Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1895-04-24
THE NEW SHERLOCK HOLMES.
The Great Detective Probes the Coldsla

THE NEW SHERLOCK HOLMES.
The Great Detective Probes the Coldslaw
Robbery.
For the nonce Holmes was sighting
his cocaine and was joyously jabbing him
self with morphine-his favorite rs per
cent solution-when knock came at the
door. 1t was our landlady with the tele.
gram. Holmes opened it and read 1t care
fully.
Him" he said What do you think
Of this, WatsonS"
need you 70 Chinchbugge place, S. w."
l read
why, it's from Athelney Jones, re-
marked
Just So, said Holmes. "Call cab.
We were soon at the address given, 70
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 PIANO in the drawing room gave
the place an air of unstudied artistic neg
ligence which we both remarked at the
time.
Athelney Jones met us at the door. He
wore a troubled expression. "Here's a
pretty go, gentlemen" was his greeting.
IA forcible entrance has been made to
Lady Coldslaw's boudoir, and the famous
Coldslaw diamonds are stolen.
Without word Holmes drew out his
pocket lens and examined tho atmosphere
1.-The whole thing wears an air of mys.
terry" he said quietly.
We then entare5 tha houca Todv No1d
slaw was completely Frustrated 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 boudoir, except that
the windows and furniture had been
smashed and the pictures had been re-
moved from the walls An attempt had
been made 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 the footprints with stethoscope.
"H'm!' he said $50 you can make moth
ing out Of this, Jonesf" ''No, sir, an
swered the detective, "but 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
and he lives at $3.50 Toff terrace
Jones fairly gasped. "Whatl Major
Smythe one of the highest thought of and
richest men in the city,"
"The same"
In half an hour we were at Smythe's
bedside. Despite his protostations, he was
pinioned and driven to prison.
''For heavens sake, Holiness" said
when we returned to our rooms, show did
you solve the problem so quickly"
"Oh, it's easy, dead easy" said he. "As
soon as we entered the room I noticed the
cigar smoke 1t was cigar smoke from a
cigar that had been given husband by
his wife. l could tell that, for have
made a study of cigar smoke. Any other
but henpecked man throws such cigars
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 henpeoked in
the Four Hundred and had had appen-
dicitis recentlyP Why, Major Smythe, of
course. He is middle aged, stout and has
a cast in his eye"
could not help but admire my compan-
ions reasoning and told him so. "Well."
he said "it is very simple If you know
how"
Thus ended the Coldslaw robbery, SO far
az we were concerned
1t may be as we'll to add, however, that
Jones arrant jealousy caused him to re-
sort to the lowest triokery to throw dis
credit upon the discovery of my gifted
friend. He allowed Major Smythe to
prove most conclusive alibi and then
meanly arrested notorious burglar as the
thief on the flimsiest proof and convicted
him. This burglar had been caught while
trying to pawn some diamonds that SEEM
ed to be portion of tho plumber taken
from 70 Chinchbuggo place.
OF course Jones got all the credit. !
showed the newspaper accounts to Holmes.
He only laughed and said: "You see how
1t is, Watson. Scotland Yard, as usual,
gets the glory" AS l perceived he was
going to play "Sweet Marie" on his VIC.
lin reached for the morphine myself
Minneapolis Journal.