Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1869-05-07

u.
Gus Fate. There had been thunder in the
air that night and bolt might have
struck him. But at daylight she heard the
front-door open, and low tread come
up the stairs. The vile of chief-consta'
bic should be above the suspicion OF trepi,
dation. but it was so unlike his ordinary
step. that it made her heart go pitapat
However. it aoas her husband, whose noble
spirit something had evidently cast down
Instead of kicking his boots across the
room, as usual, he drew them OIL, ana then
sat in his stockings, thinking.
"John" said she, in much confusion ano
alarm, "what is the matter, my dear
Have you not caught them albatrosses!-
mean albinos."
eyes, ma'am, they're safe enough, but
the deuce of it is that-in their absence
there has been another burglary
Mrs Colonel Peewit's house has been
broken into just in the same way-through
the second floor back window. It's moth
ing less than magic, for that had migno-
nette- box, and there is no mark Of lad.
der to be found there neither. I've had
my bulls eye over every square inch ol
it."
"Lor, joint"
"There was nobody in the room," went
on the chief-constable, musing, "and the
window was open, so that the thing might
have been dore easy enough, when he
had once got there. But how he ever did
get there,-that's the question,-unless the
devil had wings"
"But the Devil has wings" was Mrs.
Sto it's involuntary exclamation the good
lady was so fustered by her late anxiety,
that for once she spoke in hurry.
"You will presently cause me to imag-
inc that | have made a second mistake In
my life, ma am,-in the having married a
fool" was her husbands stern rejolnder.
Then he went on soliloquizing. "The
thief, who ever he was, took the same
things,-rings and pins, and such-like,-
but he also took plated inkstand. That
looks as if ne did not know his trade.
And yet, to have effected an entrance just
where nobody would have thought such a
thing practicable, he must have been most
uncommon cunning. Cunning? No, tor
then should see the thing as plain as the
church tower. It's downright unaccounta-
BILE. How is it humanity possible that
things can be stole out of a second floor
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 if he got up, how did he ever
get down again" ?"
Hearing these remarks put aloud, and in
an interrogative form, Mrs. Stott thought
1t incumbent upon her to speak, and the
more so, as she had ingeniously elabor-
ated a theory of her own to account tor
the whole mystery.
hau in, from
outside, John, people as was inside
could have done it easy enough. Ii was
one of them trapesing servant girls, VINO
dresses so fine, and is always wanting
money to buy gewgaws, you may take my
word for it,"
"I don't suppose, ma'am," returned the
chief. constable, with supreme contempt,
" that the Bench Of Justices would take
your word for it, even if was weak
enough to do so,-which am not. The
servants are all above suspicion, both at
Sir Roberts and Mrs. Peewit's that was
the first thing as we looked to, of course
But even if it were otherwise, do you sup
pose 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 60 to sleep, ma'am,
and leave me to think the matter out
alone" Which, accordingly, this great
man, having drawn his night-cap on, the
better to consider in, proceeded to do.
Two burglaries on two following nights,
in town under his personal superinten-
dence, and nobody yet in custody He
had never imagined that such a plot could
befall his 'scutcheon! 1t was not impossi-
BILE, in a town so slenderly guarded, that a
ladder might have been employed without
detection, but, most certainly in neither of
these cases had such an instrument been
used The flower boxes had, in both in
stances, projected beyond the sill, so that
the top of any ladder must have rested on
them, and left it's mark. There was also
no trace of the foot of it in the soil below,
or sign of an attempt to remove such
trace, = although, in the case of Sir
Roberts house, there was fiower-bed i'm
mediately beneath the window" Mr..
Stott, in short, brought all his intelligence
to bear upon this problem in vain, and
nothing came of it but headache.
Next day, the whole town was
in a state of intense alarm. The
previous robbery had created much
excitement among the inhabitants,
as of the sagacious manner in which their
chief-constable had discovered the mode of
depreciation; but now, not only had sec
ond outrage been committed, but the fact
of its occurrence while the acrobats were
away had proved their innocence of this
particular offense Though the magistrates,
not knowing how else to account for their
seizure, committed them for month, as
rogues and vagabonds), and negatived Mr.
John Stott's solution of the riddle alto.
gether. 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 people
to shut their second-foor windows, which,
since it was very warm weather, and most
of them cultivated flower boxes, did not
give general satisfaction.
The next night, the mayors own house
was robbed in a precisely similar manner
1t was on Friday, and the local papers
which came out the next day, published
second and third editions, to describe the de.
tails. Besides the burglary, sort of sac
rilege had been committed. The thief had
actually possessed himself of the Munich
pal Mace This beautiful object, although
not intrinsically valuable, had apparently
excited his greed, for he had dragged il
out of its case as far as the window, and
thence let it fall with report that had
alarmed the house, and dented the ground
below. When the door was opened, how
ever (which the servants declined to do
until the proper authorities arrived)
the marauder had vanished, and with
him this Emblem of Authority, as we'll al
pair of his Lordship's boot-hooks. There
happened to be nothing kept in that room