The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1889-07-04

RDN rap' dropped into R tn Il;
Office, with a newspaper in his hand and
very grave face.
81 want to call something to your rec
objection, Inspector" said he; "some-
thing of Importance to me, though you
may have forgotten it."
"Oh, you mean young Percy Nolen's
case, don't your" returned the chief of
detectives. 81 remember; he was &C
cused of robbery in a jewelry store and
you went bail for him in fifteen hundred
dollars Yes, the trial comes on today"
You have a good memory. Well,
you are perhaps not aware that Percy
left New York on the day following the
examination and never returned"
"Yes, judge, happen to be aware of
that, tool You see, we anticipated there
might be some difficulty of the kind, and
so we put a man on to watch him. Mr..
Nolen spent that night at Mr.. Martins
rooms on Fifth avenue. The next morn
ing, some one whom our man took to be
Martin walked out and went up town.
An hour or two later, Martin himself
came out. Instead Of following him our
man made the mistake of going up stairs
to see whether Nolen was in the rooms.
In that way they both got off. We did
everything in our power to stop them,
but it was too late. sincerely hoped he
would think better of it, and come back.
l am sorry for you, but there it isl"
LAS regards myself, I'm not loser. I
don't mind telling you that, few hours
after his escape, l received by letter the
amour! of the bail; it came, have rea-
son to believe, from Martin. All Percy's
outstanding bills were also paid, proba-
bly, by the same hand. Of course, Percy
SHOULD have stood his trial, and had I had
any inkling of what he intended should
have used every means to prevent his de-
parture. But at any rate he left no debts
behind him."
He made the mistake of his life,"
said the inspector, emphatically. cas-
the reason why will be known in few
hours, may as well tell you now. In
the first place the evidence against him
was not conclusive, and, taking every
thing into consideration, the chances are
that he would have been acquitted. His
looks and manner and his previous rec
ord and social standing were in his
favor, though it is true that he had been
making fool of himself here and there,
as boys sometimes will. But fellow
like that is not likely to steal a lady's
pocket book in face of the absolute GER
tainty of being suspected of it. The
game wasn't worth the CANDLE"
81 quite agree with you," replied the
judge; "still there was'a possibility that
the verdict might go against him; and
you can understand that conviction
would be as good as death to him."
Even then, if we were innocent, the
guilty party would be sure to turn up
sooner or later and he would be vindi-
Gated. l could make guess, even now,
as to who the thief really is; but he has
not committed himself yet, and as the
money stolen was in bank notes of course
it is more difficult to trace than Jewels
or any kind Of personal property would
be. But that is not the point was going
to make. If he had appeared in court
today he would have been free man
ever after"
GLOW can you know that?"
''In this way. You have heard all
about that affair of his with the wife of
the plaintiff. No actual harm had been
done, but she was compromised and her
husband had heard of it; they had had
some words about it probably; and when
he found Nolen in such an awkward pre-
dicament. he naturally was not going to
lose the opportunity of jumping on him.
So he pressed the charge, as we saw.
But his wife did what he had not antici.
pated-she joined him In the accusation,
and thereby ranged herself definitely on
his SHE. OF course that took the wind
out of his sails; it proved that she hated
Percy as much as he did, and therefore
removed his own chief reason for hating
him."
81 understand; buff
Every we'll. Having no longer any
especial reason for 1evenging himself
upon Percy, and probably not believing,