SHERRY’S BURGLAR

New Zealand Mail, 22 January 1902, Page 7

SHERRY’S BURGLAR

“Joe, did you turn the key in the front door?” “Yes.” “Did you see the side windows fastened and the back door barred?” "Yes, don’t worry—the things are all safe.” “Are you sure, Joe?” “Tut, don’t talk.” “Is the stick with the big nob in the corner?” “Ye-es, been there eighteen months.” “Joe, did you ” “O'i, go to sleep, you silly woman,” and Mr Sherry sighed. “Well, it’s best to be careful.”

Mrs Sherry was afraid of burglars. When she was a girl her father’s house had been broken into hv ruffians, and he in guarding his home was severely injured. Airs Sherry lid never forgotten the terrible scuffle, and though she had come to the mature age of thirty-eight without again coming into contact with housebreakers, she declared that she never knew the moment when the adventures of that horrid night might not he repeated. So she took great care to have the means of ingress to her house effectively bolted, barred, fastened and locked.

Mr Sherry, though he inwardly ridiculed her fears, dutifully examined the fastenings every night before retiring to rest, and was subjected nightly to much the same anxious questioning as he had been on this eventful night. -Mr Sherry was soon sleeping soundly, but Airs Sherry lay awake for a long time, worrying over household troubles. Then she fell into a light doze from which sho was suddenly awakened by the sound of a footstep on the back verandah. In great terror she clutched Air Sherry bv the arm and shook him into consciousness. “Joe, did von hear that?”

“Hear what?” “There’s a man on the hack verandah.”

“Stop your noise and let me listen.” “I’m sure of it, Joe.” “Hush—”

They listened breathlessly for some moments, but the noise was not repeated. “She must have dreamed it,” muttered Air Sherry as he settled down for sleep.

“There it is again, it’s a man!” screamed Airs Sherry. “Oh, oh,” and she fainted off when the distinct noise of a man walking on the back verandah came to her ears.

Air Sherry had heard the footsteps that time, and in a second he was out of bed and across to the corner where the stick with the big nob rested against the wall. Clutching hold of it, he went along the passage to the hack door. M lien he reached it his courage forsook him. and ho stood listening tremblingly for the sound of a movement from the disturber of his slumbers.

Suddenly he thought of the window in the boy’s room, which overlooked the verandah, and to it he hurried and peered through. He expected to see two or perhaps three burly forms waiting to overpower him and rush into the house immediately he unbarred the door, but though ho looked searchingly about, he could see nothing of an intruder.

The boys had been awakened by the screams of their mother, and had huddled together in terror at the unusual commotion. The presence of their father reassured them, and as tlioy plied him with questions as to the cause of the disturbance, his courage returned. After telling the boys not to bo frightened and to try to go to sleep again, no went back to his own room and astily put on his dressing-gown and suppers. Mrs Sherry had recovered from her swoon and when Air Sherry told her that he thought the burglar had deBi(lo P to and i that ho Y as ust goin S outside to make sure, she dried her eves Mi Sherrv y f r aitin f f °? his rotu ™' tim-ii y ’ after unbarring the door tmudly crossed the verandah and ve£

tured into the garden. There he stood looking around him for a few moments, and was just thinking that the would-be burglar must have been scared away by the noise Ins wife had made, when suddenly he descried the outline of a man standing in a flower border on the opposite side.

“What are you doing here?” shouted Air Sherry, as he flourished the big nobbed stick and ran towards the form. The man did not wait to answer the question, but turned and fled along the garden path and across the verandah into the house. The dressing-gown hampered Mr Sherry’s movements, and when ho reached the passage, the unwelcome visitor had disappeared. “Where’s he gone?” shouted Air Sherry, ,but the only answer was a shriek and a sob from the terrified wife, which brought the excited protector of the house quickly to her side. . “Did he come in here. Alary?”

“O-oh, it’s dreadful,” sobbed Airs Sherry. “Re careful, Joe, I—-I think lie’s in the dining-room.” Taking the lighted candle from the dressing-table. Air Sherry went to the dining-room, hut. he found the door locked, just as ho had left it before retiring for the night. Then he went to the boy’s room, but the boy’s had been left in darkness and were so afraid when they heard the intruder run into the house that they covered themselves with the blankets, and did not know where the man had gone.

“Ho must be in the house somewhere,” declared Air Sherry, when he found that the boys could not aid him in locating the robber. “Harry, you get up and run across and tell Air Giles to come, and Fred, you’re the biggest, you run as hard as you can to the police station and fetch a policeman. Hurry up, both of you. I’ll hai* the door again till Air Giles comes and then we’ll search the house together.”

. The door had opened right hack against the wall of the passage, forming a triangle. As Air Sherry took hold of the edge of it to close it his fingers camo into contact with those of the intruder.

“Hough, lie’s behind the door,” excitedly shouted the proprietor of the house. “Stay in that corner, you ruffian, or I’ll knock your head in with this stick,” and he pressed the door back against the wall with one hand, and hold the stick ready to strike in the other.

“Don’t let him hurt you, Joe,” came from Airs Sherry’s room. . “He can’t get out, Alary. I’m all right. Harry, hurry up and fetch Mr Giles.”

The boys were soon ready and sped away on their errands. Air Sherry exerted all his strength to keep the door against the wall, admonishing his prisoner from time to time on the folly of trying to escape from his three-cornered prison. The prisoner was silent, and only his hard breathing after his run betrayed his presence. In little more than ten minutes neighhour Giles arrived, and with gi eat caution the man was brought out from behind the door. Without even an attempt at a struggle, his arms were tied tightly together by his captors, and he was led out into the street. He walked silently between the two men until the constable Fred, had gone in search of was met hurrying towards Air Sherry’s house.

The prisoner was handed over to the man of the law amidst the excited explanations of Air Sherry and the ap-

proving nods of Air Giles. As the constable examined the face of the prisoner ho broke into a loud laugh, to the great astonishment of the men who had done such a good service to the community as to capture a housebreaker in the early hours of the morning. “Ha, ha, ha,” laughed the constable, “this is the best I’ve heard of for a month. Why, it’s Jim Fogg, an idiot who sometimes takes to wandering about at night. He’s quite harmless, though you’ve got him tied up as if lie was a dangerous ruffian. Come on, Jim, I’ll see you safely home/' Airs Sherry declares it is quite time a law was passed preventing half-dement-ed fellows wandering after dark.