A NIGHT ADVENTURE.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Issue 26, 30 March 1878, Page 4

A NIGHT ADVENTURE.

(" San Francisco Sunday Chronicle.'' I will tell you abont an affairimportant aa it proved to me; but yot must not hurry me. 1 havo never beer in a hurry since then, and never will Up till the time inclusive I was always in a hurry; my actions always preceded iny thoughts; experience was of no use, and anybody would have supposed me destined to carry a young head upon old shoulders to the grave. However, I was brought up at last " with a round turn." I was allowed a certain space for reflection and plenty of materials, and if it did me no good, it's a pity. My father and mother both died when 1 was still a great awkward boy, and I, being the only thing they had to bequeath, became the property of a distant relation. I do not know how it happened, but I hod no near rolations. I wai a kind of •waif upon the world from the beginning, and I suppose it was owing to my having no family anchorage that I acquired the habit of swaying to and fro and drinking hither and thither at the pleasure of wind

and tide. Not that my guardian was inattentive or unkind—quite the rovorse; but he was indolent and careless, contenting himself with providing abundantly for my schooling and my pocket, and leaving everything else to chance. He would havo done the same thing to his own son, if he had one, and he did the same thing to his own daughter. But girls, somehow, cling wherever they are cast—anything is an anchorago for them ; and as Laura grew up she gave the care she had never found, and was the little mother to the whole house. Aa for the titular mother, she had not an atom of character of any kind. She might have been a picture, or a vase, 01 anything else that is useless, except to the taste or the affections. Bat mamma was indispensable. It is a vulgar error to suppose that people who have nothing in them are nobody in a house. It is no wonder that I was always in a hurry, for I must have had an

instinctive idea that I had my fortune to look for. The governor had nothing inore than a genteel independence, and this would be a good deal lessened after his death by the lapse of an annuity. But sister Laura was thus provided for ■well enough, while I had not a shilling in actual money, although plenty of hypothetical thousands and sundry castles in the air. It was the consciousness of the latter kind of property, no doubt, that gave ine so free-and-easy an •air and mado me so completely the master of my own actions. How I did worry that blessed old woman ! how Laura lectured and scolded! how the governor stormed ! and how I wa3 forgiven the next minute, and we were all as happy again as the day was long \ But at length the time of separation •came. I had grown a great hulking fellow, strong enough to make my bread as a porter if that had been needed ; and so a situation was found for me in a counting-house at Barcelona, and after a lecture and a hearty cry from sister Laura, a blessing and a kiss from mamma and a great sob kept down by a hurricane laugh from the governor, I wont adrift. Four years passed rapidly away. I had attained my full height, and more than my just share of inches. I already enjoyed a fair modicum of whiskers, and had even made somo progress in the cultivation of a pair of moustaches, when suddenly the house with which I was connocted with failed. What to do? The governor insisted on my return to England, where his interest among the mercantile class was considerable. Laura hinted mysteriously that my presence in the house would soon be a matter of great importance to her father; and mamma let out tho secret by writing to

me that Laura was going to " change her condition." I was glad to hear this, for I knew he would be a model of a fellow "who was Laura's husband; and, gulphing ■down my pride, which would fain have persuaded me that it was unmanly to go naok again like the ill sixpence, I set out ■on my return home. Tho family, I knew, had moved to another house, but, being well acquainted with the town, I had no difficulty in finding the place. It was a range of handsome buildings which had sprung up in tho fashionable outskirts during my absenee, and, although it was far on in the evening, my accustomed eyes soon described through thd gloom tho governor's old-fashioned door-plate. I was just about to knock when a temptation came into my way. One of the area windows was open, gaping as if for my reception. A quantity of plate lay upon a table close by. Why should I not entor and appear unannounced in tho drawingroom, a sunburnt phantom of five feet elevon ? Why should I not present the preciso and careful Laura with a handful of hor own spoons and forks, left so conveniently at the sorvice of any area sneak who might chance to pass by ? Why ? That is only a figure of speech. I asked no questions about tho matter; tho idoa was hardly well across my brain whon ray logs were across the rails. In anot her moment I hud crept through the window; and chuckling at my own cleverness and the great moral lesson I was about to teach, I was stuffing my pockets with the plate. While thus engaged tho opening of a door in tho hall above alarmed me, and, alarmed of tho failure of my plan, I stepped lightly up thh stair, which was partially lighted by tho hall lamp. As I was about to emerge ut the top, a servant girl was coming out of a room on the opposite side. , She instantly retreated, shut the door with a baug, and I could hoar a half-suppressed hysterical cry. I

