Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1892-12-09

Richardson was watched by another
member Of the force. On Sunday
evening | met Hall with his sweet
heart, and noticed that she wore u
splendid diamond brooch, which had
evidently been given her by Hall, as
they were talking about 1T, and, walk
ing behind them, 1 overheard every
word. She was urging him to be more
careful of mis- money, and he laugh
ingly replied; oh. never mind,
there's plenty more where that came
from! Yesterday l obtaincda search
warrant, and found this"
/ He handed to my father a bank
book, which showed that Hall had
deposited nearly e4OO in one of the
local banks on Friday preceding.
"l'ut e4oo is not the amount
TAKEN" calculated my father.
'sBut is IL part of it," replied the
detective, land the rest may he else
where. When charged with the
theft, Hall seemed dumfoundcd, and
on receiving the usual caution simply
replied, i am perfectly innocent ,
He will he broughtup tomorrow, and
probably committed for trial to the
assizcs.'
The detective then took his leave,
and my father and remained silent,
thinking for some time. At last
said, "Will YOU let me have your
pockctbook, father and the key OF
| your private Office and safe? l shall
probably lie there for some time, so
do not sit up for me.
My father coupled with the re-
quest. and i'm less than half All hour
was in the office. Certainly there
did not seem much hope of Hall be-
ing innocent, but l was determined
to probe the matter to the very bot
tom. l had known him from lad,
and, in fact, in our boyhood we had
been schoolfellows in the Liverpool
Institute. Open as the day, though
somewhat reckless. he seemed the
last man to turn out thief l sat
down aud carefully examined the
pockct-book my father had given me.
thought the matter over on every
side, and suddenly an inspiration
flashed across nc. My father always
wrote with good pencil, and if he
placed the thin paper upon his pock-
cthook might find traces of the num-
tiers. Hastily taking from my own desk
a small microscope carefully exam
incd the leaves of the book. Here was
what sought. The numbers stood
out plainly, and / carefully copied
them into my own pockctlook. So
mach of the difficulty being solved,
next turned my attention to the safe.
The question had still to bc answered,
"lIow had the thief opened the
safc?' obtained us good Il light as
possibly could and made IL minute
examination of the safe. There
seemed to be no marks of rough usage,
and it was evident that it had not
been forced open. \ duplicate kew,
then, must have been used. But, as
nothing further seemed capable of
being found out from the safe itself,
! locked it and proceeded to examine
the desks of Richardson and Hall,
which were in an adjoining room. In
the latter found Il few loose slips of
..Nightshadc, 20 to ], Ever
ctt;" Eagles Wing, 80 to L." etc,
etc. What did these mean? Evil
IDENTIFY it was connected with betting.
folded them upand put them in my
pOckctboOk beside the number Of the
notes. There seemed to bc nothing
else which would throw any light on
the affair i'm either my fathers room
or that of the two chief clerks so
turned out the lights and went home.
The next day Hall was brought up
before the Magistrates and, the evil
dencc of tile detective having been
given, hc was committed for trial to
tho aSsizcs, bail being refused. He re-
scrN ed his defense aud wa> removed
tn iail. asked for and obtained per-
N to see him. He seemed very
:i>t down and troubled by the
II of the pain his arrest must
caused his mother and sweet
o-lrt. But Mr. Meredith, he said
to inc, ~ am utterly innocent of the
theft. hope YOU. at any rate, will
believe me. The matter of the
money standing to my credit i'm the
bank can hc easily explained. though
felt uhat ! could not urge il i'm my
defense to-day. In fact NV solicitor
ADVISED me not 10 Dflng III loiWaIu.
us at present there is only my own
unsupported cvidcnca for it The as
sizes come ON in a week, and by then
hope further confederation will he
available. received certain inform
alton about Il fortnight ago that
Night>hade. rank outsider, as he
was considered, stood Il good chance
for the st. Lcgcr. know that l
was foolish for betting on the race,
but events proved that was rightly
informed. 1t was my first bet, and
shall be my last Everett, the great
betting man in one of the local clubs,
offered to lay 20 to against Night
shade, and backed the horse for s2O.
On Thursday last he paid me t400,
the greater part of which banked on
the next day
Immediately called to mind the
slips of paper in my pocket, on one OF
which was ..Nightshade, 20 10 l,
Everett. lit seemed clear to me that
Hall was speaking the truth, and
n IL. ,,l i