Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1886-02-12

is their misfortune, not THAR fault, that there
Is no man Of superior intelligence among
them-I mean no man who is capable; in
great emergencies, of placing himself above
conventional methods and following a
new way of his own. There have been
such men in the policemen naturally
endowed with that faculty Of mental
analysis which can decompose a mystery, re-
solve it into its component parts, and find the
clew at the bottom, no matter how remote
from ordinary observation it may bs. But
those men have died or have retired. One of
them would have been invaluable to you in
the case you have just mentioned to me. As
things are, unless you are wrong in believing
in the young lasly's innocence, the person
who has stolen that bank note will be no easy
person to find. In my opinion there is only
one man now in london who is likely to be OF
the slig ties. assistance to you and he is not
in the police"
s'Who hes' asked Mr.. Troy.
''An old rogue, who was once in your
branch Of the legal profession" the friend an
swered. "You may, perhaps, remember the
man; they call adm old Sharon"
What! the scsundrel who was struck of
the roll of attDrneys years since? Is he still
alive?"
'Alive and pre9,ering. He lives in a court
or lane running out Of Longacre, and he
offers advice to per ons Interested in recover
ing missing objects of any sort. Whether
you have lot yaur wife or lost your cigar
case, Old Sharon is equally useful to you.
He has an inbred capacity for reading the
riddle the right way in cases of mystery,
great or small In short, he possesses exactly
that analytical faculty to which Lalluded
just now have his address at my Office, il
you think it worth while to try him."
'Who can trust sneh q MANI Mr.. Troy
objected. HE would be sure to deceive
me-"
'YM are entirely mistaken. Since he was
struck off the rolls Old Sharon has discovered
that the straight way is, on the whole, the
best way, even in mans own interests His
consultation fee is a guinea; and he gives a
signed estimate beforehand for any supple
mentary expenses that may follow. l can
tell you fhis is, of course, strictly between
ourselves that the authorities at my ofice
took his advice in a government case that
pnzzled the police. We approached him, OF
course through persons who were to be
trusted to represent US without betraying the
source from which their instructions were
derived, anil we found the old rascal's advice
well worth paying for 1t is quite likely that
be may not succeed SO well in your case Try
the police, by all means; and if they fail F.,
why there is Sharon as a last resource"
This arrangement commended itself to Mr..
Troy's professional caution. He went on to
Whitehall, and he tried the detective police.
They at ONCE adopted the obvious conclusion
to persons of ordinary capacity-the con-
clusion that Isabel was the thief
- IL
sent an experienced woman from the office to
Lady Lydiards house to examine the poor
girls clothes and ornaments before they were
packed up and sent after her to her aunts.
Thesearch led to nothing. The only objects
of any value that were discovered had been
presents from Lady Lydiard. No jewelers.
or milliners' bills were among the papers
found in her desk. Not sign of secret ex-
travagance in dress was to be seen anywhere
Defeated SO far, the police proposed next to
have Isabel privately watched. There might
be proliigal lover somewhere in the back
ground, with ruin staring him in the face
unless he could raise five hundred pounds.
Lady Lydiard (who had only consented to
the search under stress of persuasive argu-
ment from Mr.. Troy resented this ingenious
idea as an insult. She declared that if Isabel
was watched the girl should know of it in
stantly from her own lips. The police lis
tened with perfect resignation and decorum,
and politely shifted their ground. A certain
suspicion they remarked) always rested in
cases of this sort on the servants. Would
her ladyshp object to private inquiries into
the characters and proceedings of the ser
vantsa Her ladyship instantly objected, in
the most positive terms. Thereupon the Gin
spector" ASKED for minutes private CONVEX
sation with Mr.. Troy. 1.-THE thief is GER
tainly a member of Lady Lydiard's house
hold" this functionary remarked, in his
politely positive way. ''If her ladyship per-
sists in refusing to let us make the necessary
inquiries our hands are tied, and the case
comes to an end through no fault of ours. II
her ladyship changes her mind perhaps you
will drop me a line, sir, to that effect Good
morning"
So the experiment of consulting the police
came to an untimely end. The one result
obtained was the expression of purblind
opinion by the authorities of the detective
department, which pointed at Isabel or at
one of the servants as the undiscovered
thief Thinking the matter over in the re-
tirement of his owo office, and not forgetting
his promise to Isabel to leave no means un-
tried of establishing her innocence, Mr.. Troy
could see but one alternative left to him.
He took up his pen and wrote to his friend
at the government Office There was nothing
for it now but to run the risk and try Old
Sharon.