San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-11-22

hypocriticis cSe as W. 7zcn 81 tliIU night
saying that housemaids were curious and had
been known TO walk in their sleep, and that
it was not well to trust them to excess. And
now the adventures had left the key on the
outside. But what would the countermove
availl There were villains below making
away with the plate; had heard them; they
would come to the rescue, and had no
means of successfully following up the tenn
porary advantage. Yet my fingers itched to :,
drag to that door and imprison my foes.
Clangl clatterl all our bells seemed to be |
ringing at once, and Mrs. Climbers precious
confederates would not have given the |
alarm it must mean for them Interruption |
and discontinue. And in a trice had acted |
on my wild idea The great oak door was |
fast-fastl had the key, and with it | fed
to my own room There | covered as chill ]
dren do under the bedclothes, and suffered
paroxysm after paroxysm Of helpless, abjec.
terror. Every vestige of bravery, deliberate
or fortuitous, had forsaken me- But was
not molested
What happened on the other side of my
fortress can be simply and succinctly related
in the words with which on the morrow our
friend and benefactor, Mr.. Lidlaw, enlight-
ened papa 1t will be needful to resume from
the point of his recognition of Mrs. Climbers
handwriting when chatting in our drawing
room.
"You see, I am an expert in these mat
ters," he said. Probably you may have seen
my name in the newspapers in connection
with some trial, civil or criminal, in which
the Identification of handwriting has formed
a leading feature in the proceedingsP'
81 have" papa answered
Exactly. And two months ago l had to
make q professional study Of various docu-
ments and signatures in a north country case
of systematic and long continued fraud.
am prepared to swear that the specimen Of
Mrs Climbers, alias Mrs. Cleggs hand shown
me by your son is the fac simile Of large
number of those forged papers. The writer
is the same. And now that l have seen her
sine had a most valid reason for keeping in
the background yesterday evening" recog-
nize the woman too. She only escaped q long
term of penal servitude through the plea
that she was her husbands tool And
another thing made me startled and suspi-
cious. 1t was this: at Daleford a man left
the same train whom l identified in spite of
his wrappings as the brother of the con-
demned Long Firm swindler, who stood in
the dock with Mrs Clegg. He'll soon follow
him into convict CELL He was involved in
the Manchester case, though there was a flaw
in the evidence, and he eluded the grasp of
justice"
"But Mrs. Climbers testimonials-they
were most excellent" murmured papa.
Forged my dear sir; entertain no doubt
of it,n replied Mr. Lidlaw. "These people
| saw your advertisement. and application and
references were all parts of rather clever
| plant But the female trickster carried her
daring q step too far, and will pay the penal
| ty. When | was confronted with that
| couplet, in tho hand had so much reason to
know, got an inkhng of the game that was
ON foot. And instead Of going on to Walnsey
| Gross returned to Daleford and interviewed
| a sergeant of police. 1t seemed that he was
in possession of an official warning that
| tended in the like direction of watchfulness.
| We both had suspicion that you might
| have been lured out of the way by a bogus
message"
mo; there was nofstratagem there" put
in my father
Then events conspired so far with the
| gang of rogues Well, we came up to the
! manor TO make sure that all was right and
| we found an open windowa and moving lights.
| We were five in number and armed. The
sergeant and two of his men entered by the
same road as the burglars, and at a signal
| from the officer | eropsed the household
One thief was taken in the act of selecting
the choicest specimens Of your old fashioned
! silver and to our infinite bewilderment we
discovered later that your clever housekeeper
and a second confederate were caught LIKE
rats in n trap. That was the work Of Miss
Maggie here. AS soon as we learned this we
applied to the young lady, got the key and
entered We were only just in time to Uhwart
an attempt to escape by the window. But
for the height and the awkwardness Of the
Descent the man at least would have escaped
But the three are in Siston Jail"
"And have to thank you" said papa,
''for the protection of my property, Mr.
Lidlaw; am sincerely grateful"
And | am glad to have been of service"
answered our friend.-Chambers' Journal.
A Warning of Sure Death.
NA