ity of committing murder never occurred to me. The positive
knowledge that I should never be discovered and that I should get
every dollar of his money would not have tempted me to kill him. I lay
for a long time--until I knew that every one must be asleep. Then I
carefully got out of bed. I struck a chair, and I waited to see if my
wife had been awakened by the noise. No; she was sound asleep. I tied
a string to the window button, got my tools, which I had hidden in a
closet and which were mainly intended for show after the robbery was
discovered, and softly stole out. The hall was dark. The old man hated
a gas-bill. I felt my way to the vault-room door and gently pushed it
open, a little at a time. When I got inside I remembered that the very
first thing I must attend to during the excitement which would follow
the discovery of the robbery was to slip the bolt back in its place.
The gas appeared to be burning lower than usual, and I wondered if the
prospect of parting with money enough to make the investment had
driven the old man to one more turn of his screw of economy. Although
I knew how to open the safe, for previous arrangement had made it
easy, I found it to be some trouble after all. But I got it open and
had taken out the money drawer when a noise startled me. I sprang up,
and there was the old man. He was but a few feet from me. He had a
pistol. I saw it gleam in the dim light. I couldn't stand discovery,
and I must protect myself against being shot. I knew that in the
semi-darkness he did not recognize me. All this came with a flash. I
sprang upon him. With one hand I caught the pistol, with the other I
clutched his throat. I would choke him senseless and run back to my
room. He threw up one hand, threw back his head and freed his throat.
We were under the gas jet. My hand struck the screw, and the light
leaped to full blaze. At that instant the pistol fired and the old man
fell, I wheeled about and was in the hall; I sprung the lock after me,
and in a second I was in my own room--just as my wife, dazed with
fright, had jumped out of bed. "Come," I cried, "something must have
happened." And together we ran into the old man's room.'

"'During the excitement which followed I forgot no precaution; I
slipped the bolt back into place and removed the string from the
button of my own window. My wife was frantic. I did not suspect that
the old woman had seen me, for I was not in the vault-room an instant
after the