The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-01-05

rather small, but mad trmlSn look
about her mouth and her beady black
eyes missed NOTHING. 1 guessed she
would not stick at trifles, and would
know as well as NEST our common Ian
guage, which was pounds, shillings and
pence, and 1t seemed best TO lubricate
the machinery freely. When we had
come to an understanding how / wanted
something done particularly quiet. / told
her who / was and what / was after,
and how this couple was supposed 10 be
in possession of the stones known to
have been changed. 1 wanted her TO
find out If they had the stones with them.
and If so to get them into her hands.
changing them if possible for the false
ones, but anyhow getting the real ones.
And / promised a sovereign down on
the nail for every stone, big or little,
and there was known TO be ISL. You
should have seen her eyes glisten when
/ told her how much it was in their
money, rupees, and when / showed her
the bag of sinners. / proposed we should
pretend to be keeping company, and
then we should have nothing to bother
us but the others chaff. She caught on
directly
That same night she told me in the
shrubbery she had discovered that Mrs.
Walcot dressed early for dinner, and
always locked her trunks before coming
down and carried the keys in her
pocket; the little dog Venus slept in
their room; they locked the room door
regularly every night, and there was
small revolver in her dressing bag.
The first suDposition was that the
stones, il they had them at all, were in
their trunks. This much doubted; still,
the search had TO be made, and to do
this either the locks must be picked or
Mrs. Walcot's keys be got hold of. The
former alternative seemed harder, as
the locks would probably be we'll made,
but it would take less time than wait
ing to secure the keys, and time was
an object. Accordingly L put into the
ayahS hands a bunch of skeleton keys
to try her luck with the locks, and if
they offered no resistance to overhaul
the trunks that night while they were
at dinner. This venture was successful
in one way, but not in another. The
woman's skillful fingers mastered the
locks, but there were no diamonds.
PLENTY of pretty things" she said, but
no diamonds" She had the wit to see
if the trunks had any secret receptacle.
l told her to examine the high heels of
her shoes, the thick ivory hair brushes
and all coils of hair, but it was no use.
Then he or she carried them about?
Which? She for choice, because If found
on her it could be attributed to her
kleptomania, which wouldn't apply to
him. Besides, the complications of a
woman's dress afford hiding places
which the secretiveness of her character
delights in.
Concluding then that she had them
about her, we had these difficulties to
counterfeit:
/. The presence of her husband.
2. The little dog.
3. The locked door.
4. The revolver.
5. Finding the whereabouts of the
stones.
6. Getting them.
An hours quiet walk in the lanes set
tied my plans. l concluded that the
business must be done at night if it
was to be done without resorting to vio-
lent measures, and
/. The husband must be got away for
one night
2. Venus must be dosed with So
porific (and her mistress, too, If neces-
sary)
8. 1 knew how to overcome this.
4. The mechanism must be disar-
ranged or the cartridges damped.
and 6. Depended on the skill and
nerve of the ayah.
And the steps decided to take with
regard to each particular were these:
1. To get the husband off the grounds
he must be summoned away else
whitherto by telegram, but from whom
so that he would believe it genuine and
name, to watch the letter bag-not that
he was very likely to intrust anything
important to that which any one might
see-and then strolled down to pick up
what scraps of information 1 could by
hook or crook at the postoffice. And
here / had a fine piece of luck. AS /
entered the office whom should / see but
Mr.. Walcot himself just handing in a
| telegram Whats this name? Bar
| rett, is it?" asked the official. Yes, it's
| plain enough" was the reply in a sharp
| tone of annoyance. BARRE double t,
affsx-
| land are these letters E. CT" Yes.
| Can't you read?" replied Mr. Walcot
| very Faithfully. sc. c." repeated the
| man in the same monotonous way as
before. "Affix the stamp, please" This
| was the last straw. 9 YOU said my
| gentleman, and quilted the office, Slam
| ming the door; the telegraph man had
to lick the stamps himself; that wasn't
| my business, though I'd have licked a
| hundred stamps for the information L
had got. Returning at once to my rooms,
l wrote to a friend 1 often work with
| to send this message without fail the next
| day from some Office in the Z. c. district:
| ITO Walcot, Lythe Court, Kempson.
| Meet me at the Grand 10 tonight. Bar
rett." And also / asked him to dispatch
| this at $50 next night "Walcot, Grand
| Hotel, Trafalgar Square. Had to go sud-
denly, Paris. Barrett"
| l should thus get Walcot away and too
late Tor MIN 10 return tfdt night, lie
would come back next day without hav-
| ing his suspicious unduly aroused, and
| without hunting up Barrett, whoever he
| was, supposing him off in France. /
guessed he would take the bait, because
he seemed so riled at one hearing Bar
rett's name in the telegraph office. l
warned my co-operator by wire to expect
! an important letter.
| 2 Half a dozen drops of laudanum in
| a bit of chicken at s p. m. would settle
| Venus comfortable for the night, and
| two or three in madame's cocoatina
| would be just enough to make her sleep
! rather heavily.
| 3. / told the ayah to bring me the key
of the bedroom door at 7:45 when the
| guests would have sat down to dinner.
| had dealt with such before. Every key
| of this kind has solid stem ending in
| a knob or boss which stands outermost
| in the locked door; with a narrow fiat
| file | divided this boss vertically in a
| slit an eighth of an inch deep, making
| it like a screw. By inserting a small
screwdriver or broken penkife in the slit
| it was possible to make the key revolve
| and open the door; in the same way the
| bolt might be shot back again and the
door relocked, and apparently all be just
| as before OF course, the lock should
| be oiled so as to work easily. Most peo-
pie think it safer to leave the key in the
| lock- but this is no good if the key has
| been filed like this one ] held, and ii
never occurred to Madame Walcot to ex-
| anime hers.
/ 4. With hypodermc syringe which
| Safiyah hunted up-it belonged to one of
the fine LADIES' injected a few drops of