ceased and the stars shone brightly on a white world as The
Hopper made his way by various trolley lines to the house from which he
had snatched Shaver. On a New Haven car he debated the prospects of more
snow with a policeman who seemed oblivious to the fact that a child had
been stolen--shamelessly carried off by a man with a long police record.
Merry Christmas passed from lip to lip as if all creation were attuned to
the note of love and peace, and crime were an undreamed of thing.

For two years The Hopper had led an exemplary life and he was keenly alive
now to the joy of adventure. His lapses of the day were unfortunate; he
thought of them with regret and misgivings, but he was zestful for
whatever the unknown held in store for him. Abroad again with a pistol in
his pocket, he was a lawless being, but with the difference that he was
intent now upon making restitution, though in such manner as would give
him something akin to the old thrill that he experienced when he enjoyed
the reputation of being one of the most skillful yeggs in the country. The
successful thief is of necessity an imaginative person; he must be able to
visualize the unseen and to deal with a thousand hidden contingencies. At
best the chances are against him; with all his ingenuity the broad, heavy
hand of the law is likely at any moment to close upon him from some
unexpected quarter. The Hopper knew this, and knew, too, that in yielding
to the exhilaration of the hour he was likely to come to grief. Justice
has a long memory, and if he again made himself the object of police
scrutiny that little forty-thousand dollar affair in Maine might still be
fixed upon him.

When he reached the house from whose gate he had removed the roadster with
Shaver attached, he studied it with the eye of an experienced strategist.
No gleam anywhere published the presence of frantic parents bewailing the
loss of a baby. The cottage lay snugly behind its barrier of elms and
shrubbery as though its young heir had not vanished into the void. The
Hopper was a deliberating being and he gave careful weight to these
circumstances as he crept round the walk, in which the snow lay
undisturbed, and investigated the rear of the premises. The lattice door
of the summer kitchen opened readily, and, after satisfying himself that
no one was stirring in the lower part of the house, he pried up the sash
of a window and stepped in. The larder was well stocked, as though in
preparatio