The Half-back and the Burglar

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 125, 14 April 1891, Page 4

The Half-back and the Burglar

" About the most un-pleasant et. ' perience-I ever had, J> said a retiree burglar, "was in a amalh village] it tiie-'weßtem part of the State.) ] looked aroui.d the • town in the after noon and located, a. ho use that.seeniec promising, andVabout a quarter- pasi tw(fthe t next ? /morbing -I' went jin through the tback .door.r The lowei part.ofthe.house was nicely, furbished, but^t didn't want any bric-a-brac and I want right upstairs' and 'turned into the first- chamber- I came to. There 1 was a ' very dim light 1 burning in 1 roodi, ■ but^ it - wasn't light enough to see by, and^l turned on my glim, "The. light -just 'happened to strike the head of the> bed, and tit woke up a man. He sat. up and said as cool as could be, ' Well what is it 1 ?' ami I told him 1 wanted' whatever dust' he 'might have- there, and I wanted it soon. 1 I had met cool men before^ and I wasn't i going;. to attend any- bluff. — He-got out of bed and staited for the bureau' in the corner of the, roqrn. I kept the light on him all 'the\tiine.' He was a well I v It, young : fellow,' not more than twenty-four. He had a J manly sort of look about -~i him, and I was a' most ashamed t-> rob -** him i .c< I >WLi6n he moved tip toward the bureau -I » moved up - too, so as not to a give* him. a chance to open the window ,-£---and-jbkoller, cor get any other drop on ■^^me wjbere-I 1 .couldn't • reach him. He - hud got about one more step to make , ' -to;; each f the, bureau, and he was -, — moving along as quiet as a man could •-"Vhen.quicker'n' lightning," he made a r ~ jump.' and butted me square off my ~ feet before -I°knew what he was doing. My^lamp^ell ,one way ; and my jimmy " the other, and the next second he fell -c- on~me s"o heavy! that I thought he ' would grind' nie through the floor. I - had.a gun.with me, - but I didn't even have a chance to get hold of it. He .-; .grabbed both my? wrists when he fell', -~ .and then' Bpmehow the^ managed to - .hold' both" of them with one hand, - -and with^the other he grabbed me by t "the necky land he just simply dragged - 4ne out and threw m« downstairs. I " 'Could^ only : hear- myself -banging all ' the way down, and I expected to be .- all Broken* up^when I got there, but I -' w'asri't. "I wa"s Wuised, but'all right. When 1 got up on my feet I looked up'to the head of the 1 stairs where the - 'man was. His face had a serious kind of a look on it, but when he .- sawHD wasn't' much hurt he smiled and said : * Will you kindly close the door - when v you go 1 out 1 ?' • I will,' I said, - for I wasn't going to be outdone in - ".politeness ; l l but,' ' says I, ' will you -kindly tell me where you got all that ' business ?' ' Oh,' says he, ( you mean ~^the muscle business ? r > Why, I am the '. of the Wyanoke College r football team.' .'That made me mad, - says I : 'Then, why in thunder -don't you hang. out) a sign, and let - people know who you are ?' That i to" make him mad, and he ; stopped smiling and started for the f-' stairs^ arid -I iust went out and closed ~ "the door after him. r<•i v. ' . -