It was not with anything else except cold.
So Dicky and Oswald crept down, and when we got to the bottom of the stairs, we saw Father's study door just ajar, and the crack of light.
And Oswald was so pleased to see the light, knowing that burglars prefer the dark, or at any rate the dark lantern, that he felt really sure it _was_ the cat after all, and then he thought it would be fun to make the others upstairs think it was really a robber.

So he cocked the pistol--you can cock it, but it doesn't go off--and he said, 'Come on, Dick!' and he rushed at the study door and burst into the room, crying, 'Surrender! you are discovered! Surrender, or I fire! Throw up your hands!' And, as he finished saying it, he saw before him, standing on the study hearthrug, a Real Robber.

There was no mistake about it.

Oswald was sure it was a robber, because it had a screwdriver in its hands, and was standing near the cupboard door that H.O.broke the lock off; and there were gimlets and screws and things on the floor.

There is nothing in that cupboard but old ledgers and magazines and the tool chest, but of course, a robber could not know that beforehand.
When Oswald saw that there really was a robber, and that he was so heavily armed with the screwdriver, he did not feel comfortable.