Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-05-30
AN AWKWARD DISCOVERY.

to dress for dinner, she had found that
her house had been entered by burglars
and that not ali her valuable jeWelry, but
also considerable amount of money was
missing. It was the same old tale that
has been told so often of late. During
the afternoon, when the master and mis-
tress were out ADD the servants were
chatting and resting down stairs, and the
upper part of the house was deserted, the
thieves and assembled or descended to the
front balcony, forced back the window
catch, entered the drawing-room and
gone straight from there to the floor,
above, on which the apartments of Mr..
and Mrs. Beecham-Beecham. A putty
knife lying near the drawing-room, and
q chisei on the floor of the lady's bed
room, plainly showed the ways and means
adopted by the artists. The operation
had been carried out with the greatest
skill and discrimination. Nothing had
been tempered with except the wardrobe
and dressing case of the lady of the
house. The door of the former had been
forced, while the latter, having been en-
tirely rifed of its contents, lay com
plete wreck on the floor close beside the
chisel. The contents were said TO be
98, 10 worth of Jew elery ana aoout 9400
in Bank of England notes. A gOodly
haul, indeed, for the burglars; and when
Mrs. Beecham- Beeoham fully talzed her
loss she flung herself on couch, buried
her face in her hands, and sobbed as she
had never sobbed before-not even when
she lost her first husband.
Mr.. Beecham- Beecham was her second
venture in matrimOny; che having been
at the time of their wedding, three years
mers, and he q handsome dissipated youth
of %. The motives which had led TO the
union had on each side been purely com
mercial. He wanted money; she desn ed
position and society. She was immense
ly rich; he was everything desirable as
far as connections and standing went
She felt That she could not enjoy the
wealth her late husband, tie pawnbroker,
had left her without getting footholi 10
what she called the upper ten thousand !;
he reaIizs d that his only security from
the bankruptcy court was unlons with an
heireas or we'll -endoWe ed widow. Out OF
score of ina pecunious aspirants for her
late husbands position, she had selected
Mr.. Beecham- Beecham, on account of his
good looks and excellent pedigree. And
her husL and had chosen her because she
up to his requirements. The two had got
along feirly we'll after marriage. for she
had taken care not to lose control of one
penny of her fortune, and the amount her
husband received as pocket money de-
pended entirely on his ability to keep her
in good temper.
While she was still lying on the couch
sobbing, Mr.. Beecham Beecham returned
from his club, and being appraised by the
butler of what had happened, fastened
up stairs. She pointed to the broken
dressing case, and, in voice often choked
by sobs, proceeded TO relate what had
happened. The first practical suggestion
made in that bewildered household since
the discovery of the robbery came from
its master. Send to Scotland-yar0,"
said he, and to Scotland yard they sent.
After an interval of an hour, during which
Mr.. Decentralization dutifuily sympR-
thiZed and consoled with his wife, two de
teotives arrived from headquarters. They
rapidly surveyed the premises, question
ed the servants and took notes. Nothing
new resulted from their researches and
inquiries, except that, apparently, the
thieves had reached the balcony of a
ueighboring empty house by ladder in
use by workmen, and had stepped from
one balcony to another. Having made
this valuable discovery, and finding that
none of the servants had seen any person
or heard any noises about the house, the
detectives took their departure.
A week elapsed, and not single clew
had been found either to the thieves or
the missing valuables. Very little no
tice of the robbery had appeared in any
of the papers, as both Mr.. Beeeham-
Beecham and the police were confdant
that too much publicity would only in
jure the chance of recovering the prop
erty or discovering the culprlts. Far
Their than this, her husband had i'm pressed
on Mrs. Beecham-Beecham the absolute
necessity of keeping the patUer quiet,
aud not even discussing 1t with her most
intim ate friends. But under this re
straint she soon grew FESTIVE; and so 1t
happened one day she toured out the
story into the sympathetic ears of an
old city friend of her late husbands. who
after bordering over the matter for q
considerable time, put to her the very
obvious question, WY the whole. affair
had been Ike pit so quiet. Mrs. Beecham-
Beecham told him that neither her hus-
psnd nor the police wanted the robbery
talked about, and that all the publicity
bn6y nhu given III WIS III advertising q
descr' otion of the stolen jewelry.
"Bah!" he said, contem ptuously, "your
husband is a very foolish, inexperienced
youth, and naturally the police wish the
affair kept secret because they know they
cannot ferret it out, and don't want to be
chars ed with incompetency. You leave
this matter with me and will put some
private detectives on the case at once.
They are men who can ind out any thing
Come to my office tomorrow at IL o'clock
and you shall give them q description of
every thing missing, and tell them all par
ticulars." Mrs. Standardization fol-
lowed her friends advice, put the case in
the hands of the private detectives he re
commended, and promised them hand
some reward if they were successful.
Three more weeks elapsed Without the
police making the slightest progress in
the case, and Mr.. Beechsm-Beecham was
never informed by his wife of the addi-
tional aid she had called in. One day,
however, when her husband was out, she
received visit from one of her detec
tives in her employ and was closeted with
him for upwards of an hour. That same
evening when Mr.. decentralization re-
turned he was greeted with q frigi6 look
and an .omInous silence which lasted IN
til dinner WAS over and the servants had
retired. Then Mrs. Beecham-Beecham
resting her elbow on the table, and lean
across toward her husband said: