Thus,--from the thief's standpoint,--it was almost a pity the brilliant effort was wasted.

For wasted it was.
This young negro prided himself on his powers of speed and of silence, in plying his trade.

And, today, though he proceeded to excel in the first of these qualities, he disgraced himself most woefully as regarded the second.
For he jerked his hand out of the tonneau far faster than he had thrust it in.

As he did so, he woke the echoes with the most blood-curdling screech his leathern lungs could compass.
As his dusky fingers had closed on the bag, something viselike and relentless had fastened upon those same expert fingers; breaking two of them, and rending the flesh of the lower hand.
Lad, in rising to his feet, after his pleasant nap, at the slowing of the car, had been aware of that predatory hand; as it groped for the bag.

Now, from puppyhood, Lad had been taught to regard everything in the car as under his own careful guardianship.