The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1880-07-20
THE STRANGE CLUE.
bY an Ex.petootIvn.

n ythTs, anu lHueeu nhu leIL IOnuOn,
for when l grew little tired OF the
business 1 was recommended to the
authorities of Combestead, q thriving
market-town in one of the home co,in-
ties and had very comfortable situ-
alton there, having little to do, very
good pay, and being head Of the borough
Police. or course there Is great deal
of difference between life In the country
aud life In town, and from policeman g
view 1t perhaps appears greater than II
does to anybody else; and whereas /
had often wondered how anybody could
be detected In London, was equally
surprised to think how anybody could
hope to escape In the country; for,
excepting when strangers came down
on some carefully planned burglary, we
could nearly always tell where to look
for our men If anything went wrong (;
Ia short, | knew everybody. AS u
matter of course, everybody knew me.
There was mldde.aged party lived
in q quiet row of houses In Orchard
street. which ran parallel with our
High-street-a Miss Parkway, who was
reputed to be pretty well Off, although
not extremely rich, and reputed also to
he rather eccentric. She lived by her
self, in the sense of having none Of her
relatives with her; but there were other
persons, although not many, in the
large house where she lodged. | had
my attention drawn to her by seeing
her walking repeatedly in company
with young man of no very good
character, who was fully twenty years
her junior, and at last heard she was
going to be married to him.
After all, although have said John
Lytherly-that was his name-was Of
no very good character, yet there was
nothing serious against him. He was
good-tempered, good-looking, easy sort
of fellow, with lot of ceverness
about him, too, that always showed
itself when 1t wasn't wanted, and never
showed itself when it might be of
service.
Matters progressed so far that 1t was
known the lady had given orders to
Bunnyman & Co., our chief bankers, to
call in a thousand pounds of her money
which was out on mortgage; and it was
said she intended to buy one of the
houses in the High-street and fit it up as
photographers.
1t was known for certain, however,
that she had not only given notice, but
had actually withdrawn the money !;
and among other things it was said that
she had admitted to her landlady, Mrs.
Amhliss, that the match with Lytherly
would break off all intimacy with her
friends. She only had one relative who
came to see her, and that was gentle
man living some forty miles away, but
he had not been to Combestead lately.
Whether he was offended or not, neither
the landlady nor lodger could say but
the latter feared he was, as she had
written and told him exactly how mat
ters stood and what steps she had taken,
but had received no reply to her letter.
Lytherly seemed, very naturally, to be
brightning up and took our jocular
congratulations-for / had my say as
well as the others-in good-tempered
although rather conceited style. One
annoyance he felt, which was that
everybody to whom he owed money
which was every one who would trust
him was anxious to be the first paid f;
and, thinking that little gentle pres
sure might help them, two or three of
the tradesmen took out County Court
summonses against him; and this, as
he said, was very hard on him and very
selfish, However, there seemed little
chance that they would defeat them
selves, for, harrassed and worried by
these doing, he was forced to ask Miss
Parkway for an advance of money,
being the first time he had ever done so.
He had received money from her, but
she had always offered it, and pressed il
upon him when he made show, if he
was not actually in earnest, of wishing
to refuse it. Whether she was in a bad
temper at the time, or whether she was
hurt at his making such a request,
Lytherly could not say, but she refused
to make the advance, and they parted
worse friends than they had been for
some time.
All this the young fellow let out al
the Bell on the Saturday, as.the refusal
happened on the Friday. A great part Of
it in my hearing, for 1 generally took
my pipe and glass at the Bell, and saw
that he was well on for tlpsy. He had
indeed been drinking there some hours
and would perhaps have stopped longer