The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1893-06-22
THE PURLOINED LETTER

THE EPURbOlNED LETTER
CONTINUED.
"His frequent absences from home at
night, which were hailed by the project
as certain aids to his success, regarded
only as ruses to afford opportunity for
thorough search to the police and thus
the sooner to impress them with the con-
viction to (Which G. in fact did finally
arrive-the conviction that the letter
was not upon the premises I felt also
that the whole train of thought, which l
was at some pains in detailing to you
just now, concerning the invariable prin-
ciple of policial action in searches for ar
ticles concealed-I felt that this whole
train of thought would necessarily pass
through the mind of the minister.
1T would imperatively lead him to
despise all the ordinary hooks of con-
cealm6nt. He could not, I reflected, be
so weak as not to see that the most in
tricate and remote recess Of his hotel
would be as open as his commonest clos
cts to the eyes, to the probes, to the gim-
lets and to the microscopes of the prefect.
I saw, in fine, that he would be driven
as matter of course to simplicity, if
not deliberately induced to it as matter
of choice. You will remember perhaps
how desperately the prefect laughed
when I suggested upon our first inter-
view that it was just possible this mys-
terry troubled him so much on account Of
its being so very self evident"
eyes," said I, II remember his merri-
ment well. I really thought he would
have fallen into convulsions."
1.-The material world" continued Du-
pin, s'abounds with very strict analogies
to the immaterial, and thus some color
of truth has been given to the rhetorical
dogma that metaphor or simile may be
made to strengthen an argument as well
as to embellish description. The prin-
ciple of the Wis inertia, for example,
seems to be identical in physics and
metaphysics. It is not more true in the
former that large body is with more
difficulty set in motion than smaller
one, and that its subsequent momentum
is commensurate with this difficulty,
than it is in the latter that intellects of
the vaster capacity, while more forcible,
more constant and more eventful in their
movements than those of inferior grade,
are yet the less readily moved and more
embarrassed and full Of hesitation in the
first few steps of their progress. Again,
have you ever noticed which of the street
signs over the shop doors are the most
attractive of attention."
II have never given the matter a
sthought,n said ..4--.=y.s--aes ~.
"There is a game of puzzles, I" he re-
sumed, (which is played upon map.
One party playing requires another to
find given word-the name of town,
river. state or empire-any word, in
short, upon the motley and perplexed
surface of the chart. A novice in the
game generally seeks to embarrass his
opponents bz giving them the most
minutely lettered names, but the adept
selects such words as stretch in large
characters from one end of the chart
to the other. These, like the over
largely lettered signs and placards of
the street, escape observation by dint Of
being excessively obvious, and here the
physical oversight is precisely analogous
with the moral inapprehension by which
the intellect suffers to pass unnoticed
those considerations which are too OBJ
trusively and too palpably self evident.
''But this is q point, it appears, some
what above or beneath the understand
ing Of the prefect. BE never once thought
it probable ,or possible that the minis
ter had deposited the letter immedlately
beneath the nose of the whole world by
way of best preventing any portion Of
that world from perceiving it.
"But the more l reflected upon the
daring, dashing and discriminating in:
genuity of D.; upon the fact that the
document must always have been at
hand if he intended to use it to good
purpose, and upon the decisive evidence,
obtained by the prefect, that it was not
hidden within the limits of that digni-
tary's ordinary search, the more salts
fed I became that to conceal this letter
the minister had resorted to the compre-
hensive and sagaciods. expedient Of not
attemDth3 to conceal it at all.
+ :, %IP-1I