Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-10-24

in the CO. W1ster at Brebant's or
have oaIe du Helder than he could
VIM Ione in a London club. Rnt
thin" snowed more plainly than any.
whaf eise mat he had done we'll. and
! tWh aas pleased me greatly, was that he
.nels ana then pulled out a roll Of hank
nJses ana insisted upon renayinv ma
STAT mad collected for him from h;s
,o.ner friends. 1t was in vain that T
peutos that those gentlemen had
pa.eed with their none as a oft and
n m as q loan; that t did not know
= Thei r TO ind them at present. and That
/! begged he would not think Of renav0
4ng me the small portion I had con.
would 10 Inc amount. No; nothing
tho m serve MN but to make me take
cn1 money and to give it back as best /
b;. 10 those who had assisted him n
as a matter of course [ was very Curl
Gus 10 Know by what means he had, IN
I;m measure at any rate, recovered
us position in the world, or how he had
managed to till his empty purse. But
~ au my questions he gave the most
eVaslVe answers * y y
ne evidently saw that 1 was not only
puzzled as to what his mysterious bust
ness could be, but that / had serions
.noasnts OF not coming nea him again
un'l1 ! found out whether my doing so
would compromise myself. And ap-
Parently acting upon a sudden impulse,
ne an at once opened out and made
WnaG l may call his confession to me.
"For some time past" he began, 81
have seen that you wonder what nv
business is and why I am so mysterious
with regard to what [ do and what I
write. Well, 1 will now make a clean
breast of it."
He then told me that some two or
three years previously he had got into
what he called 'sworse than q mess,
IN Paris. He had somehow cot mixed
up with a gang of card-sharpers, with
out knowing to what an extent thew
carried on their dishonest practices,
and had so far compromised himself
that the French police had him at
their mercy. They had, however, let
him Oft, holding over him the power
they had to prosecute him at any fu-
ture time, should they think he de-
served it. But they made certain con-
ditions with him, and these were that
he should go to London and furnish
them from time to time with all the
Indignation he could gather respecting
certain receivers Of goods stolen in
France, who resided in this metropolis.
In order to do this the more effectually,
he had managed not only to get &C
quainted with the leaders of a gang
which worked for their friends in Paris
but he had also got himself received as
one of them, and used to go to their
meetings almost every night. The
work, a he told me, had been most
unpleasant, but it was nearly at an
end; and the French police had prom
ised that he should very soon be alto
gether free from his engagements with
them.
To mix with people of whom little OF
nothing is known, and to penetrate into
places which are hidden from the gen
erality of mankind, has always had a
great charm for me. Mr.. Dane was
not a little surprised when, instead OF
leaving him after | had heard his story,
l told MIN he would do me a great favor
if he took me to a meeting of his dis.
honest friends, and that l would pledge
myself never to give any information
that might lead to a single member Of
the band getting into trouble. After
making some objections to my request,
he at last consented, and said that the
first night he could get out he would
go to the meeting Of the gang by him
self, but would then make arrange
ments for me to accompany him the
following evening. And thus it was
that | managed to get into very ''aueer
company"
From what l could gather it seemed
that there had been, a few days before,
a robbery of valuable jewels in Paris
and that the difficulty of those COD
nected with the affair was to get the
plumber safely over to the United States.
The London police had been put on the
alert, but the thieves-or shall l call
them the agents and helpers OF thieves!
did not seem to fear them. They
discussed very freely the relative merits
Of the French and English detective
systems, saying that in cases OF house
breaking and murders the latter rarely
failed to bring the offenders to justice,
but that in cases of clever ''plants' the
former were much more to be feared.
'.sYou never know" AID one En-
glishman present, with a round OATH,
.swhere or when you may come across
those horrible French spies. Why, We
might have here, in the very midst O.
us, some one who is in their pay"
But of the United States they spoke
in the highest terms; or in very mucf
the same manner that al artisan who
could not earn the wherewith to pay
for dry bread in this country NIGH
praise some place in the Far Yves
where industry was certain to gam ~
honest living. From what l gathered
it would seem that whenever a robbery
on q large scale is carried out the tira
object of those concerned is to get eth
swag'' out of the country as soon Il
possible. Thus, the produce of a plum
der in Paris is almost invariably takel
to London and vice versa. lfthe thieve
can so arrange beforehand as to &c
) away from where the theft has bee1
committed within a few hours of tn
completion of their handiwork, the.
. believe themselves to be all but safe, o
at least the chances are about five t.
, one in their favor. If they have tn
| luck to get clear Of Europe and safel,
land in America the chances are tina