“What is it, Lu?” Violet asked in trepidation.  “Oh what is the meaning of those sounds coming from below?  Are burglars trying to break in?”

“No, Mamma Vi,” returned Lulu with a little nervous laugh, “they are trying to break out.”

“Break out? what can you mean, child?”

“They are locked into the strong room, Mamma Vi, and papa is calling for help to take them to jail.  Hark! don’t you hear him?”

They sat up in the bed, listening intently.

“Hello!” the captain called:  then in another moment, “Capt.  Raymond of Woodburn, wants the sheriff,” they heard him say.  “Ah are you there Mr. Wright?  Burglars in the house.  Burglars here.  We have them fast, locked into the room with the safe they were trying to break open.  Send a constable and several men to help him, as promptly as you can.”

The reply was of course inaudible to the listeners in the bedroom, but the next moment the captain spoke again.

“Yes, I can hold them till you can get here; unless some outside accomplice should come to their aid.”

He seemed to listen to a response, then a tinkle of his bell told that the conversation was at an end.

He turned at once to a private telephone connecting the dwelling house with the outside cabins in which his men-servants lodged, and called them to come to his assistance.

Then back he went to his bedroom to reassure Violet and send Lulu to Grace, who had waked and was calling in affright to know what was the matter.

“Do not be alarmed, my dear,” he said, as he hastily threw on his clothes:  “I really think there is no cause for apprehension, but I must hurry down to admit the servants (whether the burglars have left a door open or not, I do not know), see in what condition things are in the lower rooms, and keep guard over my prisoners till the sheriff or constable and his men arrive.”

“What can I do?” asked Violet.

“Stay here out of harm’s way, and ready to soothe and quiet the children should they wake in affright,” he answered as he again hastened away.

Violet sprang from the bed and went with swift, noiseless steps into the nursery.  All was quiet there, children and nurse soundly sleeping.  She retraced her steps and went on into Grace’s room, where the two little girls were lying together in the bed, locked in each other’s arms.  Grace trembling with fear, Lulu bravely struggling with her own excitement and trying to calm and soothe her little sister.

“O Mamma Vi, I’m so glad you’ve come!” she exclaimed, as Violet drew near, then seated herself on the side of the bed, and bent down to kiss first the one and then the other, “for Gracie is so frightened.”

“I’m so afraid those wicked men will hurt papa,” sobbed Grace.

“God will take care of him, dear child,” Violet said, repeating her caress.  “Beside your papa just told me he thought there was no cause for apprehension.

“But, Lulu, I have not heard yet how the burglars came to be locked into the strong room.  Tell me about it.”

“Something waked me, Mamma Vi, and I heard them, and by listening a little I made sure where they were.  At first I thought I’d run and call papa; but then I thought there are two of them if not more and papa is only one, so he would hardly have a chance in trying to fight them; but if I should slip quietly down and slam the door to and lock them in, it would save risking papa’s life; and if they should catch me and kill me it wouldn’t be half so bad as if they hurt papa.

“So I asked God to help me and take care of me.  Then I ran down the back stairs to the library.

“The door into the back hall was far enough open to let me slip in without touching it, so that I did so without making any noise to attract their attention; then seeing by the light coming from the crack at the back of the strong room door, that they were in there, I crept close up and peeped in, and there they were; one down on his knees working at the lock of the safe, the other holding a lantern to give him light.

“When I had watched them for a minute, I asked God again to help me; then I felt for the bolt and kept my hand on it while I, all of a sudden, pushed against the door with all my might and slammed it to, and shot the bolt in.

“I’d hardly done it when I heard the men drop their tools and run to the door and try to get it open; saying dreadful words too, that frightened me.  So I only waited to lock the door also before I started to run upstairs and on through the rooms till I got to papa.

“He was asleep and I was so out of breath, and my heart beating so fast I couldn’t speak for a minute.  But I put my arm round his neck and my cheek on the pillow close to his and he woke.”

“And it was you who locked the burglars in?” exclaimed Violet in astonishment.  “I’ve heard before now of women doing such things, but never of a little girl like you attempting it.  You dear, brave, unselfish child!  I am very, very proud of you!” and she bent down again and kissed Lulu several times.

The burglars, quite aware that their presence in the house was known, were making desperate efforts to escape, trying to force the lock or break down the door, at the same time cursing, and swearing in tones of concentrated fury.

The captain drew near and spoke to them.

“Men,” he said sternly, “you are caught in a trap you have laid for yourselves, and escape is impossible; both lock and door are strong enough to resist your utmost efforts; therefore you may as well take matters quietly.”

