The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-01-14

the rascal-that it amt no wonder we wal
put wrong. You had been noticed hurry
ing off to the station we thought we was
tracking him all the while. Our descrip.
ton of him hit you off 30 well, that we got
that information about your gray jacket
and that queer cap you wore, and 90 on
Then again the description of you we tele.
graphed here quite fitted with the one
they'd got of him Although, sir, you see
it weren't our fault Besides, you'd beeu
seen with a red pocket-book down at Spa,
and you'd been seen with one at the sta
ton here. Which that were q odd start
too, you're having your pocket cut that
way, wern't it, sirp
"I had arrived at that opinion already
but as had about enough Of this Comedy
of Errors by this time, I cut Mr.. Rokerre's
discourse as the 'Chorous' ruthlessly short
here.
"Impassible as ever again, Monsieur
Dard had played an almost silent part in
saluted us comprehensively, and departed
without a word. As his friend and con
frre Rokerre had remarked, tall things
agent was excusable enough. 1t was
nevertheless, though, q mistake, and 1t
punished Monsieur Dard's infallibility
sorcly to have to own it was.
But he said in the course of brief
conversation we had before left Paris
but, en- reodnche, think can promise
you, Monsieur Langley. the recovery of
the money you were robbed Of on the
night of your arrival
"You have a clue, then?' inquired,
not over hopefully.
"'I have my little theory. II l get
carte blanche to act upon it, win answer
for success this time
"Very good but remember, Monsieur
Dard, l don't know the number of single
note, to begin with
"'That is of no consequence you can
identify the portefeuille
"Of course
"WeIl, it is part of my theory that tho
money is in that portefeuil)e still, exactly
as it was when it was stolen
"'The only thing, then, is to discov-
er the portefeuille, Monsieur Dard'' I
laughed.
@Precisely,' he responded. If. as I
say, am allowed to act, consider that
discovery certain. 1t shall be my on'e"de
honorable
with that Monsieur Dard took his
leave l can't say that he left me with
any very abiding hope Of getting my
notecase again. 1t was, nevertheless,
destined to become 'an affair not yet for
gotten at the Prefecture.
"On the Boulevard, three months later,
l ran against We're one afternoon.
"Wen, my Thompsonne,' said the far
ceur. 'and how is business, eh? Faxed
any more fat note cases lately2 Isuppose
so, for your old friend Dard was inquiring
for you just now
"What did he want me fOr?'
"'I couldn't gather the precise crime
you'd been perpet-ating; but he asked 30
suspiciously when you'd be back that I
thought it more easy to answers him vo-
cally out of Kathleen Mavourneen'-
II might MT be for years, and It might nt b for
ever"
at which he seemed annoyed So at last
proposed for certain sum down to be-
tray you unto him tonight
"Don't be fool! What do you
mean?'
"I mean that I'm going to order .
mirobolant dinner in here, and that you
are to pay for it like bird. At least, I
shall think but poorly of you if you don't,
when have told you that-keep cool now
that our Dard has recovered the coin
you boned from-I mean the coin that was
boned from you, you know.
"Bahp
/" And that your formal Identification of
your purloined note-case is all that is
wanting to put you once more in posses
sion of your in-gotten gains, when, as .
matter of course, you will invite Us all to
a dancing supper at Brebant's.'
"Imay as well add at once that was
eventually let in for this entertainment
and then leave Monsieur Dard to finish
the Affair Of the Red Portefeuille' in his
fashion without further interruption.
my theory he ssid, was this:
Monsieur Langley, not being my Thomp-
some, had neither robbed Bourbon nor
as l had given him great credit for doing
himself; but, on the contrary, Monsieur
Langley had indubitably been robbed by
some one else. Now was it not thing
unnatural, almost impossible, to suppose
that or the same day, in precisely the
same way as he was being accused of
having robbed Bourbon at Spa, Monsieur
Langley should be robbed at the Place
Roubaix of similar portefeiulle, contain
ing similar large amount, by any mere
casual cut-purses To me it seemed 30 i'm
possible that rejected the supposition at
once. had, therefore, to conclude that it
was no mere casual cut-purse who had
robbed Monsieur Langley.
"Who then? Some one who had
planned the coup at Spa, and followed the
red portefeuille in Monsieur Langley's in
ner breast-pocket to Paris!
"Much more likely. And yet the
chance of success was hardly great enough
in proportion to the inevitable risk, to
tempt an artist of such force as Monsieur
Langley's depaliseur evidently was, to
leave securer and more profitable business
Ia 6as. 1t is true my Thompsonne, who
had imperative reasons for quitting Spa,
might have taken this purse also on his
way; but I had ascertained that my
Thompsonne had not arrived in Paris at
all, you see.
az put this second supposition aside
the more readily because of something /
remembered suddenly.
"'I remembered that that evening there
had been at the Paris terminus, waiting
the arrival of the express at 9 o'clock, .
man who, the moment he beheld Monsieur
Langley, would he morally certain that in
a certain pocket of Monsieur Langley's
travelling coat was a red portefeuille con-
tanning some forty thousand francs in
bank notes, who would have special rea-
sons for watching Monsieur Langley closer
than anybody else, and who believed Mon
sieur Langley to be Thompsonne, the pick.
pocket.
GO Remembering this, I quickly saw
how this man, with special reasons for
watching Monsieur Langley closely, might
have noticed him take the portefeuille
from his pocket, to get out his keys, say ;
how this man, who believed Monsieur
Langley to be Monsieur Thompsonne,
might have hardly calculated on being
able to rob him with perfect impunity, in
asmuch as, on the other hand, even II
Thompsonne caught him in fagrants de-
lictu, word from one thief would make
the other only too glad to hold his
tongue! and, on the other hand, If Thomp
some were not to perceive his loss at the
moment, he was to be arrested, % soon "a
he was domiciled, by me, when, his deooli-
sour naturally supposed, there was slight
chance of my prisoner proclaiming he had
been robbed of the most positive proofs
of his late operations at Spa
&c In short, / saw in a very brief while
how this man might have robbed Monsieur
Langley, supposing him to be Thomp-
some. The more I reflected on the mat
ter the more certain did I become that
this man, and no other, was the actual
robber.
"sAnd he was-the sssss who had been
ordered to Flor" the supposed Thomp
some on his arrival The "faisesr" o.
the red portefeuille was this particular