文档介绍：FURTHER ADVENTURES OF LAD
FURTHER
ADVENTURES OF LAD
by ALBERT PAYSON TERHUNE
1
FURTHER ADVENTURES OF LAD
CHAPTER I. ing Of Lad
In the mile-away village of Hampton, there had been a veritable
epidemic of burglaries--ranging from the theft of a brand-new ash-can
from the steps of the Methodist chapel to the ravaging of Mrs. Blauvelt's
whole lineful of clothes, on a washday dusk.
Up the Valley and down it, from Tuxedo to Ridgewood, there had been
a half-score robberies of a very different order--depredations wrought,
manifestly, by professionals; thieves whose motor cars served the
twentieth century purpose of such historic steeds as Dick Turpin's Black
Bess and Jack Shepard's Ranter. 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
essor for him.
The Master talked of buying a whalebone-and-steel-and-snow bull
terrier, or a more formidable if more greedy Great Dane. But the Mistress
wanted a collie. So promised by getting the collie.
He reached the Place in a crampy and smelly crate; preceded by a long
envelope