“That we won’t.  Let us out or it’ll be the worse for you!” growled one of the villians, grinding his teeth with rage.

“Have a little patience,” returned the captain; “you shall be taken out presently, and off the premises; you are by no means desirable inmates in the home of any honest, law-abiding citizen.”

The response to that was a threat of vengeance to be taken sooner or later, should he dare to deliver them up to justice.

Finding their threats disregarded, they tried persuasion, appeals to his compassion asserting that it was their first attempt to rob, and that they were driven to it by necessity they and their families being in sore straits from extreme poverty and promises to lead honest lives in future.

One voice the captain recognized as that of the groom he had dismissed some months before because of his cruelty to Thunderer.

“Ajax,” he said sternly, “you are lying to me!  I know that your family are not in distress, and that you can make an honest living if you choose to be industrious and faithful to your employers.  You were well paid here but lost your situation by inexcusable cruelty to dumb animals.

“Since discharging you I have more than once supplied the wants of your wife and children; and this is your grateful return; coming to rob me, bringing with you another, and perhaps more desperate villain than yourself.”

The men-servants had followed their master into the library and stood listening to the colloquy in open-mouthed astonishment.

“How dey git locked up in dar, cap’in?” asked one.

“Miss Lulu slammed the door to on them and locked and bolted it,” he replied, his eyes shining at thought of the unselfish bravery of his child.

“Ki, cap’n! you’s jokin’, fo’ shuah, dat little Miss Lu lock up de bugglars? how she gwine do dat? she one small chile an’ dey two big men?”

“She undoubtedly did it,” returned the captain, smiling at the man’s evident amazement.  “She heard them at work with their tools, on the safe door, came softly down into this room, peeped at them through the crack behind the door there, and before they were aware of her vicinity, slammed it to and bolted and locked it on them.”

“Hurrah for little Miss Lu!” cried the men; one of them adding, “Dey mus’ hab her fo’ a kunnel in de nex’ wah.”

“No, sah; higher’n dat; fo’ brigandine gineral at de berry leas’!” said another.

Seeing no hope of escape, the prisoners had ceased their efforts and awaited their fate in sullen silence.

They did not know who had been their captor, and in telling the story of Lulu’s exploit the captain purposely so lowered his tones that scarce a word reached their ears.

At this moment Max appeared at the door opening from the library into the front hall; only half dressed and asking in much excitement, what was the matter? what was the meaning of the lights and the noises that had waked him?

His father explained in a few words, and as he finished a loud knocking at the front entrance told of the arrival of the sheriff and his posse.

They were promptly admitted, filed into the library and formed a semi-circle about the door of the strong room each man with a revolver in his hand, cocked and ready for instant use.

The door was then unfastened and the burglars stepped out only to be immediately handcuffed and carried away to prison, sullenly submitting to their arrest because they saw that resistance was useless.

But before being taken from the house they were searched and the captain’s watch found upon Ajax.  He had evidently visited the dressing-room of his late master to obtain the key to the strong room door, and appropriated the watch at the same time.

The lock of the safe was also examined and found but little injured.  The scoundrels had not succeeded in getting at the valuables there.

They had collected together some from other parts of the house and made them into bundles ready to carry away, but they were uninjured and had only to be restored to their places.

Max was greatly excited.  “Papa,” he said, when the sheriff had departed with his prisoners, and doors and windows were again secured, “we have had a narrow escape from serious loss; perhaps worse than that; for who knows but those fellows meant to murder us in our beds?”

“I think not, my son,” replied the captain.  “I presume their only object was plunder, and that if they had succeeded in rifling the safe without discovery, they would have gone quietly away with their booty.

“Had they desired to kill any of us, they would have been likely to attempt it when upstairs in search of the key to the strong room.”

“And it was Lu who spoiled their plans!  Just think of it!  I’d like to have had her chance.  Papa, I think Lu’s splendid!”

“She has certainly shown herself very brave and unselfish on this, and several other occasions,” the captain said with a happy look in his eyes.

“But come, we will do well now to go back to our beds, for it is scarcely four o’clock,” he added, consulting his recovered watch.

The men servants had returned to their quarters, and father and son were alone.

Violet, in dressing-gown and slippers, met them at the head of the stairway.

“You have not been able to sleep, my love?” the captain said with a glance of concern at her pale, excited face.  “But of course that was not to be expected.”

“No; we have all been too much excited to close an eye,” she answered.”  They are gone?  Do tell me all about it!”

“O papa, please come in here and tell it where Gracie and I can hear,” called Lulu entreatingly, from the inner room, and the bed where they still lay clasped in each other’s arms.

