San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-06-23
sleeper, the slightest noise awaking


suits and apartments No ground for
suspicion there.
Now it will be said that, having es-
tablished t, fact that no one had enter
ed the rooms while he was asleep. hat
one conclusion was inevitable He had
robbed himself. 1t is not uncommon fo-
person who has never shown somnam-
bulistic tendencies to develop them
through some unusual cause. The pos
session of the ruby filed the brain Of
Mr.. Sandhusen for the time to the ex-
clusion of. almost every other thought.
There would have been nothing strange
had he risen in the night, taken the
stone from its box and concealed it
somewhere without retaining the faint
est recollection when he awoke.
Ny theory was that he had risen,
dressed himself for the street and gone
out, taking the ruby with him. When
he returned, he arranged everything as
it was before, even to sliding the bolt of
the door in place. he had left the stone
somewhere else, and its discovery must
be matter of uncertainty.
This theory fitted the case perfectly,
but investigation showed that it was I'M
/ tenable. In the room across the hall
was an old man, an invalid, who was
attended by two trained nurses. In ODE
dience to his whim the door of the room
leading into the hall was kept open all
night. The invalid's couch was invisi-
BILE to any one passing along the hall,
but there was not a minute, throughout
the whole night, when one of the nurses
did not see the closed door leading to
Mr.. Sandhusen's apartments. No one
could have entered or left his rooms
without being noticed
1t so happened that knew one of the
nurses and questioned him closely. He
had been ON duty from midnight till 4
O'Clock and saw nothing. He vouched
for his companion, who was ready to
swear that the opposite door was not
opened until fully o'clock the follow
ing morning.
Neither of these men could have been
the burglar for reasons already known.
This narrowed the facts down to this:
If Mr.. Sandhusen had robbed himself,
then the ruby was still in his apart
ments. l have had some experience in
hunting for objects much smaller than
that, and, when completed my exami,
nation Of the rooms, was as positive
that the stone was not in any of them
as | am satisfied that it is lot in the
hand which this minute is writing these
words. Itwas gone. Reasoning or "theo,
rizing" thus, l brought up against q
blank wall thousand feet high.
Put another way it may be said:
Some one had entered Mr. Sandhu,
sens rooms while he slept and robbed
him, and yet no such thing had beer
done. What a reductio ad absurduml
Had not known of an absolute Ger
tainty that Mrs. Howard was absen,
from New York. ON the night of the
robbery, she would have been connected
in my mind with it. Not only she, how,
ever, but her co-conspirator, was miles
away at the time. Therefore ! We:
saved all offensive questioning Of my
employer on that point.
II there ever was q nonplused indi.
vidual, Twas that man. The impossible
wall still confronted me.
did not confess this to Mr.. Sand.
husen, but it was fact all the same. ]
babe him good night, simply remarking
that would do what could to help
him.
There was but one recourse left, and
that was almost as unsubstantial as the
fabric Of a dream. Tire man Howard
and his wife (as / believed her to be-
were connected in some inconceivable
way with the abstraction of the Mana
ruby They were the ones therefore to be
I studied, to be watched, to be Swallowed
and solved. determined to do it.
/ Mr.. Brown has given my account of
how on the afternoon preceding the rob-
| berry | followed the two to the little
New Jersey town of Railway and saw
them leave the station in cab. They
were driven too fast to follow them on
| foot, and had done so in a carriage the
chances were a thousand to one would
have been discovered and my progress in
that direction effectually blocked for
ever. Some other means must be de-
vised, and was not long in hitting
upon it.
/ About noon on the following day a
ragged, unkeEpt tramp was put off the
train at Elizabeth for refusing to pay
( his fare Left to his own resources and
meekly swallowing the gibes and sneers
of the traipmen, he slouched off down
the railroad and began counting the
ties" leading southwark in the direction
of Philadelphia.
1t is not many miles from Elizabeth
to Railway, and reached the latter
town about 2 o'clock in the afternoon,
where / decided to indulge in an indef
into rest.
There is little use in attempting any
role unless you do it thoroughly. Be-
sides loaded revolver and a number Of
cartridges, carried more than $50
slowed away in my ragged garments,
In the latter respect may not have diff
fered materially from others Of my as
sumed class, but it was q business Sc
ELL