The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1869-05-22

tualitY, and as time (which, in her opln.
ion, was almost the only thing that
could do it went on without him, she
began to be seriously alarmed lest this
admirable man, whom human 1ngenu-
ity had never yet baftled, had been
overwhelmed by envious Fate. There
had been thunder in the air that night
and Il bolt might have struck him. But
ut daylight she heard the front door
open, and slow tread come up the
stairs. The wife of a chief-constable
should be above the suspicion of trepi
dRtion, but 1t was so unlike his ordi-
nary step, that it made her heart go pit
| apat. However, it was her husband
whose noble spirit something had evil
IDENTIFY cast down. Instead of kicking
his boots across the room, as usual, he
drew them off, and then sat in his
stockings thinking.
john said she, in mucn confusion
and alarm, what Is the matter, my
dear? Have you not caught them
albatrosses ?-I mean albinos.'
Yes, ma'am' they're safe enough
But the deuce of it Is that-in their
absense-there has been another burg
larry. Mrs. Colonel Pewit's house has
been broken into just in the same way
through the second floor back win
dow. It's nothing less than magic, for
that had a miEnonette-box and there
| Is no mark of ladder TO be found
there neither. I've had my bull's.eye
over every square inch of it,
'Lor, John =
There was nobody in the room,
went on the chief constable, musing,
'and the window was open, 80 that
the thing might have been done easy
enough, when he had once got there,
But how he ever did get there-thats
the question--unless the devil had
| wings
But the devil has WINGS was Mrs.
Stott's involuntary exclamation the
good lady was SO hustered by her late
anxiety, that for once she spoke in q
hurry.
You will presently cause me to
imagine that L have made a second
mistake in my life, ma'am,-in hav-
ing married u FOOL was her husbands
stern rejoinder. Then he went on soli-
loquizing. The thief, whoever he was.
and such -like.-but he also took plat
ed inkstand. That looks as If he did
not know his trade. And yet to have
effected an entrance just where nobody
would have thought such a thing prac.
ticable, he must have been most un>
common cunning. Cunning2 No, for
then l should see the thing as plain as
the church tower. It's downright I'M
accountable. How is it humanity pos
sible that things can be stole out of a
second-noor window without ladder,
or anything to climb up by, unless it's
water-spout,-that's what I want to
know. And what's more, even il he
get up, how did he ever get down
again?
Hearing these remarks put aloud,
and in the interro9ative form, Mrs.
Stott thought ii incumbent upon her to
speak, and the more so, as she had in
geniously elaborated a theory of her
own 10 account for the whole MYSTERY.
If nobody could have got in from
the outside, John, people as WAS inside
could have done it easy enough. 1t
was one of them trapesinR servant girls,
who dresses SO fine, and is always
wanting money to buy gewgaws, you
may take my word Tor it,
L don't suppose ma'am,' returned the
Chief Constable, with supreme con-
Tempt, that the Bench OF Justices
would take your word for It, and If /
was weak enough to do so-which l am
not. the servants are all above sus-
picion, both at Sir Roberts and Mrs.
Pewit's-that was the first thing as we
looked to, of course. But even II 1t
were otherwise, do yOu suppose that
thIeving is an epidemic, that it should
break out in one household to-day, and
in another Tomorrow, as this has done?
You had better go to sleep, Ina'am, and
leave me TO think the matter out alone
Which, accordingly this great man,
having drawn his niShtcap on, the bet
ter to consider in, proceeded TO do.
Two burglaries on two following
nights, in Il town under his personal
superintendent, and nobody yet in
custody! He had never imagined that
such plot could befall his 'scutcheon!
1t was not impossible, in town so
slenderly guarded, that a ladder might
have been employed without detection,
it1S ~ ntk nj
cases had such an instrument been
used. The flower. boxes had, in both
instances, projected beyond the Sill, SO
that the top OF any ladder must have
rested on them, and left its mark.
There was also no trace of the foot OF 1t
in the soil below-or sign of an attempt
to remove such trace-although, in the
case OF Sir Roberts house, there was
flower bed Immediately beneath the
window Mr.. Stott, in short, brought
all his intelligence to bear upon this
problem In vain, and nothing came of
1t but headache.
Next day the whole town was in a
state of intense alarm. The previous
robbery had created much excitement
among the Inhabitants, but not so much
on account of the crime as of the saga~
cious manner in which their chief con-
stable had discovered the mode of de-
predation; but now, not only had
second outrage been committed, but the
fact of it's occurrence while the aero
bats were away had proved their limo
cence OF this particular offence, (thOugh
the magistrate, not knowing how else
to account for their seizure, committed
them for q month as rogues and Vaga-
bonds, and negRtived Mr.. John Stott's
solution of the riddle altogether. The
chairman of the Bench, who had been
accustomed to suck that officials brains
before addressing his audience in the
Town Hall, had nothing to say upon
the subject except to recommend the
people to shut their second floor win
dows, which, since it was very warm
weather, and most of them cultivated
flower boxes, did not give general sat
isfaction,
The next night, the Mayors own
house was robbed in precisely simi-
lar manner.
1t was on Friday, and the local pa
pers, which came out the next day,
pubIis he'd second and third editions, to
describe the details. Besides the bur-
glary, sort of sacrilege had been COM
mitled. The thief had actually pos
sessed himself OF the Municipal Mace.
This beautiful object, although not in
trinsically valuable, had apparently
excited his greed, for he had dragged 1t
out of its case as far as a window, and
thence let it fall with report that had
alarmed the house, and denied the
ground below. When the door was
opened, however, (Which the servants
declined to do, until the proper au-
thorities' arrived the marauder had
vanished, and with him this Emblem
of Authority, as we'll as pair of his
Lordship's boot hooks. There happen.
ed to be nothing kept in that room but
the Mayors boots and the town mace.
But the incident was, OF course, as dis
tressing to Mr.. John Stott as though
ham T0lnnHarn6. He