A LADY’S WONDERFUL NERVE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5642, 30 April 1879, Page 3

A LADY’S WONDERFUL NERVE.

(From the San Francisco Bulletin.)

Mrs. Isadore Middleton, - a very beautiful woman, and one of the acknowledged leaders of fashion in Mobile, can certainly boast of the possession of as much nerve and true moral courage as are often vouchsafed to any of her sex.. On the evening' of'September 19th she was in her boudoir putting away some articles of jewellery, when she noticed that the peculiar position of a library lamp that.was burning upon a chair in the back part 6t the room, had thrown upon the -a-. M-., almost directly at her feet," the shadow of. a ’ man ..tyho was crouching under a broad-topped ornamental table in the centre of the room. She also remarked that the opeu hand of the shadow had but two fingers, and remembered that several desperate burglaries had recently been • committed in the, neighborhood, supposititious-ly by a negro desperado who was notorious as having lost twb. fingers of his . right hand. Mr: Middleton was absent from the .city, and, beside herself .in the. house, there was but a single,., mail-servant. Instead of fainting with fear or shrieking .for help, the brave lady seated herself at the very table underneath which the. miscreant was concealed, and rang for the servant. “ Hand me writing materials, Bridget,” said she,, with'perfect calmness. “I want you to take a note this instant to Mr..Forfar, the Jeweller, and have him send you back with ray diamond necklace and ear-drops which I left there. for.i repairs several, days ago. .Bring; them with you, no mattfer if fully repaired or' not. They are by twenty-fold the most| valuable articles of jewellery that I possess, and I do not wish to pass another night without having them in my bureau drawer.” Tbe note was at once written and despatched, but instead of being in the tenor that she had! signified (on purpose for the concealed robber to overhear, for she had no jewellery under repair), it was a hasty note to the jeweller, an intimate friend, in which she succinctly stated her terrible position and urged him to fasten to her relief, with the requisite police assistance, on receipt of the missive. ’ The agonies which; that refined and - delicate yroman underwent when left alone in the ; house with the consciousness of the presence of that desperate robber—perhaps assassin as ’well—crouched under the.very table upon which she leaned, and perhaps touched ;by her very skirts, can only be left to the reader’s imagination ; but her iron nerve sustained her through’ the ordeal. She yawned, hummed an operatic air, turned over the leaves of a" novel, and in other ways lulled the lurker into a sense of perfect security and expectancy, and waited —-waited with a wildly beating heart, and her eyes fastened upon the hands of her little ormolu clock with a greedy, feverish gaze. At last,.ihowever, came the prayer for j relief. • There was a ring at the door-bell, and she strolled carelessly into the hall and down stairs and opened it. The ruse had, been a success. She not only admitted Bridgetpbut also Mr. Forfar and three stalwart policemen j The latter passed stealthily up-stairs and into the boudoir, where they suddenly pounced upon the concealed burglar so unexpectedly as to secure him with hardly a struggle.; The prisoner proved to be a negro criminal named Chapman, but mostly known as “TwoFingered Jeff,” who .was in great request about tnat time for several robberies committed in the neighborhood a short time before, and he is now serving a twenty years’ sentence in the Alabama State Prison. ‘