efore a sound betrayed her presence.

Standing at the sideboard, hastily ransacking the neat contents of an
open drawer, stood a man's figure, dimly visible in the moonlight
gloom. As Miss Calista's grim form appeared in the doorway, the
midnight marauder turned with a start and then, with an inarticulate
cry, sprang, not at the courageous lady, but at the open window behind
him.

Miss Calista, realizing with a flash of comprehension that he was
escaping her, had a woman-like impulse to get a blow in anyhow; she
grasped and hurled at her unceremonious caller the first thing that
came to hand--a bottle of peppermint essence that was standing on the
sideboard.

The missile hit the escaping thief squarely on the shoulder as he
sprang out of the window, and the fragments of glass came clattering
down on the sill. The next moment Miss Calista found herself alone,
standing by the sideboard in a half-dazed fashion, for the whole thing
had passed with such lightning-like rapidity that it almost seemed as
if it were the dissolving end of a bad dream. But the open drawer and
the window, where the bits of glass were glistening in the moonlight,
were no dream. Miss Calista recovered herself speedily, closed the
window, lit the lamp, gathered up the broken glass, and set up the
chairs which the would-be thief had upset in his exit. An examination
of the sideboard showed the precious five hundred safe and sound in an
undisturbed drawer.

Miss Calista kept grim watch and ward there until morning, and thought
the matter over exhaustively. In the end she resolved to keep her own
counsel. She had no clue whatever to the thief's whereabouts or
identity, and no good would come of making a fuss, which might only
end in throwing suspicion on someone who might be quite innocent.

When the morning came Miss Calista lost no time in setting out for
Kerrytown, where the money was soon safely deposited in the bank. She
heaved a sigh of relief when she left the building.

I feel as if I could enjoy life once more, she said to herself.
Goodness me, if I'd had to keep that money by me for a week itself,
I'd have been a raving lunatic by the end of it.

Miss Calista had shopping to do and friends to visit in town, so that
the dull autumn day was well nigh spent when she finally got back to
Cooperstown and paused at the corner store to get a bundle of matches.

The store was full of men, smoking and chatting around the fire, and
Miss Calista,