The Rock Island Argus., 1882-08-05


ing his suspicious. so she decided TO
| give her jewelry and some other valua-
| bles to the blackmailer. He came tothe
house by appointment, she handed over
the stuff to him, and according to a
! promise made he left the city. Then. in
| order to clear herself, she cOncOcted the
story of the robbery, and it was a badly
| built one, too, can tell YOU. OF course
did not dare to tell the true state of
| affairs TO the. husband. because it would
have ruined the wife, so l withdrew
He is ignorant to this day of the facts.
and probably thinks [ am a very poor
detective"
''Wen, you haven't reached the end
of the rope yet, " said the reporter as the
detective stopped and looked out of the
window. Give me another one, | am
being interested
''Well, here's one which is perhaps
the strangest occurrence of the kind that
ever happened here. There was a bus
mess man in this city, very wealthy very
industrious, and very highly respected
He had one fault, which came near ruin
ing him several times. He was strictly
temperate, never touched a drop of liG-
uor except at intervals of from two to
five years, but when he did get drunk
he was sure to do some outlandish reck-
less thing that a sane man would never
think of. He had not taken drink for
nearly three years, when one day off he
goes and climbs into a drunk. He kept
it up for two or three DAYS, and one
night he strayed into disreputable
house, took three of the inmates and put
them into hack. They were in a con-
dition of undress unfit for the street. but
they drove out into the suburbs and all
around town, stopping at every drink
ing-place open and having drinks sent
out to the hack. Strange to say, thev
were not arrested, but returned to the
house just before daylight in a fearful
condition. The merchant recovered
from his spree and resumed his business
again as if.nothing had happened A
young man of rather an enterprising
turn of mind heard of the case, and be-
gan to investigate it. He talked with
the hack-driyer, and worked quietly un-
til he had secured documents TO show
beyond a doubt that the merchant had
been seen riding in the hack with three
females, and that the quartet did not
have clothes enough on them to wad
gun. 1t was hot summer night and
they were probably not uncomfortable.
One day this young man called upon
the merchant at his place of business.
went into his private office with him and
closed the door. The merchant thought
the proceeding was strange, but the
young man quieted him by saving:
Il have a very interesting story to
tell you and don't want anyone else to
hear it."
''1hey sat down. and the visitor be-
gan to tell the story in the 'once upon a
time style. Before he had half finished
the merchant jumped up excitedly and
said:
% Its a d-d lie'
Hold on, said the young man
quietly; listen to the rest of it.
''Then he went on and completed the
story, and the merchant said it was a
falsehood. He denied it most emphati-
eally, and threatened to have his visitor
arrested for attempting to blackmail
him. He changed his mind, however,
but ordered him to leave the office.
Wait a minute. said the visitor.
very coolly, pulling packing of papers
from his pocket, until you look at some
of these. Here is an affidavit from -
-, who keeps a saloon at -. Here
is another from ---, another from
- - and so on until he had ex-
hibited half a dozen. The merchant
saw the nature of the documents, and
turned as pale as ghost.
" This is an Internal blackmail
scheme said the merchant, controlling
his ehagrin; but you have probably
been to good deal of trouble in getting
those papers. I'll give you $500 for
them
:. L do not want your money. sir;
did not come here for that purpose.
Five hundred dollars is no money at all
for these papers. can get more than
that from a certain newspaper know
Of
." IN give you a thousand dollars Cor
them
8 Sir. you misunderstood me. do
not want your money. l did not come
here for that
:. What did you come here for?'
g Simply to show you these papers
and to let you know that / knew all
about the affair; that's all
:. Let's be done with this. I'll give
you $4,000 for those papers upon condi-
ton that you also pledge yourself never
to say anything about this matter
:. Il can not take your money. don't
want it. Besides, the papers are worth
mach more than that.
Well. they talked and argued for
quite long time, and finally the mer-
chant became desperate. He said:
"a I'll give you a check for 80 000.'
:. No. sir; / tell you do not want
your money. But You may 90 down to
the bank and draw $4,000 and lay the
money on the desk here. l havn't seen
as much money as that together in a
long time, and I'd like to see how it
looks Perhaps may take a notion to
law these Danera On tha desk and OO off