The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1896-01-08

| dressing gown, stretched myself upon
the couch and had downright gobd
snooze. When got up, about five min
utes ago, l found my trinkets had van
| ished."
Pom my word, things were beginning
to look serious and no mistake! | lost
no time in hunting up the captain and
made him acquainted with the state of
affairs. He was just as much puzzled
as l was myself. The first thing next
morning he sent a message to Mrs. Mel
hurst, requesting private interview in
his cabin on deck. He also signified his
wish that l should be present. We both
questioned the lady closely, but her re-
plies did not tend to throw any light
upon the singular occurrence.
| Nevertheless, we determined to keep
a close watch upon the stateroom in flu
ture. 1t was pretty evident we had a
''black sheep" on board--probably an
old hand at the business. For the next
few days we had no further complaints
The thief was evidently Lying low
waiting until tranquility was restored
before making fresh attempt. Mean
while l kept my eyes open. l observed
the little peculiarities of the different
passengers and took particular note Of
the manner in which they occupied
| their time.
On board ship when you find man
who shows marked preference loi his
own society above that of the loungers
| on deck or habitues of the smoke
room one is inclined to jump at the
conclusion that he has some solid, rea-
| sons for his eXclusiveness. If, in addi-
| ton to this, he happens to be of an M
communicative disposition, with black
hair and swarthy complexion, given 10
wearing a SLOUGH hat and long coat
rightly or wrongly, you put him down
as decidedly suspicious character.
Now, we happened to have a passen-
ger on board-a Brazilian named De
Castro-who tailed in every way with
this description. But for the fact that
[ had conclusive evidence to show he
could not have been directly concerned
in the robberies-f inquiries proved
he had remained on deck the whole
evening-he certainly would have been
treated to a private interview in the
captains cabin. AS it was. was forced
to conclude that black hair, swarthy
complexion, SLOUGH hat and cloak were
quite compatible with a mans inno-
cence.
Nothing further occurred to excite
suspicion until the last day or two of
the voyage. Then, one evening after
dinner, word was brought to me that
three other staterooms had been rif1ed
in the same mysterious manner.
Watches, jewelry and even money had
disappeared, though in all three cases
the passengers stoutly declared they
had left their doors locked.
When the alarm reached me l hap
pcned to be standing in my deck office.
had in my hand 20 sovereigns, which
had just taken in exchange for Ameri-
can money to accommodate one of our
passengers. / didn't wait to lock up
the gold; simply placed it on my desk,
switched off the light and hurried
away. 1 had no fear for the safety of
the sovereigns, my door having a par
ticularly intricate lock, in which took
good care to turn the key before leav-
ing.
/ remained below for an hour or so,
investigating these fresh complaints,
but, as in the other cases, was utterly
10 booI toll Of
Vexed and bewildered, went back to
my office, unlocked the door, turned on
the light, and mechanically stretched
out my hand to take the sovereigns
from the desk. My hand closed upon
nothing more solid than thin Army
little pile of gold had vanished!
For a moment or two | stood there
gazing blanllly before me, SO utterly
confused and dismayed that 1 could
scarcely bring my wits to bear upon
the mysterious affair. Then managed
to pull myself together, and took look
around my little cabin. In the course
of my observations my eye happened
to rest upon the port hole, which stood
wide open, the weather being oppres-
sirely hot.
regarded the innocent looking port
hole with the air of a veritable Sher-
lock Holmes. l went outside and thrust
my arm in through the opening, but
my hand did not reach within fully two
yards of the desk. Still, it struck me as
being the only way by which the thief
could have got at the money, and de-
termined to put my theory to practi-
cal test.
hurried down into the saloon, where
most of the nassenuerS uara oonnra