Sure enough, they could see the narrow gleam from a mask lantern. The burglars were at the open door of the room. A moment passed and an arm was thrust forward. The light from the mask lantern shot over the room. Apparently, in the bed lay a sleeper. On the dressing bureau was a box, evidently a jewel case. A mirror permitted the two lads to see the movements and faces of the two rogues, and there came an expression of triumph and gratification to the face of both as their glance rested on the jewel case, and indeed the surroundings all appeared to indicate an "easy thing," as one of the fellows had put it the previous evening.
They were very deliberate in their movements, and when satisfied that the road was clear they stepped into the room, their eyes fixed on the bed where the sleeper was supposed to be lying. They had arrived half-way across the floor toward the jewel case on the dressing bureau when suddenly an immense hound confronted them—arose before them as though he had suddenly come up through the floor. The men were both armed and carried their weapons ready for instant use, but they stood and glared. They were paralyzed, as it were, with astonishment. The thing was not quite so easy at that moment, but one can imagine their bewilderment when, as they stood and gazed, the dog appeared to say in a singularly doglike fashion, after a regular dog yawn:
"I've got my eye on you fellows. Don't attempt to use those revolvers or I'll chew you to mince-meat."
One of the men managed to ejaculate:
"Great Scott! the dog spoke!"
The men were struck nerveless, and their terror and bewilderment increased when the dog appeared to say, with a strange, doglike laugh:
"It's dead easy, old man; it's dead easy."
The men's faces became ghastly and one of them in gasps managed to say:
"It's the devil!"
"No, you are the devils, and I am after you; yes, I am, dead sure. You miserable skunks, to steal into a house to rob!"