bounced on, sprang up the drawing-room stair, and entered the first door at a venture. All was dark, and I stopped for a moment to listen. Lights were hurrying across the hall, and I lizard the rough voice of a man, as if scolding and taunting some MEMn. The girl had doubtless given the alarm, although her information must have been very indistinct, for when she saw me I was in the shadow of the stair, and she could have had littlo more than a vague impression that she beheld a human

figure. However this may be, the man's voice appeared to descend into the area room, and presently I heard a crashing noise, not as if he was counting the plate, but rather thrusting it aside M WWW, Then I heard the window closed, the shutters bolted, and an alarm-bell hung upon them, and the man re-ascended the stair, half scolding, half laughing at the girl's superstition. He took care, notwithstanding, to examine the fastenings of the street-door, and even to lock it and put the key in his pocket. He then retired into a room, and all was silence.

I began to feel decidedly queer. The governor kept no male servant that I knew of, and had never done so. It was impossible that lie could have introduced this change into his household without my being informed of it by sister Laura, whose letters were an exact chronicle of everything, down to the health of the cat. This was puzzling. And now that I had time to think, the house was much too large for a family only requiring three sleeping rooms even when I was at home. |lt was what was called a double house, with rooms on both sides of the hall; and the apartment on the threshold of which I was still lingering appeared, from the dim light of the windows, to be of very considerable size. I now recollected that tho quantity of plate I had seen—a portion of which at this moment felt preternaturally heavy in iny pockets—mnst have been three times greater than any the governor ever possessed, and that various pieces were of a size and massiveness I had never before seen in the establishment. In vain I bethought myself that I had seen and recognized tho door-plate, and that the area from which 1 entered was immediately under ; in vain I argued that since Laura was about to bo married the extra amount of plate might be intended to form a part of her trousseau. I could not convince myself. But the course of my thoughts suggested an idea, and pulling hastily from my pocket a tablespoon I felt, for I could not see, the legend which contained my fate. But

my fingers were tremulous ; they seemed to have lost sensation —only I fancied I did feel something more than the governor's plain initials. There was still a light in the hall. If I could but bring that spoon within its illumination ! All was silent, and I ventured to descend step after step—not as I had hounded up, but with the stealthy pace of a thief, and the plate growing heavier and heavier in my pocket. At length I was near enough to see, in spite of a dimness that had gathered over my eyes, and, with a sensation of absolute faintness, I beheld upon the spoon an engraved crest—the red right hand of a baronet' I crept back again, holding by the banisters, fancying every now and then that I heard a door open behind me, and yet my feet no more consented to quicken their motion than if I had been pursued by a murderer in the nightmare. lat length got into a room, groped for a chair, and sat down. No more hurry now. Oh, no ' There was plenty of time, and plenty to do in it, for I had to wipe away the perspiration that ran down my face in streams. What was to be dona ? What had I done ? Oil, a Uifle, a mere trifle. I had only sneaked into a gentleman's house by the area-window, and pocketed his tablespoons ; and here I was

locked and barred and belled in, sitting very comfortably, in the dark and alone, in his drawing-room. Very particularly comfortable. What a capital fellow, to be sure ! What an amusing personage ! Wouldn't the baronet laugh in the morning. Would'nt ho ask me to stay to breakfast ? And wouldn't I eat heartily out of the spoons I had stolen ? But what name is that ? Who calls me a housebreaker ? Who gives me in charge ? Who lugs me off by the neck ? I will not stand it. I am innocent, o.tccpt of breaking into a baronet's house. I am a gentleman with another gentleman's spoons in my pockets. I claim the protection of the law. Police! 'Police! My brain was wandering. I pressed my hand upon my wet forehead to keep down tho thick-coming fancies, and determined, for the first time in my life, to hold a deliberate consultation with myself. I was in an awkward predicament; it was impossible to deny the fact; but was there anything real serious in the case ? I had unquestionably descended into tho wrong area, the right hand one instead of the left hand one; but was I uot unquestionably the relation —tho distant relation—of the next-door neighbor ? I had been four years absent from his house, and was there anything more natural than that I should desire to pay my next visit through a subterranean window ? I had appropriated, it is true, a quantity of silver plato I bad found; but with no other intention could I have done this than to present it to in v distant relation's daughter, to reproach her with her carelessness in leaving it p.oxt door T Finally, I was snored, caged, trapped—door and window had been bolted BOW mo without any remonstrance on my part—and I was now some considerable time in tho house, unsuspected, yet a prisoner. The pnttition was serious; but come, suppose tho worst, that I was actually laid hold of as a malefactor, and commanded to give an I