“I will; I think you deserve the indulgence,” he said going to them, Violet and Max following, the latter asking, “May I come in too, papa?”

“Yes,” replied his father, placing a chair for Violet.  “I presume it will be a relief to you all to talk the matter over together with your mamma and me, and you will perhaps be more inclined for sleep afterward.”

“Papa, won’t you sit down and take me on your knee, and hug me up close, while you tell it?” entreated Grace.

“I will,” he said, doing as she requested.  Then catching a longing look in Lulu’s eyes, “You may come too, daughter,” he said.  “Slip on your dressing-gown and stand here by my side.  I have an arm for you as well as one for Gracie.”

Lulu promptly and joyfully availed herself of the permission.

“Lu,” said Max, “you’re a real heroine! brave as a lion!  I’m proud to own you for my sister.  I’m afraid I mightn’t have been half so brave.”

“Oh yes, Max, I’m sure you would have done just the same,” she returned, blushing with pleasure.  “And you see I preferred to do it, because I thought they might kill papa, and that would have been oh so much worse than being killed myself!” clinging lovingly to her father, and hiding her face on his shoulder as she spoke.

“Dear child!” he said in moved tones and clasping her close, “you have a very strong and unselfish love for me.”

“Papa, it would have broken my heart, and Mamma Vi’s, and Max’s and Gracie’s too, if anything dreadful had happened to you.”

“And what about papa’s heart if he should lose his dear little daughter Lulu, or anything dreadful should happen to her?”

“I didn’t have time to think about that, papa.  I know you love me very much, and would be sorry to lose me naughty as I often am but you have other children, and I have only one father; so of course it would be a great deal worse for me to lose you, and all the rest to lose you too.”

“The worst thing that could befall us,” said Violet; “but Lulu, dear, we all love you and would feel it a terrible thing to have you killed or badly injured in any way.”

“Indeed we would!” exclaimed Max, with a slight tremble in his voice.

“Oh I couldn’t ever, ever bear it!” sobbed Gracie, throwing an arm round her sister’s neck.

“Well,” said the captain cheerfully, hugging both at once, “we have escaped all the evils we have been talking of; our heavenly Father has taken care of us and has not suffered us to even lose our worldly goods, much less our lives; and we may well trust Him for the future and not fear what man can do unto us.”

“Yes,” said Violet, “we know that He has all power in heaven and earth and will never suffer any real evil to befall one of His people.

“’He will not suffer thy foot to be moved; he, that keepth thee will not slumber.’

“Levis, did you know those men?”

“One of them is Ajax.”

“Is it possible?” she exclaimed.  “What a return for all the kindness you have shown to him and his!”

“Ajax!  There, I was sure I heard Ajax’s voice in the hall while the sheriff was here,” cried Lulu.  “He must have been the one who was down on his knees trying to break the safe lock when I peeped in at the crack.  I didn’t see his face; but the other was a white man.”

“Yes,” said Max; “a man we’d seen before.”

“The tramp you saw when out riding?” asked his father.

“Yes, sir.”

“I recognized him too,” said Lulu.  “Papa, what will be done with him and Ajax?”

“They will have to be tried for burglary and if convicted, will be sent to the penitentiary for a term of years.”

“Papa, will we have to appear as witnesses on the trial?” asked Max.

“Yes.”

“The men did not attempt any resistance to the arrest?” Violet said inquiringly.

“No; they saw it would be quite useless.”

After a little more talk the captain said, “Now I think it will be best for us all to go to our beds again and try to sleep till the usual hour for rising.”

“Papa, I feel so afraid,” said Grace, holding tight to him as he would have laid her in the bed.

“My darling, try not to feel so,” he said, caressing her; “try to believe that God will take care of you.”

“Please ask him again, papa,” she pleaded.

Then they all knelt while the captain asked in a few simple, earnest words that He who neither slumbers nor sleeps would be their shield, defending them from all evil, and that trusting in His protecting care they might be able to banish every fear and lay them down in peace and sleep.

“I am not afraid now, papa,” Grace said, as they rose from their knees.  “You may please put me in my bed, and I think I’ll go to sleep directly, for I’m very tired.”

“You will allow them to sleep past the usual hour, my dear, will you not?” asked Violet.

“Yes,” he said, “I wish you, children, to sleep on as long as you can, and if possible make up all you have lost by the visit of the burglars; it will not matter if you take your breakfast later than usual by even so much as an hour or two.”

“But that will make us late for lessons, papa,” suggested Max.

“Which I will excuse for once,” returned his father with an indulgent smile.