The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-06-05
mas nRAY on pHILAnELPHIA.

LOMn III ltltlsl ANtlllts llltlt iiNNu q ldill-
ily whom l win call Mitchell. The
family consisted of a husband, wife and
two children, the latter being boy
aged five and a girl of seven. Mitchell
was private banker, known to be hon
est, respectable, and worth 100000. l
knew little or nothing about the family
until certain incidents occurred. One
day his wife was fatally injured in a
railroad collision at u point50 miles from
home. When he reached her, in re-
Spouse 10 a telegram sent by a stranger,
he found she had been removed to a
hotel, and was being tenderly cared for
by woman who gave her name as Mrs.
A. b. Gray of Philadelphia.
Mrs Gray, as | might as well tell you
now, was petite, good looking, a good
talker and, in general way, captivat
ing, The fact of her taking charge of
Mrs. Mitchell as she had dore proved her
tender heart. She told Mr.. Mitchell she
had been a widow eighteen months, and
was practically alone in the world, and
though he was burdened with grief
and anxiety he did not forget to thank
her for her great kindness and take her
address. She resumed her journey, and
he took his wife home to die of her in
juries. 1t was three weeks after her
death that l came into the case. After
everything was over the husband sud
denly discovered that his dead wife's
iewelry was missing. She had with her,
when the accident took place, about a
thousand dollars worth of diamonds.
They had disappeared, and when he
came to run over events in his mind he
could not remember that they had come
with her. Mrs. Gray had turned over to
I, hftnhall'g nnn a fntV
other things, but pair of diamond ear
drops, two rings, and pin we've miss
ing
was employed to proceed to the
scene of the late accident, and seek to
trace the iewelry. The collision had oc-
CURED right at the depot in a small
town. People about the depot and at
the hotel assured me that Mrs. Mitchell
had her iewelry ON when taken to the
hotel. The landlords wife was positive,
and the doctor who was called in was
positive, and when l had worked the
case out / returned home to report to
Mitchell that nobody but Mrs. Gray
could have taken the jewelry. He was
astonished and indignant, and not only
repudiated the implication, but dis
charged me from the case with the as
sertion that was novice in the profess
sion.
went about other business, and it
was about four months before l saw
Mitchell again. Then he sent for me in
an official capacity again. No reference
was made to my previous work, but
fresher and other troubles had come to
him. AImonth after the death of his
wife he had opened correspondence with
Mrs. Gray, and the result was that she
had come to take charge of his house.
He was without relatives, or, at least,
without those who could aid him in his
situation, and she claimed to be free in
her movements.
haven't told you about the bank. 1t
was situated just square from his
house. and exactly in the rear of it,
The house frOnted on one street and the
bank on another, and there was no alley
between. Indeed the rear yard of the
house led right up to the rear of the
bank, and Mitchell used to come up and
90 through the yard. In the rear of the
banking rooms, divided off by the usual
railing, were the private offices and the
vault A burglar alarm was connected
with the front doors and windows, but
none with the back. A large and savage
dog guarded the rear, having kennel
close to the door.
What the banker wanted to see me
about was this: He had not only missed
money from his wallet at night, but on
two occasions considerable sums of
money had been taken from small safe,
which stood in his office outside the
vault One of the mysteries was in the
taking of the money. He employed a
teller and a bOOk-keeper, neither of
whom had a key to the safe or vault UNI
less it was duplicate made without his
knowledge. Neither had the word of
the combination of the vault, and it
seemed impossible that they could have
taken the money, even if SO inclined.
Both were perfectly honest so far as any
one knew. He hadn't talked to me five
minutes when | would have taken my
solemn oath that Mrs. Gray was the
guilty party, but, of course, | did It
drop hint of my suspicious to him.
She was shy, prudent, and apparently
all right, and | had put in month on
the case and made no discovery when
the outside safe was robbed again. A
deposit and some bonds had come in at
the last moment and had been placed
there for the night. The whole thing
amounted to about 5000, and bonds and
grcenbaCks were missing next morning.
The safe had not only been opened with
a key, but the bank had been entered by
unlocking the rear door. No one could
have entered by the front door without
sounding an alarms No stranger could
have entered by the back on account of
the dog, who was wide awake and all
right
When Mitchell sent TO. me to give me
the news | was perfectly satisfied that
Mrs. Gray was the guilty party. l be-
lieved she had the nerve to enter his |
room in the night, secure the keys and
then slip through the back yard, enter
the bank and open the safe. When
learned that the dog was a great favor
lite of hers this belief was a certainty.
couldn't for reasons already given, say
a word to Mitchell about this. He
wanted to suspect his two employees, but |
when we had canvassed the matter he |
was made to see that it was altogether |
unlikely that either of them was guilty. |
Indeed, he was alone in the bank when
the bonds and money came in, and
he alone knew where the deposit was
placed.
What did do? | turned to Mrs. Gray
again, and in about week something
happened to prove that | was on the |
llEllL lIdll. Vic VI llt SlIctJ-GdI llneh |
OF the town ran down to the railroad |
depot. 1t was Mrs. Gray's habit of an
afternoon to ride on this line with the |
little girl as far down as n certain park, |
and to sit near the fountain and read |
while the girl romped about with other |
children. | had closely watched her |
while in this park, but no one had ever |
come near her, and her demeanOr had |
been perfection. On the third afternoon |
after the robbery she occupied her usual |
seat for an hour without anything hap |
peuing | sat on bench in the rear of |
her and about thirty feet away, and soon |
| noticed that she was writing a note |
with pencil. She did it so deity that |
one sitting in front of her could not have |
told what she was at. Beside her was |
large shade tree and as near as / could |
make ont she disposed of the note, when |
folded up, somewhere about the tree. |
When she left / followed her for a short |
distance, and, looking back, | saw
young and well-dressed man occupying
the place vacated by her An hour later,
when l could examine the tree, found
a hollow in the trunk just about on a
line with her shoulder as she sat on the
bench. One not looking for it would
have sat there and discovered nothing.
My theory was that she had an accom-
plice-the young man whom had seen.
Tie hollow in the tree was their post
Office. Next day | was at the park half
an hour before her usual time, and be-
hold! the young man was occupying
that bench. As she appeared he got up
and took seat n hundred feet away,
and by watching closely saw that she
took note from the tree. Before leaV-
ing she wrote and posted one in reply,
and after she had gone saw him get it.
was now certain that was on the right