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“Just robbing, Miss, that’s all. I didn’t expect to find you in, as I saw you with your old man in an automobile. You are Miss
Setliffe, aren’t you?”
Mrs Setliffe saw his mistake, but she was pleased.
“Now please show me the way out,” the man said.
“And what it I cry out for help?” asked the woman.
“I must kill you then,” he answered slowly. “You see, Miss, I can’t go to prison. A friend is waiting for me outside, and I promised to help him.”
“I’ve never met a robber before,” the woman said, “and I can’t tell you how exciting it is. Won’t you stay a few minutes and
talk? I want you to explain the whole thing to me. You don’t look like a robber at all. Why don’t you work?”
“There is no work for me in this city,” he said. “I used to be an honest man before I started looking for a job. Now I must go.”
But Mrs Setliffe did not want to lose her robber. Such things did not happen often in her life.
Turning to the man she said: “I can’t really make you stay, but, come, it down, and tell me all about it.”
She took her seat at the table and placed him on the other side of it. Under the table near her foot, was an electric bell.
“It’s like this,” he began. “I’m not a robber and 1 didn’t come here to steal. You see, I had a little mine once, and old Setliffe
took it away from me. I had nothing left. And as my friend needs money badly I just came to take something back from your father.
I’m really taking what is mine.”
“I feel you’re right,” she said. “But still robbery is robbery.”
“I know that,” he answered. “What is right is not always legal. That’s why I must go.”
“No wait.” The woman suddenly took up the gun. At the same time she pushed the bell with her foot.
A door opened behind him, and he heard somebody enter the room. But he did not even turn his head. Without saying a word, he
was looking at the woman.
“Thomas,” she .said, “call the police.”
The servant left the room. The man and the woman sat at the table looking into each other’s eyes. In her mind’s eye she already
saw the newspapers with the story of the beautiful young Mrs Setliffe who had caught a dangerous robber in her own house.
“When you are in prison,” she said, “think of the lesson I’ve taught you. Now, tell me the truth. I didn’t believe a single word of
your story.”
He did not answer.
“Say something,” she cried. “Why don’t you ask me to let you go?”
“Yеs, I’ll say something. You looked so kind and soft and all the time you had your foot on the bell. Do you know what I’m
going to do? I’m going to get up from this chair and walk out of the door. But you’re not going to shoot. It isn’t easy to kill a man.
With his eyes on her he stood up slowly. She began to pull the trigger.
“Pull harder,” he advised. “Pull it, and kill a man.”
At the door the man turned round. He spoke to her in a low voice as he called her a bad name.
(After J. London)
1. Why did the man become a robber? 2. What kind of man was the robber? What makes you think so? 3. What do you think
about Mrs Setliffe?
4. Does the story describe a typical criminal situation? Why? 5. Why didn’t the woman kill the robber?
Text 2. The Saint
Serge and Blackburn were patrolling the beat in their car.
It was ten past ten when the communications operator said: “All Hollenbeck unite, a suspect has just left twenty-three Brookline
Avenue running eastbound on Brookline and south of Soto. Suspect is male, Mexican, thirty-five to forty, five feet eight to ten, black
hair, wearing a dirty red shirt. Khaki pants, carrying a plaster statue.”
Serge and Blackburn were on Brookline approaching St. Louis when the call came out. They passed the scene of the theft and
Serge saw the radio car parked in front of the house. An officer was sitting in the car. The other officer was in the store talking with
the proprietor.
Serge double-parked for a moment beside the radio car, and read the sign-board on the house “Luz del Die
1
Religious Store.”
“What did the thief take?” Serge called to the officer who was a new rookie
2
that Serge didn’t know.
“A religious statue, sir,” said the young officer, probably thinking he and Blackburn were worth the “sir” since they were
plainclothesmen.
Serge and Blackburn turned south in their car and began glancing around for the thief. He turned east and then north and saw a
man in a red shirt going down the street. The witness had given an excellent description Serge thought, but she didn’t say he was
drunk.
“Here he comes,” said Serge.
“Who?” asked Blackburn.
“The suspect from the religious store. This has to be him. Look.”
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