Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1879-01-31
SrAUNTON VIRGINIA, FRIDAY. JANUARY 81, 1879.

bed and can afford to pay for it; and as for
picking and stealing, our plate was all
Britannia metal, while MI. Dodds and
Captain Leger and Sir Toby knew very
well how. to take care of themselves and
their money. having been on the turf for
the last twenty years, and accustomed to
all descriptions of villany. As Tor me, I
had enough to do at that busy time with
out looking after the seedy tenant of No
Al, who went up the hill every day to the
course on foot, and took six penn'ort Of
whiskey with his dinner in the coffee
room, and nothing after it. Only of course
| it was suspicious; for the Hand and Glove
was not hotel meant for the like of him,
and he knew it. He was always apollo
giving, as it were, for being there, and
hoping he was not giving trouble when he
asked for this and that-always something
/ cheap-at. the bar in the public room. He
also pretended to be ignorant as to who
was who, and inquired of me on one oc-l
casion whether that was the Mr.. Dodds
whom he had just seen come out OF No. 4;
whereas it is my opinion that he knew
them all, and who was the principal win
! ner after each days work.
There was good deal Of betting on the
race for the Cup that year., which was
entered two public favorit rs, who were
very heavily backed by the gentleman"
| course, did the 'book-makers." 1t was
rumored in the coffee-room that evening
that Mr.. Dodds had cleared twenty thous-
| and pounds out of the transaction, and
| by the way he and his friends and his
secretary kept it up that night ia the first
floor front you would have thought it
had been forty thousand. What I will say
for the racing folks, whether gentry Or
otherwise, is, that they are free-handed;
it is slight come, light go,'' with them, I
suppose; but when fortune sends them a
| stroke of luck they let other people share
| it 1t was open house in No. 5 that night
next to his bedroom the room was, and
| then the secretary's, as I well remember
for all as knew him, and | dare say good
| many as didn't knew him [more than to
say "Bravo, Dodds!" when he was reported
! to have pulled off a stake], took their glass
at his expense. But Dodds had his eyes
about him for all that, and his secretary
| too, and woe would it have been to the
| man who tried to take more than what
| was offered him-that is, aught beyond
| food and liquor. They would not have
given him into custody, not they; but
they have laws of their own, these gentle
men, which they put in force at once
against such transgressors. | believe SOL
diers, when they catch thief among
them do the like. Well, the evening went
off without anything worse than shouting,
but in the morning there was terrible
'tc-do." Mr.. Dodd had been robbed in
the night of all his winnings. In reality
these were not quite SO great as had been
reported, bat they AMOUNTED to eleven
thousand pounds in bank-notes-an they
| were gone.
verify believe the man was not SO an
noyed by the loss Of the money as by the
fact of his having been robbed-that is, of
another man having outwitted him. He
stormed and raved like a mad bull, so that
my master hardly dared to listen to what
he had to say about the matter; though
indeed, it was very little. These notes,
which were for all large amounts, were in
a pocketbook by themselves, and lay in a
drawer in his room. He had seen all was
right, he thought, before he retired to
rest, his door being not only locked, but
fastened with bolt with spring bell to
it. Only, there was at that time nothing
IN the pocketbook but two copies Of the
sporting Times" very neatly folded. The
| notes must have been taken out before
hand-while he was entertaining his
friends-and the little substitution effect
ed. When my master asked Mr.. Dodds,
''Have you got the numbers Of the notes?"
he burst out in furry. because 1 have
been robbed, sir, do you take me for a
born idiot? Of course / have"
His secretary, indeed, had made mem
orandum Of them; but, unfortunately, had
wrapped it up with the notes themselves,
which was very handy and convenient for
the thief
Mr.. Dodds was a stout man, and [
thought would have had a fit of apoplexy
when he discovered this. | don't remem-
her ever hearing SO much strong language
from the same mouth in SO short a time.
We kept the secretary locked up in the
bar till the storm had blown over little,
and in the mean time we did what we
could. AS Mr.. Adamson was the only
stranger at the Hand and Glove, suspicion
naturally fell upon him--and 80 did Mr..
Dodds. In less time than it takes me to
tell you, that unfortunate man was strip
ped to the skin, and his room searched
with that completeness that not pin g
head could have escaped notice: but moth
ing was found; and except that he had
gone up with the rest to drink glass of
champagne in the first floor front in honor
of Mr.. Dodd's success not little of proof
existed against him. He had not left the
house that day since he had returned from
the races, and even now he showed no
signs Of departure. He said he had been
UNANIMOUSLY treated, but had too much re-
spect for Mr.. Dodds to take the law Of him
for the insult he had been INJECTING on
him. And he stayed for the next days |
races, where he told nls he had been welsh
ed'' out of fifteen shilllngs, or he should
have been happy to give ME half-arcrown,
though attendance" was included in our
bills. In justice to himself, my master
sent for the police; but, of course, they
were no good, and Mr.. Dodds had to give
them Eve pounds, in consideration of hav-
ing expressed an opinton, in his usual
terms, upon their incompetency. He of