If I'm going to try to do it, the sooner the better.

I'll ask God to show me how and help me." She knelt on the carpet for a moment, sending up her petition in a few earnest words, then rising, stood for an instant thinking very fast.
She could gain the library by a door opening into a back hall and very near that into the strong room, whose door, if open, would be in a position to conceal her approach from the burglars till she could step behind it; so that her scheme seemed not impracticable.
She hastily put on a dark dressing-gown over her white night dress, and thick felt slippers on her feet.
Her heart beat very fast as the thought occurred to her that there might be an accomplice in the library or hall, or that the door from the one into the other might creak and bring the miscreants rushing out upon her before she could accomplish the task she had set herself.
"Well what if they should, Lulu Raymond ?" she asked, shutting her teeth hard together, "'twouldn't be half so bad as if they should harm your father.

You could be very well spared, but he couldn't; Mamma Vi, Max and Gracie would break their hearts if anything dreadful happened to him, and so would you too; I'll try, trusting to God to take care of me." With swift, noiseless steps she passed out of her room, down a back stairway into the hall just spoken of, and gained the library door, finding it, to her great joy, wide enough open for her to slip in without touching it.
She could see nothing there; the room was quite dark; but the sounds she had heard were still going in the strong room, seeming a little louder now.

The men must be in there at work on the safe; with the door ajar, for a streak of light at the back between it and the jamb, told her it was not quite shut.
She crept to it and peeping in at that crack, saw a man down on his knees working at the lock of the safe, while another stood close beside him, holding a dark lantern, open, so that the rays of light fell full and strongly upon the lock his confederate was trying to break.
Lulu could not see the face of the latter, his back being toward her, but as the other bent forward for a moment, to watch the progress of the work, the light fell on his face, and she instantly recognized him as the tramp who had seized Fairy's bridle in the wood.
Trembling like a leaf she put up her hand and cautiously felt for the bolt; holding tight to it and exerting all her strength, she suddenly slammed the door to and shot it into its socket.

She heard the villains drop their tools, spring toward and try the door with muttered oaths and curses; but she waited to feel for the key and turn it in the lock; even to pull it out and thrust it into the pocket of her gown, as a swift thought came to her, that there might be an accomplice lurking about who would release them if she left it there.
Then she ran as fast as her feet could carry her, through the library and hall, up the stairs and on through the rooms, never stopping until she stood panting for breath beside her sleeping father.
She could not speak for a moment, but laid her face on the pillow beside his and put her arm round his neck.
The touch roused him and he asked, "Who is it?
you, Lulu ?" "Yes, papa," she panted; "I--I've locked some burglars into the strong room and--" "_You?
you_ have locked them in there ?" he exclaimed in astonishment starting up and drawing her into his arms.