loeount of myself; well, I was, as aforesaid, a distant relation of the individual next door. 1 belonged to nobody in the world if not to him; I have bore but an indifferent reputation in regard to steadiness, and after four years alienee i in a foreign country 1 had returned — idle, penniless, anil objectless—just in time to find an area-window open in the dusk of the evening, and a heap of plate lying behind it, within view of the streetThis self-examination was not encouraging; the case was decidedly queer, and as I sat thus pondering in the dark, with the spoon in my hand, I am quite sure no malefactor in a dungeon could have envied my reflections. In fact the evidence was so dead against mo that I began to doubt my own innocence. What was I here for if my intentions were honest ? and how came it that all this silver plate had found its way into my pockets ? I was angry as well as terrified. I was Judge and criminal in one, but the instincts of nature got the better of my sense of justice, and I p>*e suddenly up to ascertain whether it was not possible to get from the window into the street. As I moved, however, the horrible booty I had in my pocket moved likewise, appearing to ine to shriek like a score of fiends, •' Police-' police ! " and the next instant I heard a quick footstep ascending the stairs. Now was the fatal moment come I I was on my feet; my eyes glared upon the door; my hands were clenched ; the perspiration had dried suddenly upon my skin, and my tongue clave to the roof of my mouth. But the footstep, accompanied by a gleam of light, passed—passed, and from very weakness I sat down again, with a dreadful indifference to the screams of the plate in my pockets. Presently there were more footsteps along the hall; then voices ; then drawing of bolts and creaking of locks ; then utter darkness ; then silence—lasting, terrible, profound. The house had gone to bed; the house would quickly be asleep; it was timo to be up and doing. But first and foremost I must get rid of the plate. Without that hideous eorptu delicti I should have some chance. I must at all hazards creep down into the hall, find my way to the lower regions and replace the accursed thing where I found it. It required nerve to attempt this ; but 1 was thoroughly wound up, and after allowing a reasonable time to elapse, to give my enemies a fair opportunity of falling to sleep, I sot out upon the adventure. The door creaked as I went out; the plate grated against my very soul as I descended the steps ; but slowly, stealthily, I crept along the wall, and at length found myself upon the level floor. There was but one door on that side of the hall—the door which led to the arearoom, atid it was with inexpressible relief I reached it in safety and grasped the knob in my hand. The knob turned—but the door did not open ; it was locked, it was my fate to be a thief, and, after a moment of new dismay, I turned again doggedly, reached the stair and re-entered the apartment I had left.

11 was like getting home. It was snug and private. I had a chair there waiting for me. I thought to myself that many a man would take a deal of trouble to break into such a house. I had only sneaked. I wondered how Jack Sh'eppard felt on such occasions. He would make nothing of getting down into the street from the window spoons and all. I tried this. The shutters were not even closed and the sash moved noiselessly. I had no difficulty in raising it. I stepped out into the balcony and looked over. Nothing was to be seen but a black and yawning gulf beneath, guarded by the imaginary spikes of an invisible railing. Jack would have laughed at this difficulty ; but then he had more experience in the craft than I, and was provided with all necessary appliances. As for me, I had stupidly forgotten my coil of rope. The governor's house, I found, had either no balcony at all or it was too far apart to be reached. Presently I heard a footstep on the sidewalk a little way off. It was approaching with a slow measured pace ; the person was walking as calmly and gravely in the night as if it had been broad day. Suppose I hailed this philosophical stranger and confided to him, in a friendly way, that the Baronet, without the slightest provocation, had locked me up in his house, with his silver spoons in my pockets ? Perhaps he would take tho trouble of knocking at the door or crying fire, and when the servants opened I might rush out and so make my escape. But whilo I was looking wistfully down to see if I could' not ili.se,-in the walking, figure, which was now under the window, a sudden glare from tho spot dazzled my sight. It was the bull's-eye of a policeman, and with tho instinct of a predatory character I shrank back trembling, crept into tho room and shut the window.

By this time I was scnsiblo that thero was a little confusion in my thoughts, and by way of employing them on practical and useful objects 1 determined to make a tour of the room. But first it was necessary to got rid, somehow or other, of my plunder—to plant tho property, as wo call it; and with that view I laid it carefully, piece by piece, in the corner of a sofa, and concealed it with tho cover. This was a great relief. I almost began to feel like the injured party —more like a captive than a robber j and I groped my way through the room with a sort of vogue idea I might perhapn stumble upon some trap door or sliding panel which would lead into the open air, or, at worst, into a secret chamber, when I should be safe for any given number, of yeen from my

