Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-07-10

passed had come to an end, L pressed him
much to stay and dine, but he was unfor-
tunately engaged that evening, and was
due at Merton's next day, in fact, as he
smilingly said, his only business in Lon
don had been to inspect my beautiful
collection He was preparing work on
curious specimens of precious stones, 1t
seemed, and was anxious to describe some
of mine in 1t. To insure full justice be-
ing done to their merits, | told HIM that
would write the account myself, and or
ward it to him to make use of as he saw
best.
He was very grateful, and we parted
on the best of terms
was so eager to fulfill my promise that
| sat down at once to my task, leaving
the safe open IA thing never do as rule)
in case | had to refer to the shelves to
verify my description.
| had just given the shape and weight
of my largest topaz, when my servant
knocked at the door.
"Please sir, German gentleman, L
cannot rightly hear his name; wants to
see you"
"Show him in,'' l answered, never
doubling that it was my worthy friend
returned. But in walked a shabby old
man, who looked dusty and disreputable
and not at all a person to introduce into
room with jewels lying about.
II am Herr Schlossman,' he began.
"There must be some mistake" said l,
coldly, sfor the only Herr Schlossman l
am acquainted with, a friend of an old
friend of mine, has just left the house,
| each Aimmel" cried the German,
waving his hands excitedly. eden dat is
de rogue, de rascal dat pick my pocket
und steal my purse, my papers, and all!''
and he jumped and gestulated as only
foreigner can.
AS he Gained down, he began a long
winded story Of having arrived early that
morning, and finding that his pocket had
been picked at the station, whereby he
had lost all the money about him, also a
letter of introduction to me from Merton.
His letter had gone direct to Merton's
house, at least that was his story, and he
had not even the money left to pay for
his breakfast at the hotel, and his journey
to his destination. However, he luckily
remembered my address, and came to ask
me to lend him sufficient for those present
needs.
Now, it happened that very morning |
had been reading in newspaper an &C
count of swindler who had extracted
money from several physicians by an ex-
actly similar story, and l was not going
to be taken in after the same fashion.
Had not the genuine Herr Schlossman
Just left me? So | told the German firm
", that it was useless coming to me with
his trumped-up story; that the dodge was
an old one, and, in fact, the sooner he
walked out the better. l must say he
brazened the matter out well enough.
He was furious at being called an impos
tor; declared Merton could vouch for
him Merton being thirty miles off and,
at last, became so noisy in broken Eng
llsh and German, that | was obliged to
tell him that if he did not go away quiet
ly, must send for police. Then he
seized his hat and dashed out in tornado
of eXpletives in both languages.
l had been so disturbed by all the COM
motion that felt confused about my list
of gems, and went back to look at them
again before continuing my writing.
Was it to be believed? My best jewels
were gone! Yes, it was too true. Aunt
Dorothy's diamonds, which [ had kept in
a small case to themselves; Uncle Johns
| Indian cOllectiOn---bOth had vanished.
Nothing was left except my own pur-
chases, and not the best of them, even;
for certain ruby 1 had given, we'll,
rather large sum for, was missing like
wise. Altogether had been robbed of
nearly 93, 900 worth of property. When
could the the theft have been perpetrat-
ed? The jewels were safe an hour ago,
for had shown them to Herr Schlossman.
Could he be the guilty partyl But then,
Merton vouched for him. could not
suspect him of such robbery. If it had
been loose stone more curious than val
liable, it might have been easier to be-
lieve. Collectors sometimes yield to such
temptations, but rich man to make Off
with 93, 900 worth of actual money value,
it seemed unlikely. Then 1 thought of
the shabby German, a far more likely sub
ject for suspicion; IN fact should have
been certain he was thief, save that 1
could not understand how he managed to
appropriate my property under my very
eyes. Still, as the s'pea and thimble
trick" shows, the hand can be quicker
than the beholder's sight, and it was pos
sible that my German friend, amid his
angry OSCILLATIONS, had contrived to slip
my jewels into his pocket Either he or
| Herr Schlossman must have been thief,
and could not suspect Merton's friend.
However, it was useless to lose time re-
| f1ecting. l called a cab and hurried to
the nearest police court to give notice of
my loss. As stated my case the evidence
against the German stranger seemed to
grow more and more conclusive His at
| tempt to gain money by false representa-
ton looked very suspicious, and the police
inspector smiled at the negative evidence
that had not seen him touch the Jewels.
| "You never see conjurer put watch
up his sleeve when he makes believe to
slip it into cake, aud you don't know
how he gets bow into a cake, and you
don't know how he gets bowl of water
and gold fish out of an empty cloak, do
you, sir?'' he inquired. "Why, those
light-ingered gentry can almost take the
rings off your hand without your know
ing it," He did, however, ask me whether
anyone else had been in the room
during the time the safe had stood
opened, and answered, "Only the real
Herr Schlossman, the gentleman this i'm
poster pretended to represent l omitted
to add that had never before seen 'sthe
real Herr Schlossman.''
The police authorities held out hopes
of the recovery of the property, as they
had been set so promptly on the track Of
the supposed thief; and after taking all