The Van Buren press., 1895-03-02

ing with the ''Pilgrim;s Progress?" And
how was It that that particular worle
was the only book he possessed? And
how did he come to possess 1t at gil?
turned the leaves over carelessly and
could see nothing unfamiliar about the
book. 1 finally concluded that Jimmy
Timble had picked II up somewhere,
and kept it out OF curiosity, and With
that tied It up again with the rest OF
his possessions.
The days passed by, but / saw noth-
Ing OF Jerry Timble. He had left the
county jail, but he did not present
himself at his usual haunts In Wool
ford. preserved the bundle for him,
and waited, knowing quite well that,
II he was in the town, we should see
him at the police Office sooner or later.
1t was impossible for either Jimmy or
Jerry Timble to keep his hands from
picking and stealing. But time passed
on, and Jerry did not appear. ! began
to think that he had removed himself
to some other town.
About nine months after Jimmy Tim.
BILE had gone back to penal servitude, ]
CHANGED to go one day into second.
hand book shop, the proprietor Of which
was an old acquaintance Of mine.
Somehow, our conversation drifted to
the criminal classes, and ere long the
shopkeeper mentioned the name OF
Jimmy Timble. HE was queer GUS
toner, was Jimmy" said he. He
came In here one day last time he was
out OF prison, and looked round him as
If he wanted something. Now, sir,
says I, what can find for youP Give
me an old book to read. mister, an
swered Jimmy. We don't give books
here says I; we sell EN- He said
nothing to that; but after awhile he
pulled out twopence. What can have
for that?' he asked. Here You are,
says 1, "a ''Pilgrim's Progress pictures
and all, for twopence. So he walked
off with his book"
That explained Jimmy's possession Of
the "Pilgrim's Progress" then lying at
my house. l went home and had my
supper, and then sat down to have q
thorough examination OF the book. l
was confident that there was solne-
thing about that book which 1t would
repay anybody to discover, and / was
determined to solve the mystery. But
though 1 went carefully through 1t
page by page, once, twice, and three
times, saw nothing. There was no
writing, no hieroglyphic signals, moth
ing to attract attention. But at the
fourth time OF examination l made a
discovery. Underneath the first 1.-The"
on the first page there was the plain
mark OF pin-prick, just as If a pin had
been carelessly jabbed into the paper
and quickly withdrawn. The mark
was very faint, but 1t was there. l as
sured myself that the pin-prick had not
penetrated to the second page, and
then came to the conclusion that
Jimmy Timble's ''Pilgrim's Progress"
concealed some private message from
himself to his brother Jerry.
I began what proved a long and
weary task The next pin-prick 1
found was under the letter ''j' on page
8; the next under '.e' on page II; the
next under "w' on page 10. Then
came pricks under the letters ''e" a."
"s," all on different pages, and thus I
had spelt out two words, "the jewels" :"
I took courage at that, and went on.
There was, no doubt, much to follow.
All that evening worked away ct
my task. 1t was anything but easy.
Sometimes the pin pricks were faint
and hardly decipherable; sometimes
there were several on one page; some
times the spelling puzzled me; some
times l seemed to lose the track alto
gether. But persevered; and just as
midnight struck had solved the mys-
terry, and had written out Jimmy
Timble's ingenious message to his
brother Jerry:
1.-THE Jewels as got from tho mares wife Is
berried underneath the lilac tree In old George
Atkinson's garden In Lilywood road. Keep On
eye on them and don't disterb them unles they
are going to bid on the garden. II they build
dig them up and keep them safe till come out
agcn your brother JAMES,"
So there was an explanation of the
mystery or rather Of two mysteries. I
had been right, after all-the burglary
at the mayors residence was the work
of Jimmy Timble. Egfs
l lost no time next morning in inter
viewing Mr.. George Atkinson, and in
persuading him to let me dig under his
lilac tree. There, sure enough, I found
the missing diamonds, carefully
wrapped up and put away. Jimmy had
hidden them until suspicion had quite
blown over and he had felt free to re-
sumo possession OF them. The at
tempted burglary had spoiled his plans.
saw Jimmy when he returned from
Portland four years later. He smiled
knowingly as he met me. II reckon
you think yourself clever man, Mr..
Inspector, don't yer?" said he. "But
you'd have been made nice cat's-paw
of, If only that fool of Jerry had
turned up in good time; wouldn't yer,
now?" .-..-a----s,
dare say Jimmy was right. But, as
events turned out, fortune was wholly
on my side In this case.-Chambers
journal.