Neith Boyce

“ Burton absently. "But we express our opinions. We don't believe in Government."
SHE frowned as the revolver lying on her knee caught her eye, and she looked at the bound hands and feet of the burglar. He was shoeless, and his hosiery was by no means above reproach. Otherwise he was fairly well dressed.
"Don't you?" be said skeptically.
"No," said Mr. Burton, taking a hand in the conversation. "We agree with your friends in jail that government ought to be abolished. We think that society is all wrong. We don't believe in capitalism or private property." ”

“ Burton. "You're quite right not to work, in the present state of Society. Only you don't seem to me to be much of a success at stealing. You spend too much time in prison."
The burglar for the first time looked Mr. Burton in the eye and spoke spontaneously.
"You're right, I ain't a success," he said bitterly. "I made a good thing as a dip—a pickpocket—for years. I made sometimes fifty dollars a week. But I got too ambitious. I tried the second-story business, and I ain't got the nerve to make a go of it, that's the truth!" ”

“ Burton. "Make sure that there's nobody in hiding."
"You needn't take the trouble," said the burglar with an air of bravado. "There's nobody but me. I always work alone."
"Ye do, do ye? And d'ye think we'll take your word for it?" inquired Michael truculently. "Come now, how did ye get in? Climbed the porch, hey?"
"None of your business, my man," said the burglar nonchalantly.
"What's Miss Hayden doing?" said Mrs. Burton sharply. "Here, she's at the telephone—stop her, Theodore!"
Miss Hayden was stopped, and explained: "I was just calling up the Elmwood police station." ”

“ I can't divide my properly with you, because I consider that I do better to use it in propagating Anarchism. But when the day of division comes I shall be ready—and may you be there to get your share! ”

“ Burton, "before you got the drop on me."
"Why didn't you, then?" she asked.
"Well—I ain't never shot anybody yet, to kill—and I didn't want to begin with a woman. . . . I guess my nerve is gone all right," he ended hopelessly, his head drooping.
"Gone? Not a bit of it," said Mr. Burton. "You've got as fine an article of nerve as I ever saw."
MEANTIME the house seemed to be waking up. Miss Hayden, the English governess, spoke agitatedly from a window. Michael the coachman pounded on the door below. ”