Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1895-04-25
THE NEW SHERLOCK HOLMES
The Great Detective Probes the CoIdsia~
Robbery.

The Great Detective Probes the Coldsia~
Robbery.
For the nonco Holmes was sighting
his cocaine and was joyonsly jabbing him.
self with morphine-his favorite IS per
cent solution-when a knock came at the
desr 1t was our landlady with tho tele-
gram. Holmes opened it and read 1t care
fully
"H'm," he said. what do you think
OF this, Watsons"
/ picked it up. Come at once We
need you. 7s Chinchbugge place, S. w."
road.
why. it's from Athelney Jones, re-
marked
"Just SC" said Holmes. "Call a cab. {"
We were soon at the address given, 79
Chinchbugge place, being the town house
OF the dowager Countess of Coldslaw. 1t
was an old fashioned mansion, somewhat
weather beaten. The old hat stuffed in
the broken pane in the drawing room gave
| the plaoe an air of unstudied artistic neg
ligence which we both remarked at the
time.
Athelney Jones met us at the door. he
woro troubled expression. "Here's
pretty go, gentlsmen," was his greeting.
"A forcible entrance has been made TO
Lady Coldslaw's boudoir, and the famous
| Coldslaw diamonds are stolen"
| Without a word Holmes drew out his
pocket lens and examined the atmosphere
1.-THE whole thing wears an air of mys-
terry, t" he said quietly.
We then entered the house. Lady Cold
slaw was completely prostrated and could
not be seen. We went at once to the scene
of the robbery. There was no sign of any
thing unusual in the bouduir, except that
the windows and furniture had been
smashed and the pictures had been re-
moved from the walls. An attempt had
been mnde by tho thief to steal the wall
paper also However he had not succeed
ed 1t had rained the night before, and
muddy footprints led us TO the escritoire
from which the Jewels had been taken.
A heavy smell of stale cigar smoke hung
over the room. Aside from these hardly
noticeable details, the despoiler had left no
trace of his presence. In an instant Sher-
lock Holmes was down on his knees. ex-
amining tho footprints with stethoscope
"H'mr' he said. $50 you can make moth
ing out of this, Jonesf" mo, sir, " an
swered the detective, "but l hope to-
There's big reward"
Its all very simple, my good fellow, +"
said Holmes. 1.-The robbery was commit
ted at O'Clock this morning by short,
stout, middle aged, henpecked man with
cast in his eye. His name Is Smythe,
and he lives at 23o Toff terrace"
Jones fairly gasped. tWhatl Major
Smythe, one of the highest thought of and
richest men in the oityS"
tFrha sama -
In half an hour we were at Smythes
bedside Despite his protestations, he was
pinioned and driven to prison.
] For heavens sake, Holiness" said
. when we returned to our rooms, "how did
you solve the problem so quiokly?"
''Oh, it's easy, dead easy" said ho. "As
soon as we entered the room noticed the
cigar smoke 1t was cigar smoke from q
cigar that had been given husband by
3 his wife. l could tell that, for have
made study of cigar smoke. Any Other
, but a henpecked man throws such cigars
t away Then could tell by the footprints
/. that the man had had appendicitis. Now
no one but members of the -Four Hundred
' have that Who, then, was henpecked ii
? the Four Hundred and had had appen
dicitis recentlyg Why, Major Smythe, O
COuISo Ito 10 liIuAAo oS5oNt opooV ohN A'e
d a cast in his eye.
it could not help but admire my compan
v ion 9 reasoning and told him SO. well.
Il he said, ait is very simple IL you know
q how"
Thus ended the Coldslaw robbery, SO ia
> as we were concerned.
y 1t may be as we'll to add, however, tina
l. Jones' arrant jealousy caused him to re
1t sort to the lowest trickery to throw dis
credit upon the discovery Of my gifte
friend. He allowed Major Smythe +
prove most conclusive alibi and the
, neanly arrested notorious burglar as tn
:. thief on the flimsiest proof and convicte
~ him. This burglar had been caught Will
10 trying to pawn some diamonds that seem
1t ed to be portion of the plunder take
l. from 72 Chincbbugge place.
Is OF course Jones got all the credit.
ii showed the newspaper accounts to Holmes
n He only laughed and said: "You see ho'
J. it is, Watson. Scotland Yard, as usua
y gets the glory As I perceived he wa
" going to play Sweet Marie'' on his VII
O. lin reached for the morphine myself
g. Minneapolis journal.