noise upstairs, but I feared, the burly fist of Jack, should he
discover me, even more than I did the householders them
selves. Now my wits were ever ready; and even yet, at a
pinch, I am equal to my superiors and superior to my equals.
My superiors were coming- down stairs with a lig'ht, and the
most formidable of my equals had just entered the room
throug-h the window; when I slipped out.
“A warm, welcome to you, Jack, and a pleasant journey
to Sing-Sing-, ” I called throug-h the window with a voice
like a pirate, and bang-ed the shutter.
During- the commotion that followed inside, I g-lided off
in the darkness without even so much as being- challeng-ed.
A fortuig-ht later I was reading- a newspaper in the of
fice of a larg-e hotel when my eye was drawn to the head
ing-: “A Demented House-breaker.” Being- interested, I read
the article throug-h. The concluding- lines ran like this:
‘‘The prisoner, who has been identified as the noted house
breaker, Jack Filton, persists in telling- the outlandish story
that he did not have a partner in the burglary, but that he
was alone and had just entered the house when the real bur
glar made off with the spoils. In the face of the evidence
given, this wild tale is preposterous. Experts give it as
their opinion that the prisoner is suffering from a mental
aberration. ”