scaled the low stone wall at the side and was in the

concealing shadows of the unlighted side street which

bounds the Prim estate upon the south. The streets of

Oakdale are flanked by imposing battalions of elm and

maple which over-arch and meet above the thorough-

fares; and now, following an early Spring, their foliage

eclipsed the infrequent arclights to the eminent satis-

faction of those nocturnal wayfarers who prefer neither

publicity nor the spot light. Of such there are few within

the well ordered precincts of lawabiding Oakdale; but

to-night there was at least one and this one was deeply

grateful for the gloomy walks along which he hurried

toward the limits of the city.

At last he found himself upon a country road with

the odors of Spring in his nostrils and the world before

him. The night noises of the open country fell strangely

upon his ears accentuating rather than relieving the my-

riad noted silence of Nature. Familiar sounds became

unreal and weird, the deep bass of innumerable bull

frogs took on an uncanny humanness which sent a half

shudder through the slender frame. The burglar felt a

sad loneliness creeping over him. He tried whistling in

an effort to shake off the depressing effects of this seem-

ing solitude through which he moved; but there re-

mained with him still the hallucination that he moved

alone through a strange, new world peopled by invisible

and unfamiliar forms--menacing shapes which lurked in

waiting behind each tree and shrub.

He ceased his whistling and went warily upon the

balls of his feet, lest he unnecessarily call attention to

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