to do was to pay out the steel cable and the silver would descend
to the dining-room, and the maid could have the table all set by
the time breakfast was ready. Not once did Sarah have a suspicion
that all this was not merely a household economy, but my burglar
trap.

On the sixth of August, at two o'clock in the morning, Sarah
awakened me, and I immediately sat straight up in bed. There was
an undoubtable noise of sawing, and I knew at once that a burglar
was entering our home. Sarah was trembling, and I knew she was
getting nervous, but I ordered her to remain calm.

"Sarah," I said, in a whisper, "be calm! There is not the least
danger. I have been expecting this for some time, and I only hope
the burglar has no dependent family or poor old mother to
support. Whatever happens, be calm and keep perfectly quiet."

With that I released the steel cable from the head of my bed
and let the glass case full of silver slide noiselessly to the
sideboard.

"Edgar!" whispered Sarah in agonized tones, "are you giving him
our silver?"

"Sarah!" I whispered sternly, "remember what I have just said.
Be calm and keep perfectly quiet." And I would say no more.

In a very short time I heard the window below us open softly,
and I knew the burglar was entering the parlour from the side
porch. I counted twenty, which I had figured would be the time