Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-05-18

Copyright, 1885, by Bachelor johnson & BacheIler)
(Concluded)
| v.
| By this time cab was waiting in Lom-
| bard street, and two of Plummer's men,
under the doctors directions, carried La
ker to it. No sooner, however, were they
In the court than the two watching women
| threw themselves Historically upon Laker,
and it was long before they could be per-
| suaded that he was not being taken to
| Jail. The mother shrieked aloud: my boy,
| my boy! Don't take him. Oh, don't take
him! They've killed my boy! Look at his
head! Oh, his Eead!' and wrestled des-
perately with the men, while Hewitt at
tempted to soothe her, and promised to al
low her to go in the cab with her son If
she would only be quiet. The younger wo-
| man made no noise but she held one of
| Lakers limp hands in both hers.
| Hewitt and 1 dined together that evening
| and he gave me a full account of the oc-
currences which I have here set down.
Still, when he was finished, was not able
to see clearly by what process Of reason
| ing he had arrived at the conclusions that
gave him the key to the mystery. nor did
1 understand the agony column mes
sage. and said so.
In the beginning" Hewitt explained
| the thing that struck me as curious was
| the fact that Laker said to have
| given his own name at Palmer's in buying
| his ticket Now. the first thing the green
| est and newest criminal thinks of is chang
| ing his name, so that the giving of his own
name seemed unlikely to begin with; Still
he might have made such a mistake, as
| Plummer suggested, when he said that
| criminals usually made a mistake some
whereas they do in fact. Still it was the
cially as he actually didn't wait to be
asked for his name but blurted it out
| when it wasn't really wanted. And it was
| conjoined with another rather curious mis-
| take, or what would have been a mistake
| II the thief were Laker. Why should he
! conspicuously display his wallet-such
distinctive article-for the clerk to see and
| note? Why, rather, had he not got rid of
| it before showing himself? Suppose it
| should be somebody personating Laker?
| In any case, determined not to be preju-
| diced by what had heard of Laker's bet
| ting. man may bet without being a
| thief
But again, supposing it were Laker.
Might he not have given his name and
| displayed his wallet and so on while buy
| ing ticket for France, in order to draw
pursuit after himself in that direction
while he made off in another, in another
name and disguised? Each supposition was
plausible And in either case it might hap
pen that whoever was laying this trail
would probably lay it little further.
Charing Cross was the next point, and
there l went I already had il from Plum
mer that Laker had not been recognized
there. Perhaps the trail had been laid in
some other manner. Something left be-
hind with Laker's name on it, perhaps? 1
at once thought of the umbrella with his
monogram, and, making a long shot, ask
| ed for it at the lost properly Office. you
know. The guess was lucky. In the UNI
| paper. That, I judged, had fallen in from
| the hand of the man carry the UNI
| brella. He had torn the paper in half in
| order to fling it away, and one piece had
faIIa frotn he Any.v
| brella. 1t is thing that will often happen
| with omnibus ticket, you may have
| noticed. Also, it was proved that the UNI
! brella unrolled when found and rolled
| Immediately it was found. So here a
piece of paper dropped by the person who
| had brought the umbrella to Chartng Cross
| and left it. 1 got the whole advertisement.
as you remember, and 1 studied it. 'Yob
| is back-slang for boy and it is often used
in nicknames to denote a young, smooth
| faced thief Gunter, the man I suspect,
| a matter of fact is known as the 'Hoxton
| Yob.' The message, then, was addressed to
some one known by such a nickname
Next, H. R. shop roast Now. in thieves
slang, to roast thing or person is to
watch it him. They call any place a
shop-notably thieves den. So that this
| meant that some resort-perhaps the 'Hox-
| ton Row shop'-was watched. You 1st there
| tonight would be clearer, perhaps, when
| the rest was understood. l thought little
| over the rest, and it struck me that it must
| be a direction to some other house, since
one was warned Of as watched. Besides.
| there was the number 1877, and red b.,
which would be extremely likely to mean
| red blinds by way of clearly distinguish
| ing the house. And then the plan Of the
thing was plain You have noticed. prob
| ably, that the map of London, which ac-
| companies the post office directory, is di-
vided, for convenience of reference, into
numbered squares?
Eyes. The squares are denoted by letters
along the. top margin and figures down the
side. So that if you consult the directory
and find place marked as being in Do,
for instance, you find vertical division d,
and run your finger down it till 1t inter-
sects horizontal division 5, and there You
are.'
III got my post G If NoaS
don. and took in parts Of Abney Park
cemetery and Clissold Park Second top
was the next sign. Very well. 1 counted
square, counting in the usual way, from
the left. That was Lordship road Then
'srd L. From the point where Lordship
road crossed the top of the square 1 ran
L. or, in other words, the third turning on
the left. Hackworth road. So there we
were. unless my guesses were altogether
straight moniker'-that is to say, the proper
name, thiefs real name, in contradistinc-
ton to that.he may assume. ! turned over
and found that No. 1877 was Inhabited by a
Mr.. Merston. From the whole thing I
judged this. There was to have been a
meeting at the H. R. shop but that was
found at the last moment to be watched
by the police for some purpose. So that an
other appointment was made for this house
in the suburbs. You LIST. Then tonight
the person addressed was to come first, and
the others in the evening. They were to
ask for the housekeeper's straight moniker'
Mr.. Merston. And they were to come one
at time.
Now, then, what was thisp What
theory would fit it? Suppose this were a
robbery, directed from afar by the adver-
tiser. Suppose on the day Of the robbery 1t
was found that the place fixed for division
of spoils were watched. Suppose that the