persecutors. But there was nothing ol the kind in this stem, prosiac place; nothing but a few cabinets, and tables, and couches, and arm-chairs, devotional chairs, footstools, lamps, statuettes, and the elaborate girandole hung around with crystal prisms, which played such an interminable tunc against each other when I chanced to move them that 1 stumbled away as fast as I could a.id subsided into a fauteuil so rich and so deep that I felt myself swallowed up, as it were, in its billows of swan's down. How long I had been in the house by this time I cannot tell. It seemed to me, when I looked back, to form a considerable portion of a lifetime. Indeed, I did not remember the more distant events of the night, although every now and then the fact occurred to me with startling distinctness that all I had gone through was only preliminary to something still to happen; that the morning was to come, the family to be astir, and the house-breaker to be apprehended. Sly reflections were not continuous. It may be that I dozed between whiles. How else can I account for my feeling myself grasped by the throat, to the very brink of suffocation, by a hand without n body f How else can I account for my sister Laura standing over me where 1 reclined, pointing to the stolen plate on the sofa, and lecturing me on my horrible propensities till her voice rase to a wild, unearthly scream which pierced through iny brain I 'When this fancy occurred I started from my recumbent posture. A voice was actually in my ears, and a living form before my eyes; a lady stood contemplating me with a half scream upon her lips and the color fading from her cheeks, and as I moved she would have fallen to the ground had I not sprung up and caught her in my arms. I laid her softly down in the chair. It was the morning twilight. The silence was profound. The boundaries of tho room | were still dim and indistinct. Is it any wonder that I was in some considerable degree of perplexity as to whether I was still in the land of dreams I

"Madam," said I "if you area vision it is of no consequence, but if not I wish particularly to go out." " Offer no injury," she replied, in a tremulous voice, "and no one will molest you. Take what, you have conn; for and begone."

" That is sooner said than done. The doors and windows below are locked and bolted, and beneath those of this room flip area is deep and the spikes sharp. I assure you I have been in very considerable perplexity the whole of last night." and drawing a chair I sat down in front of her. Whether it was owing to this action, or my complaining voice, or to the mere fact of her finding herself in a quiet tcte-a-tetc with a house-breaker, I can't tell; but the lady broke out in a low hysterical laugh. " How did you break in ? " said she. " I did not break ; it is far from being my character, I assure you. But the area window was open, and so I just thought I would come in." " You were attracted by the plate. Take it, for heaven's sake, desperate man, and go away."

" 1 did take some of it, but with no evil intentions ; only by way of amusement. Here it is;" and going to the sofa I drew oft' the cover and showed her the plate. ■ • " You have been generous " said she, her voice again trembling; for the whole must have been in your power. I will let you out so softly that no one will know. Put up in your pockets what you have risked so much to possess, and follow me."

" I will follow you with pleasure," said I, " wero it the world over;" for the increasing light showed me as lovely a creature as the morning sun ever shono upon ; " but as for the silver, you must excuse me there. I never stole anything before, and, please heaven, I never will again."

" Surely, you arethemostextraordinary person," said tho young lady, suddenly, for the light seemed to Dring a revelation to her likewise; " you neither look nor talk like a robber." " Nor am I. I am not even a robber —I am nothing; and have not property in tho world to the value of these articles of plate."

"Then, if you arc not a robber, why are you here ? Why creep in at tho area window, appropriate other people's spoon's, and get locked up all night in their house ?"

" For no other reason than that I was in a hurry. I had come home from Barcelona, and -was going to my guardians, next door, when your unfortunate area-window ea\ight my eye, with the plate on the tablo inside. In an instant I was over the rails and in through the window like a harlequin, with the intention of giving the family a pleasing surprise and my old monitrass, sister Laura, a great moral lesson on the impropriety of leaving her plate about in j so eareless a manner."

" Then you are Gerald, my dear Laura's cousin, so longingly expected, so beloved by them all." Here the young lady blushed and cast down her eyes. What theso two girles could have been saying to each other about mo I never found out; but there was a secret, I will go to death upon it. She let me out so quietly that neither her father nor the servants ever know a syllable about tho matter. I need not say how I was received next door. The governor swept down another sob with another blessing and another kiss ; and Luna was so rejoiced that she gave me another hearty cry and forgot to give me '.■;• lecture. My next four years

were spent to more purpose than the last. j Being less in a hurrv I took time to build up a flourishing business in partnership with Laura's husband. As for the baronet's daughter—for \ye must get everybody into the concluding tableau—why", then- she is, that lady cutting bread and butter for the chifdreu with H matronly an air as Werters Charlotte; she Is my wifo; and we laugh to this day at the oddity of that first interview which led to so happy a denouement.