But immediately after dinner, when the posters of the early edition of
the _Signal_ waved in the streets, he had material for other
thought. He saw a poster as he was walking across to his office. The
awful legend ran:
ASTOUNDING ATTEMPTED BURGLARY AT SNEYD HALL.
In buying the paper he was afflicted with a kind of ague. And the
description of events at Sneyd Hall was enough to give ague to a negro.
The account had been taken from the lips of Mrs Gater, housekeeper at
Sneyd Hall. She had related to a reporter how, upon going into the state
suite before retiring for the night, she had surprised a burglar of
Herculean physique and Titanic proportions. Fortunately she knew her
duty, and did not blench. The burglar had threatened her with a
revolver, and then, finding such bluff futile, had deliberately jumped
through a large plate-glass window and vanished. Mrs Gater could not
conceive how the fellow had "effected an entrance." (According to the
reporter, Mrs Gater said "effected an entrance," not "got in." And here
it may be mentioned that in the columns of the _Signal_ burglars
never get into a residence; without exception they invariably effect an
entrance.
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