The Washington critic., 1885-08-25

something was wrong, aud ! deter
mined to follow her and see where she
went to, Pushing my hat well over
my brow and pulling the collar of my
coat well up, | followed through two
or three streets, and was almost az her
heels when she suddenly turned into u
public house, when, so close | had fol
lowed her. | heard the attendant say in
answer to an inquiry by her, Number
thirteen, mann and saw her disap
pear into the back premises. | imme-
diatcly followed, heard the door Of
number thirteen shut, and gancing at
the numbers, quietly opened number
sCmC slight rcfrCshmcnt TO an attend.
ant who had followed me, | took
hasty look around the room
found II was divided from the next
one only by wooden partition, which
did not reach the ceiling, and that, by
remaining perfectly quiet | could hear
that a whispered conversation was be
ing carried on in the next room. The
entrance of the attendant with my or
der disturbed my Investigations; but on
his departure and regardless of the old
saying that listeners seldom hear any
thing to their advantage, | did my best
TO make out the conversation. | dis
tinguishcd the voices TO be those of two
men and one woman. The latter | ut
once recognized, or at least my imagi-
nation led me to believe, to be the voice
Of the person who had called on me
year ago to make her will. The voice
of one of the men was strange to me;
but after the discovery had already
made | was not greatly astonishcd at
recognizing the voice of the other man
TO be that of Simpson, thc1cgatce in
the will. The whole thing flashed upon
me at once, and saw had been made
the innocent machinery for carrying
through a clever and daring piece of
impOsturc. !, however, listened at
tcntively to the conversation, in order
10 fathom the whole affair.
The first sentence | made out came
from the stranger: IL told you young
Sinclair was the very man to do the
work for you. These young lawyers
never ask any questions as long as they
get the business.
"Well, well" said Simpson, Chat is
all right now. But the present qucs-
ton is, what is to be done in the way
of hurrying him up with the realization
Of the estate without exciting suspi.
cionY The sooner we all get away from
this the better. | am glad that young
fellow Howard didn't ask any quc8-
tons. But one things certain, we
must get the old woman away from this
Immediately, or she's sure to get rccog-
nizcd. She's been keeping pretty close
lately; but dare say she's getting tired
of it. Aren't you, old LADY,"
Indeed, was the reply" II would
be glad to get away from this place to-
morrow if ! could I'm sure ] only
wish you could have been content with
half of the estate with Mr.. Edward, in
stead of burning the will, when you
found it was TO be divided between you
and him, and getting me TO do what |
did. I'm sure it's a wonder my mis-
tress don't rise from her grave to de
nounCe us all.
Keep that cant for another occasion,
old woman; its no use getting religious
now, But I'll tell you what-I've got
| an idea"
Here the conversation got so low
| that could not catch more than an oc-
casional word, and what that idea was
! never found out, as he never got the
| chance to Try ii on me, for | had heard
enough to know that next door to me
were three of the most daring conspira-
| tors | had ever come across who had
| dupcd me and made me, though unwit-
| tingly, the chief actor in the conspiracy.
| My first idea was to lock the door of
| the room they were in and 20 for help;
| but as that was likely to cause n dis
| turbance, | determined TO slip out and
trust to being back in time for Their
| arrest. As luck would have it, nearly
| the first man | met outside was detec-
! tive whom | had known very well in
connection with some criminal trials in
| which | had been engaged. A few
words explained my purpose, and, sig.
Mailing to the nearest policeman, he
| placed him at the door of the shop, and
both of us walked in. He nodded
familiarly to the bartender, and, lean
ing over the counter, whispered in his
ear. The shopman started and gave
vent TO a long, low whistle.
you'll do it as quietly as you car
for the credit of the house" said he.
"Of course" said the detective
"Show us in" III another minute We
were inside the room, with our back,
to the door, the detective dangling a
pair of steel bracelets and nodding
smilingly round the room. The
woman tainted. We had no difficulty
in securing the men; and in half an
hour we had them safely housed in
Jail
Before their trial came on we had
| NvDrknl ont thp whole story Thu