“Set a basin of water down here.  He may recover.  Poor fellow!  This was a cruel return for his kindness to Wesley,” Jack said, forcing the dog’s nose into the basin.  He began to lap the cool water greedily.  But now Dick, in the doorway, littered a cry.

“They are in the house.  I hear them moving in the vestibule.  Come, for God’s sake, Jack!  They are making for Mrs. Atterbury’s apartment.  Evidently some one who knows that the family jewels are there, for what else can they want?”

The dog staggered to his feet as the two stole softly from the room.  They followed with high-wrought, loudly-beating hearts and tingling nerves.  The marauders in front of them moved on like men accustomed to the house.  They made, as the light footfalls indicated, straight for Mrs. Atterbury’s door, which, unlike the others, fronted the length of the hall in a small vestibule sunk into the lateral wall.  The invaders were thus screened from Jack and Dick when they had turned the corner, and the latter were forced to move with painful caution to get the advantage of surprise to offset superior numbers.  But now a new peril menaces them.  A shuffling in the long corridor behind them freezes the current of their blood.  They have been caught in a trap.  There are two forces in the house.  They both turn and halt, silent and trembling, against the south wall and wait.  The steps still advance, the scraping of the nailed boots tears the light matting.

“We will wait until the new-comer or new-comers are abreast,” Jack breathes in Dick’s ear, “and then fire a volley into them point blank.”

At the instant Rosa’s shriek, blood-curdling and electric, breaks from the corner.  Dick is over the intervening steps in two mighty bounds, Jack at his heels and the foe in the rear following.  Against the open window Dick catches the outlines of his darling in the brawny arms of Tarquin.  He has the advantage of the light, and, as the ruffian retreats to the window, Dick is at his side, and in an instant deals him a stunning blow on the head.  Jack, in the dim light, sees the dark figure dashing at him with the gleam of steel in his hand.  He levels his weapon, three reports ring out at once, and the miserable Wesley falls with a dreadful gurgling gasp on the floor.

But there are interlopers in the rear as well!  Jack turned to confront them.  He realized vaguely hearing a struggle as he confronted the robbers.  Ah! yes, the dog; the dog has come upon the scene.  There is sound of low, fierce, growling, flying footsteps on the floor, and Jack, assuring himself by a quick glance that there were no more marauders in the room, hurried to see that the front door was closed before re-enforcements could come to the invaders.  But Pizarro’s lusty growls, denoting recovered strength, attracted him kitchenward, and he encountered Barney, and with Barney something of a clew to the hideous attempt.  One prayer was in his heart—­one