These thefts were in the line of jewelry and
the like; and were as daringly wrought as were the modest local
operators' raids on ash-can and laundry.
It is the easiest thing in the world to stir humankind's ever-
tense burglar-nerves into hysterical jangling. In house after
house, for miles of the peaceful North Jersey region, old pistols
were cleaned and loaded; window fastenings and doorlocks were
inspected and new hiding-places found for portable family
treasures.
Across the lake from the village, and down the Valley from a
dozen country homes, seeped the tide of precautions. And it
swirled at last around the Place,--a thirty-acre homestead,
isolated and sweet, whose grounds ran from highway to lake; and
whose wistaria-clad gray house drowsed among big oaks midway
between road and water; a furlong or more distant from either.
The Place's family dog,--a pointer,--had died, rich in years and
honor. And the new peril of burglary made it highly needful to
choose a successor for him.
The Master talked of buying a whalebone-and-steel-and-snow bull
terrier, or a more formidable if more greedy Great Dane.
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