Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-11-29

Is cleared up shall be most happy. provided
you will wait that long to renew my acquaint-
ance. There were several other letters all
touching upon the same subject. I'm reply to let
tiers sent by the lady. | may as well say here as
at any time that Harding was not the fellows
name; neither will ] give his true name for
reasons further on. But will speak of him as
Harding. told the lady that / happened to
have seen the gentleman. spoke If the
night he was arrested. and of my confidence then
that the 'coZzlr was dead wrong by which l
mean that he was not the man who should have
been arrested"
II am running terrible risk In the matter"
the lady then said. land possibly / may dis
please him; but impIore you to endeavor to
find who the real burglar is. Ny father knew
expected visits from Mr.. Harding. and he also
knows that for some unexpected reason he did
not come. or course he knows nothing of this
affair. 1t was late at night, and but few at
d saw who was arrested. Still. there
were many from the village Mt the courthouse
during the trial. 1t is all mystery to me- but
am leo to believe that you can uniave it,
II thanked her for her good opinion of me,
and promised would do what could. adding
that felt an interest in the case from the lao
ment saw the young man. She never gave me
his name, and never asked for il nor knew i
Tor one year afterwards. But if ever a man did
work hard on case did on that one The
LADY :%ii me that all my expenses would be paid
and that need not keep them down. provided
reasonable expenditure would help the solv-
ing of the mystery. 1t was mystery: and it
was hard to get a start. much harder than If
Harding had not been arrested
went to B-the day after and talked pretty
freely of the robbery, but never mentioned my
connection with the matter. leaving the folks
there to suppose / was still on the post office
case ! could find nothing new. Every one
asked about it was dead sure that Harding was
the bGrgar-one of the clerks in the store was
more certain OF it than the other. He went by
the name Of Hal Perkins. asked him his rea-
sons for suspecting Harding. but found they
We're not based on any reality but exclusively
on imagination. / saw Hal do a little trick one
day afterwards which convinced me he was not
honest. The other clerk. named James Riley
was good natured honest looking fellow. /
don't know how it is but never can get rid of
first Impressions. My first impression in that
Investigation was that Hal knew more about
the robbery than he should, for the reason that
lie was always cndeayOrinr to convince those he
talked to of the guilt of Harding. and the legal
tricks used by Mr.. Thompson. the Philadelphia
LAWYER. whom he had brought to NJ to de-
tend him.
Il also felt confident that no harm would ensue
if / gave the case little rest. | had other
things on hand. among them troublesome kind
of jewelry- rObbing case and was lust as clad
to forget it fora while. a week or so afterwards
got letter from Miss Wariield, stating that
she saw me In B. and asking if there were
any Developments. | answered her that she
must say as little about the matter as possible
titC NdltcU all the talk ABOUT it TO 1le 1ut.
and that under no circumstances did expect to
get to the bottom of the matter for three months
at least. probably six months
Kept away from b. though from others
l heard every now and then that Hal and Riley
were still employed in the store.
In about a month | got another note from
Miss Warfield, again asking about what had
found out. made on appointment to see her
at the Metropolitan again when / told her my
suspicious and how necessary it was that /
should not go to B.
incidentally. Miss Warfeld mentioned the
TACT that Riley had been discharged from the
store. but did not know the reason. I forgot to
put In at the proper place that Col. Warlield
was one OF the best known and wcathiest
farmers in county. and was a perfect
prince in his way. as | had heard before and
learned afterwards. ] again impressed upon
Miss Wartield that the case would work I'D slow
and that it was doubtful thing after all.
Ut was sometime. probably month. before l
saw Riley. though | had heard OF him fire.
quently; that is, heard he was still at B.
He came on the day saw him to see about get
ting place at Homes grocery store in Wash
ington | had arranged with Mr.. Home that
he be sent for Mr.. Home liked his looks and
told him he could commence work the next day
Then the prospects of working up the case
frightened up. L was very busy with other
matters, but managed to drop in at Mr. Homes
every now and then. and have a talk with Riley
Riley was good judge of horses. though
ne on Sunday to try horse that l was think
III" of buying. He did SO. and as we were drv-
ll@ out near BrightWood we got to talking
about the burglary at B.
There was one thing about the case Mr..
C. (the owner of the store) never knew "
said Riley. 50 / never got along well with Hal,
and he was the cause of me being DISCHARGED
He did me injustice in number of ways, but
don't mean to do him any. The facts were
though. that we should have been sleeping in
no hat nj. hI,t,,
me to go with him to n kind of Thanksgiving Eve
party at house about two miles up the road
We started about nine o'clock When we got
TO the house we found there was no party there
and had to return. As we reached the store
even before we had had good chance to get
look. though we had opened the front door Hal
SAID The store has been robbed Just then |
looked out and saw the burglar, Harding,
stumbling along, looking as if he was hurrying
to get away. | said, that is the man that
robbed it, then we both ran and caught him.
He would not explain or say a word, though at
first did not think he was the burglar Find
ing the button from his coat in the store settled
it, though, with me-
81 lid not indicate i'm any way that had an
interest in the case and soon we were TALKING
on other matters. But / never forgot what
Riley said about Hal crying out the store has
been robbed before he had had chance to know
IT. This settled it with me. Hal was party to
the burglary; got Riley out of the store so the
Job could be done and then afterwards got him
discharged because he was somehow in his way
to more crime. But who was the burglar"
You say you don't care who the burglar was.
and that You want to know whether the Girl
was blonde or Il brunette2 Well all that will
come in good time. But was more interested
In the burglar than in the girl just then
Henry Perkins and Grove Marshall. You and
each OF you are charged with burglary in that
you cOnspired to enter. and did tcloniOusly
enter. the store of Charles Green In the village
OF b. on the night of November ~. fSS-
What say you; are you guilty or not guilty."
Thus spake Judge Bryan at the September
term OF the circuit court. There was a good sized
crowd present, for the arrest OF Hal Perkins had
created sensation in B as also through
out the county. The Frank Harding of the
previous trial was present; so was James Riley
Hal entered his plea first, with not guilty in
Kind OF an undecided way. Marshall wa; diff
ferent. His reply was Il don't know nothing
about It."
They were represented by able counsel The
trla! lasted day. First Riley took the stand
lie recited the facts of the burglary. as he knew
them. ard how Hal had induced him to leave
the store that night that Hal discovered that
burglary had been committed the instant the
door was opened, though there was no light i'm