Читать книгу Charles Peace, or The Adventures of a Notorious Burglar онлайн

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While thus ruminating he was startled by a noise as of something heavy thrown against the window of his little room.

He arose suddenly and threw open the casement.

Something was flung into the window. It fell upon the floor.

Peace picked it up. It was a small pebble, around which was a piece of note paper.

“What’s the meaning of this?” exclaimed our hero, peering curiously out of the window.

No one was to be seen.

He sat down again and unfolded the paper, spread it out on his knee, and saw written thereon these words:—

“Be cautious. Keep watch and ward. Somebody’s in the house, a stranger, who is of no good. Take warning!—​A Friend.”

“I can’t make this out. ‘Somebody’s in the house who is no good.’ Curse it, I wish the writer had been a little more explicit; this is most incomprehensible.”

Again he looked out of his window in every direction, but could not see a living creature.

The handwriting on the paper he failed to recognise.

“This is most remarkable,” he ejaculated. “Who is in the house, I wonder, that means no good? Some robber, I suppose—​some suspected person. Well, I’ll have my revolver handy in case of any attack; but after all it may only be a grim joke of one of my parlour acquaintances?”