The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1881-03-10

II only know that it has been stolen
and wish you would send for Mr.. Mau.
raude at once!'
OF course there was no one upon whom
suspicion would fall but Betsey Bolton
poor, friendless, orphaned Betsey! Not
exactly friendless, either, for Mr.. Maui
rande quietly declared that it was quite
impossible that she could have commit
ted crime like this.
81 have known her ever since she came
to Maple Farm" said he. 'She is a
member of my Bible class. She never
did itr'
And Mrs. Griggs valiantly asserted
chat "she wouldn't never believe nc
such thing of Betsey, as never yet SO
much as took pin that wasn't hers"
"You are all infatuated about that
girl" said Lii, petulantly. "Who else
could have taken it?
And the hooked-nose detective from
New York declared positively that Betsey
Bolton had taken the pearl ring from Miss
Thorpe's bureau, while that young lady
was butternutting in the woods below
Falcons rock. The whole thing, he said,
was as plain as dayliuht.
"But, surely, Miss Thorpe" pleaded
Mr.. Maurande, ''you will not prosecute
the thing? You will give poor little Bet,
sey the benefit of the doubt?"
81 do not see that there is any doubt, u
said Lii, stifly: "And my pearl ring
must be returned"
II will pay the value Of it myself,
said Maurande, eagerly, CT"
"You are very much interested in the
culprit," said Lii, with curve of her
full, red lips. "But that will not answer
the ends of Justice at all. No. She stole
the ring. Let her confess, or suffer"
Maurande looked at Lii with mute
surprise-almost with disgust.
At that moment, when the detective
stood grinning on the hearthstone, with
his hands in his pockets, Miss Thorpe
sat, like female Fate, on the sofa, and
Mrs. Griggs was comforting poor little
Betsey up stairs, Enoch Hawley came
shutting in"
Found your ring!' said he.
"Now cried Lii.
Here it ISL said Enoch.
And sure enough the great pear
shaped pearl lay glimmering, like drop
of moonlight, in the horny palm of his
hand.
"Where did you get it," breathlessly
demanded Miss Thorpe.
Enoch chuckled, and looked rather
sheepish
'Sent bushel O. butternuts to my
cousin Almiry Ann, in New York, " said
he-"Almiry Ann always was dreadful
partial to butternuts; and she writ back
to me-what did mean by sendin' her 9
pearl ring in 'em? Didn't l know she
was keepin' company with Peter Crone:
And l writ didn't send no pearl ring
and this mornin' this arrive by express,
nodding his head at the jewel. "And
the very minute / set eyes on it knOwed
it was the one Miss Thorpe wore that af
ternoon at the butternuttin'
Lii turned scarlet.
81 must have doopped it in the nuts,
said she.
"Of course she did," said Enoch
"wonder you never thought of it afore?
So the awful shadow of suspicion was
lifted off Betsey Bolton; and Miss Thorpe
even condescended to murmur some sort
of apology, before she went away.
"But it's too ridiculous, the fuss they
made about that girl" said Miss Thorpe,
viciously. 'Maurande will never for
give me for daring to doubt her,"
No; it was quite true, Maurade was
completely disenchanted with the dim
pied and ock-hearted Lii. And when
he did marry, three years afterward, the
brides name was simply ''Betsey."
For, the dark-eyed girl had grown into
radiant womanhood, and Mr.. Maurande
knew that she was diamond fit to wear
in any mans breast.