Birmingham state herald., 1895-12-04
THE SEVEN MYSTERIES.

 tective Inspector. Nichols, with good humored smile. However the excellent dinner you've regaled us with has put me in a talkative mood. As to a good story, the gentlemen present must judge; but I can spin a yarn which will I think interest you all while cigars are being consumed"
 Just what we want" I returned, well aware that none of my acquaintances could tell a better tale than the retired detective. "So fire away, Nichols, we're all attention"
 Have you ever heard of that affair commonly called The Seven Mysteries. which so occupied public attention some years ago?" the detective asked, lean ing back and looking effectively before him. Ut concerned the extraordinary disappearances for a time at least, of several men, one after the other, in the east end. What I shall tell you about more particularly, though, will be the very narrow shave I had of making the eighth mystery, with the one serious drawback that my disappearance would have been forever!
 aIt was no exaggerat ton to term these disappearances mysteries: besides which there was so much in common with each as to warrant connecting them together The police were able to follow every man of the seven up to certain point, put there every trace of what had really hap pened was lost as completely as if the solid ground had opened and swallowed up the victims.
 '.The men mostly belonged to the fairly well-to-do class. Three were respectapie tradesmen two were sailors who had just been paid off and the other two were officers in the mercantile marine, and 1t was clear that robbery was the motive at the bottom of every case. But the strangest part of each fresh affair was the fact that after about two or three weeks every man turned up again sate and sound; each, too, with the same inn probable story, for all had but the vagu- est notion of where they had been or now they had been robbed.
 ''Each man, it seemed, had been kept in durance vile, half starved, in some damp, noisome cellar; and finally, after what must have seemed an age, awaken ed one night to the joyful fact that he had been conveyed, while in a state Of stupor to a lonely place near the rlVer, and there left to his own resources once more In another important thing, too, all were agreed, and that was that the last clear recollection they had Of any thing, prior to finding themselves prison CTS, was being in a public house, ana there, as they put it, going off to sleep.
 -Four of the victims were not certain as to the precise public house, which was no wonder. as there were several close around the implicated one; but the re- maining three men were capable, or as- serted that they were, of taking the police straight to it, and you may be sure that they were speedily given the oppor- tunity.
 Cautiously enough, in these three in stances the same public house was the one pointed out, which was suspicious enough; but 1t was here that every at tempt at further investigation seemed doomed to failure.
 ''The house, which was known as The A1I alA fn and so far as the police were aware there was no particular allegation against It. Of course we confronted the landlord with all seven of the unlucky men in turn; and he readily admitted having seen two of them before; but these, so he declared, had been at his house in the company of other men, and had to the best of his recollection been led away apparently in a state which required friends at their side.
 s'The statement appeared feasible, but the two men strongly denied the imputa- ton, and the landlord, on his part, stoutly denied all further knowledge of them or their misfortunes; so there the matter promised to end, except that by this time the affair had got to be popu- larly styled The Seven Mysteries
 ''It was at this juncture in view, no doubt of the risk of the number belng added to, and thus increasing the public alarm already felt in the neghborhood, that I was called upon the scene by my chiefs and instructed with the difficult matter of unraveling the threads Of this remarkable puzzle.
 "Dubious as I felt of the result put all my energies into the case. my wits being not little sharpened by the fact that success meant certain promotion, and the handling of fair share or the nice little reward which had by now been offered for the elucidation of the nj these prizes, too, meant yet a third, and the best of all; for the first two would enable me to offer comfortable home to cer- tain sweet little woman who was waiting patiently to share it with me.
 First, raked together every particle of evidence I could gather, which in stead of helping only bafiled me the more. One conclusion, however, l at length came to. Beyond doubt the men had all been trapped and robbed by the same party, who, l estimated. was the richer by quite $500. I also decided that the men must have been drugged, then robbed, and finally. to add 10 the mys- tery and thus help to prevent suspicion from settling in the proper quarter, they must have been kept close prisoners. At any rate, I could think of no other reason for keeping them out of sight of the world.
 Meanwhile pondered over several plans for clearing up the mystery. all of which I flattered myself, were at least original but which, am afraid, looking back at this period of time. were more dramatic than practical. Anyhow, fan cy if l had tried any of them the ending of this story would have been different to what recorded facts must make it.
 :'The only pleasant reflection about the whole outrageous business was the fact that no actual violence had been used. But would 1t be avoided toward anyone who should be found endeavoring to pen citrate the mystery on the spot? Provid- ed, of course, that spot could be discov- cred. Well, that had got to be chanced and after settling all details to my satis- faction, I set out for the Dragon three evenings after I had been commissioned to unearth the robberies. From this you will see that had decided pretty clearly as to the locality where suspicion pointed most strongly, and so you won't be sur prised to hear that had determined to give the Dragon chance of swallow ing me in the same disagreeable fashion as had it's previous victims. That 1t would actually do so was a contingency l scarcely reckoned upon.
 Picture to yourselves, then, seeing me disguised as the first mate of a merchant man, vending my way through the back streets toward the suspected public house. In case of accident I had deputed