The Nabob's Double

HAS Man a spirit that's more than breath,
A spirit that walks in sleep or in death;
Shakes off at will its dust of the earth,
And, waking by night, goes wandering forth
To work its wish with a noiseless tread,
While the body lies bound full-length in bed?

This is the fact, as sure as fate,
For Burglar Bill, and his midnight mate,
That frightened until it converted him,
To join the "Salvation Army" with Jim.

Many a "crib" had the couple "cracked";
Large was their luck with the swag they sacked.
Many a time thought Burglar Bill,
"Old Nabob's looks very lone on the hill!"
But, there was the Dog whose infernal bark
Could be heard through a mile of solid dark.

One day it was rumoured that "Keeper" was dead.
To himself Bill knowingly nodded his head,
"To-night or never," he cunningly said.

That night up-hill the couple crept,
To rifle his store as the rich man slept.
All heaven mirrored, with stars agleam,
The dazzle of diamonds in their dream!

They entered their treasury—struck a light—
A tiny light—but it showed a sight
To make the Burglar's heart turn white!
The Nabob sitting alone in his chair,
Facing them there with his long white hair,
And his eyes wide open with corpse-like stare.
And close by his side, keeping watch and ward,
The statue as 'twere of a dog on guard,
With mouth agape, but never a bark;
The dog that was dead and stiff and stark;
Threatening them as if in life!

Jim rushed at the old man with his knife,
And drove it right through—an empty chair,
Instead of the figure sitting there.
For the Nabob vanished, dog and all,—
And the burglars vanished without their haul.

Meanwhile, at the moment he felt the stroke,
Upstairs in bed the Nabob woke.
"Oh wife! are you here? Am I dead? is it night?
Oh wife! I have suffered an unkind fright!
I dreamed I was dozing below in my chair,
When suddenly, helplessly, I was aware,
In the dead of the night there was life in the gloom;
Then a light—and two masked men in the room:
One of them dealt me a murderous blow,
And—I woke from my dream in the room below.
But this, O my God! was the strangest thing,
'Keeper' was with me; I saw him spring:
Swift as the flash of the falling knife
He flew at the Thief as he would in life!"

Only a dream! but they went down-stair,
And there were the burglar's tools, and there
Was the knife stuck fast in its stab of the chair!