Jonathan Rivers lived alone in an orderly house in London. Like many other single, middle-aged men, he was getting rather set in his ways. Before he left the house in the morning, he would carefully close all the doors downstairs, open some windows upstairs to let the air in, and lock the front door.
One summer evening, Jonathan returned home as usual. When he opened the front gate, he immediately noticed something strange. There was a heavy footprint in the earth in one of the flowers beds. Then he noticed that one of the white curtains in the front room downstairs was out of place. Jonathan never left anything out of place.
He walked up to the front door and opened it quietly. He listened carefully for a few moments but could hear nothing. Inside, the front-room door was half open. Jonathan studied it thoughtfully, wondering if he had forgotten to close it that morning. He stepped silently across the hall to the door and looked inside the room. The shadow of a man was clearly reflected on the far wall in the evening sunlight. The man had clearly been standing behind the door since Jonathan's return. Jonathan immediately locked the door. Then he calmly picked up the telephone in the hall and set about calling the police.
The burglar (盗贼), a tall fellow, tried to climb through a window to get out but Jonathan had expected that. He attacked him with his umbrella, using it like a sword (剑). Three minutes later the police arrived. Jonathan was a little annoyed (苦恼的) that he had to have dinner later than usual, but on the whole he felt quite pleased with himself.