Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1886-10-15

| day. 1he professor was on ms mettle. lie
had said to us: 81 will succeed tomorrow"
and to succeed he evidently intended.
He stood for a few minutes, blindfoldcd as
usual before hc took Mrs. Cargill's hand, and
then commenced to move forward, but in an
opposite direction to that he had been taking
when he had lost the clew before On he went,
and on, right through the wood, till the affair
began TO grow trcsome. He was going well
to-day certainly; he had kept us at it n good
long time; but if we were only going to get n
few hundred yards every night, and perhaps
not find the stone after ALL we might as well
give the matter upentircly. Harold appeared,
from the frown upon his face, to have begun
to consider matters in this light too, when the
professor, who had been going at a fair pace,
suddenly stopped. 1t seemed to me only
natural that, as he had gone further than he
had ever gone before he should stop His i'm
beetle mind could stand the strain no longer
After considerable hesitation, however, be
turned slowly to the left, bent over some
thick brushwood and gradually stretced out
his hand. ITS that fox again to a certain
ty," whispered Harold to me; "the professor S
as mad as March hare" No signs of the
fox, though, and the professor was well into
the BUSH if the diamond was there, surely a
sudden flash of thought would assist him; but
it was not likely to be there any more than
our friend the fox, who would certainly have
made off long before now.
Ere my ideas were completed the flash
of thought did come. A sudden dart down
ward ON the part of the professor was instan-
taneously succeeded by frghtful yell that
rang through the woods. Mrs. Cargll's hand
was dropped in "A second, and it seemed as
though the professor was engaging blindfold-
ed in Some Xyful struCplp with "A foe whom
none of us had yet seen
1t was the fox after all. The professor had
tracked him down this time if not to his den,
at least to the trap in which the animal was
struggling.
Ccrtes, he was pretty severely punished for
his fox hunting propensities Foxes don't
usually attack until driven to the last ex-
trcmltY, and the professor must have forced
the animal to the furthest point it could go
with the trap on its fore paw ere he made
that sudden dive which was SO disastrous for
him. Had 1t not been that the learned mans
hand was most terribly bitten we should have
been struck with the absurdity of the scene,
Mrs. Cargill had had great fright; the pro-
fessor was in "A towering rage, not merely at
the injury done to his hand, but that he
should after all have again tracked down his
fox; so Harold and We're alone III any con-
diton for action. The professor swore that
he must kill tue fox that had so bitten him,
and so great was his wrath and haste that he
would scarcely wait till he had stanched bis
wound with handkerchief.
| took Mrs. Cargill to some little distance,
and when | returned the fox was wcll-nigh
demolished by the AID of a stout stick, with
which the professor had promptly avenged
himself
la ,tolt 1a nd n. n |, Ity
over the little excitement of the moment he
gave it as his decided opinion that either Mrs.
Cargill must unknown to herself, have been
wearing the diamond all the time or the fox
must have swallowed it, The last idea seemed
to have something in it, and he was so i'm
pressed with it that the only course to con-
vince him for we had begun to doubt his
sanity seemed to be to dissect the animal
there and then. ] left them to inform Mrs
Cargill of our last resolve when II shout of
joy from the professor and of surprise from
Harold made me hastily turn to rejoin them
Mrs. Cargll, hearing the shout, was with us
in trice
The diamond had been found! The fox had
not swallowed it, but tied tightly round its
neck, roughly sewed up in piece of brown
leather, was the missing stone
The professor was cxultant; his wound was
forgotten he had been right, after all.
But who was the thief! Some one must
have committed the diamond to the foxs
care. Was it true that the animal had
slipped its collar; or had the culprit freed it
for greater safety, in the belief that it would
return for lis meals! Only the gardener
could tell us and he would probably not miss
his fox till the morning.
Excited rs We were, we talked it all over in
bn nj I,. 81,
usual in getting home, where we parted at
once silently, retiring to our several chambers
to take the rest we had so well earned, after
mutual compliments all around.
We had decided that the gardener alone
could he the thief, and that We would con-
front him with the CHARGE in the morning
but we had rcckoncd without our host When
we assembled for breakfast, the professor
with his hand wrapped up in most ungainly
fashion, Mrs. Cargill met us with "A blank
face, \ note, which the servant had found
| in the silver chest some minutes since, eX-
planned all. 1t was a filthy piece of work
manship, but still legibe, and the contents
alas too plainly spoke the truth. 1t ran as
follows:
MISSUS,-i seen you and the gintlemen too
mites waukin about the woods looliin for mi
fox. You Kant lind him eny more than me
so line OIL. | hop you may kctch mi fox i
kant so me and my pals TUX few spunes in
sted Your obediant sirvent,
Tom BLAK.
ps--thenks for levin the door opn
The professor was the only one who made a
hearty breakfast. He had proved the power
of thought reading; it was our fault, not his,
that the gardener had been too sharp for us
Now, of course we had the detectives down
l,,,t r,,1.
spunes instod!' | should rather think he had (;
there was not piece of plate left in the house
-Macmillans Magazine.
my last trip across, going to Europe,
made the acquaintance of u young London
pant lpmon who WINS inclined 10 IiIicnla tba