. Starr, 'the Methodist ninister at Mount Mark, aren't you?" "I am i But what lis happened to my girls? Is anything wrong? Olve me the paper !" I Five minutes later Mir. Starr and his suitcase were in a taxicab speeding toward Union station. and within eight minutes he was en route for Mount Mark-white in the face, shaky in the knees, but tremendously proud in spirit. Arriving at Mount lark, he was in stantly surrounded by an exclamatory crowd of station loungers. The name of Prudence was upon every tongue, and iher father heard it with salisfac Goods in Our Histor iy Now and Have U AVOID THE RUS e Hearts4 tion. In the prsonIage he founti at least two-thirds of the Indles' AId so ciety. the trustees and the Sundlay school supet'rintendnt, along with a m1iscellatneous atssorItmnent of ordinary mnemberws, heixed up with P'resbyterians, Baptists and it few unclassified outsid ers. And Prudence was the center of attraction. She was telling the "whole story," for perhaps the fifteenth time that morning, but she broke off when her father hurried in and flung her arms about him. "Oh, papa," she cried, "they mustn't praise me. I had no idea there was a burglar in the house when I ran down the stairs, and I lion estly can't see that much credit is lue ale." ]tut Mount Mark did not take it so cahrIIly. And as for the Methio'Hst (hriclh--well, the Presbyterian people used to say there wasi "no living with thew Methodists, since the girls caught a birgliar In the parsonage." Of (cou'se it wits iiportaint, from the Metthodist polint of view. i'ictures of the par siina ge anti the church were in all the papers for miles atrorud, and)( lt their very nx t meeting the trustees delided to got the piaoi the Sinday school had been needing for the ilsIt. hundred years' When the five hundred dollars :1r. rived from Chigo, I'rudeice f'elt Ihat personally she had no real right to the mloney. "W\e must divide it," she in sisted, "for I didn't iarn it a hit Imore than any of the others. But it is perfectly glorious to have five hundred dolhirs, isn't it? Did you ever helve flive hundred dollars before? Just take it, father, and use it for whatever we need. It's family money." Neither the younger girls nor their father would consent to this. But when Prudence pleaded with them ear nestly, they decided to divide It. "I will deposit two hundred and fifty dollars for the four younger ones," he said, "anid that will leave you as much." So It was settled, and Prudence was a limppy girl when she saw It safely put away in the hank. CHAPTER ViII. Romance Comes. Sometimes, Methodists, or I'reshyte rians, or heretlcs-whatever we may he-we aire irresistibly Impelled1 to the conclusion that things were stilply bound to htppen ! Iowever slight the cause-still that cause wits predestined from the beginning of time. A girl may by the sheerest accident step from the street car a block ahead of her destination-an irritating aceident. But as she walks that block she may meet an old-time friend, and i stranger, And that stranger-ah, you canl never convince the girl that her stepping fi'om the car too soon was not ordered when the foundations of the world were laid. After all, it was very simple. Acros the street from the parsonage lived I girl named Mattie Moore-t common yr and the Prices are s Deliver Later. H 7f the"Ch unloveliy, unexe~lting gil, who tatught a c(ountr' school five miles out from Iown, and role to 11n1(i froili her school, morning and evening, on a i .cy.-l'. One evening, early in June, When the world wtas fair to look up., it wis foreordained that Prudence slould be turning in at the parsonage guite just as Mattle loore whirled up, opposite, on her dusty wheel. Prudencee stopped to interchange polite inanities with her neighbor, and i Mattle, wheeling the bi cycle lightly beside her, came acrosa the street an1d stood benenth the par soinage mauplIes with Prudence. They talked of the weather. of the coming ooI e "Sometime Will You Let Me Ride Your Wheel?" summer, of MIattie's scho ol. rejlicirg that one more week woul'i bria: frees dom from books for Mattlie nd the younger parsonage girls. Then said Prudei'e: "'i it great fun to ride a bicycle? I love it. Som. time will you let mle rile your wheel?" "Why, certainly. You may rule now if you like." "No," said Prudence slowly, "I used to ride, but am afraid it would not do now. Some of the letulers might see me, and-well, I am very grown up, you know. Of course," she added clever-oh, very. You'll like her, I ame sure-much better than you do me, of course." Prudence was strangely) downcast. "I am sure I won't," said Jerrold Hlarmer, with unnecessary vehemence. "I don't care a thing for college girls. I like home girls." Jerrold flipped over abruptly, and lay on the grase, his face on his arms turned toward her fCaie. 'hey were quiet for at while, but their glances were clinging. the Miost idren moo'