Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1879-12-03
A STORY OF DETECTION.

My employment is that of a carver in
stone. Many years ago, soon after [ had
learnt my business, the firm in whose
employ was undertook the erection of
gentleman mansion, and was sent to
execute the ornamental work The vii
lage near to which the mansion was built
was on the shore of an estuary in the
bay of Morecame, not far from market
town whose name need not give. AS
my work would keep me from home
several weeks, good lodging was most
desirable thing: but although [ tried to
get accommodated in private house, l
failed, and was forced to lodge in the
village inn, the Lord Admiral
Among those who were in the habit of
frequenting the aforesaid hosiery, was
a man of singular habits and odd tenn
per. His home was about mile from
the village, on the side of lane leading
to q couple of farms. His house, like
himself, was queer one. Originally it
had been built for the storage of corn,
the produce of fields at distance from
the homestead. Somehow, it had ceased
to be needed for that purpose; so it's
owner turned it into dwelling house,
and as such, it was now occupied by the
aforesaid strange man. Il was divided
into three apartments on the ground
floor, one of which, very large one, was
set apart and used as kind Of museum,
its occupant being stuffer of birds and
small quadrupeds. When he had no
work of this sort for other persons, he
worked for stock, and this large room
room was his warehouse.
He was man of i'll temper and loose
habits, and for some time had borne q
dubious character. When people were
asked why he was suspected, they could
not give satisfactory reply. "He
lives" they said, without doing work
equal to his expenditures, which looks
bad" AS [ got to know him, found
that he had an unamiable temper; was
morose, sour, and at times passionate
He was also fond of display, given to
betting, and, like all such, led loose
uneven life, oftener lettering about than
at work. So did not wonder that well
meaning people did not like him.
He mostly came on wet nights to the
Lord Admiral. As we became &C
quainted, he invited me to look over his
collection of birds and quadrupeds.
was pleased with what I saw. He had
indeed, good collection; and, as well a:
I could judge, had done his work well
He had also good assortment of butter
flies and moths; and in corner, close II
the ceiling, he had what he called {
butterfly breeding box, which, he said
belonged to his son, young man of my
own age, also given to bird stufine
amusements.
But / was most taken up with two
animals which differed from the rest
One was beautiful dog, and the other
lusus saa'urG--a lamb with the rudiment
of fifth leg, and some other character
istics which have forgotten. The ole
man said he had stuffed both for theil
original owners, who had somehow failed
to take them away. They were placed
at one end of the room, one in each
corner, away from the window and close
to the wall, where, except in strong day
light, they could not be easily seen. The
connection of these particulars with my
story will be seen in the sequel.
I had been in the village about six
weeks, when the Deighborhood wa.
aroused and alarmed one morning by the
report of the robbery of a jewelers. shop
in the market town already referred to
that had been effected during the pre-
ceding night. Much valuable property
had been taken. This robbery had beer
effected in such way as led to the belief