The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1896-08-22

other little articles-all come by honest,
Mr.. Burton. Oh, and there's book,
the Pilgrims Progress Ia very interest
ing book is that VIII you tell the lodg-
ing house folks to liver them up to Jerry,
Mr.. Burton p
Every well, Jimmy. Perhaps Pdbet-
ter take charge of them myself and give
them to Jerry next time see him.
shall be sure to come across him as soon
as he comes out
''Pd take ii real kind if you would,
said Jimmy. '.And you might tell him
to keep that Pilgrims Progress COS I'll
finish reading it when I've done this FIVE
years.
With that we parted, and Jimmy was
presently whirled away in the Black Maria
to the town jail We were rid of his
presence for four years at any rate He
was soon removed to Portland and there,
no doubt, made himself perfectly comfort
able.
forgot all about Jimmy parting re-
quest until a week or two later. Then.
finding myself one day in the neighbor-
hood of the lodging house which had
served as Jimmy's home, l went inside
and asked the deputy to hand over the
convict possessions He did so with an
air Of scon, remarking that Jimmys be-
longings were not worth twopence to any
body. | thought he was right when l
subsequently turned over the contents of
the bundle. There was nothing there of
any consequence, and l wondered very
much that Jimmy Timble should have
been so particular about having his little
properties handed over to his brother Jerry.
The Pilgrims Progress was the most
incongruous object turned out of the blue
handkerchief which held Jimmy's belong
ings. shook my head perplexedly as
stared at it. What was Jimmy Timble.
thief, burglar, thrice convicted criminal,
doing with the Pilgrim Progress ?'
And how was II that that particular work
was the only book he possessed And
how did he come to possess it at all /
turned the leaves over carelessly and
could see nothing unfamiliar about the
book | finally concluded that Jimmy
Timble had picked it up somewhere and
kept it out of curiosity and with that l
tied it up again with the rest of his pos
sessions
The days passed by, but l saw nothing
of Jerry Tmble He had left the county
jail, but he did not present himself at his
usual haunts in Woolford. [ preserved
the bundle for him and waited, knowing
quite well that if he was in the town we
should see him at the postofice sooner or
later 1t was impossible for either Jerry
Timble to keep his hands from picking
and stealing. But time passed on, and
Jerry did not appear began to think
that he had removed himself to some other
town.
About nine months after Jimmy Tim
Bile had gone back to penal servitude
CHANGED to go one day into secondhand
bookshop, the proprietor of which was an
old acquaintance of mine. Somehow our
conversation drifted to the criminal class
and ere long the shopkeeper mentioned
the name of Jimmy Timble. He was
queer customer, was Jimmy said he
He came in here one day last time he
was out of prison and looked around him
him as if he wanted something. Now,
sir, says l, what can find for you {?
Give me an old book to read, mister, an
swered Jimmy. We don't give books
here, says 1; we sell en-. He said
nothing to that, but after awhile he pulled
out twOpence. What can l have for
that ? he asked. Here you are, says l,
"a Pilgrim Progress, y pictures and all,
for twopence, So he walked off with his
book. -
That'explained Jimmy's possession of
. the Pilgrims Progress then lying at
my house. I went home and had my
supper and then sat down to have thor
| ough examination of the book l felt
confident that there was something about
that book which it would repay anybody
} to discover, and | was determined to solve
| the mystery. But though | went through
it carefully page by page, one, twice and
: even three times, | saw nothing. There
was no writing, no hieroglyphic signals
f nothing to attract attention. But at the
fourth time of examination | made discov-
: cry. Underneath the first ''the' on the
first page there was the plain mark of
pin prick, just as if pin had been care
lessly jabbed into the paper and quickly
withdrawn. The mark was very faint,
but it was there. l assured myself that
the pin prick had not penetrated to the
second page, and then came to the con-
f clusion that Jimmy Timble's "Plgrim s
Progress contained some private message
from himself to his brother Jerry.
| began what proved long and weary
task. The next pin prick 1 found was
| under the letter '.j'' on page 8, the next
under Sc on page IL, the next under
CIV on page II. Then came pricks un-
) der sc, a, - IS, !" all on different pages,
t and thus | spelled out two words, the
jewels. = took courage at that and went
en-. There was no doubt much to follow.
All that evening | worked away at my
task. 1t was anything but easy. Some
times the pin pricks were faint and hardly
decipherable; sometimes there were sew
eral on one page; sometimes the spelling
puzzled me, sometimes | seemed to lose
the track altogether. But persevered,
and just as midnight struck had solved
the mystery and had written out Jimmy
Timble's ingenious message TO his brother
Jerry:
THE jewels as got from the m,re' s.
wife is berried underneath the lilac tres in
old George Atkinson garden in Lilywood
road Keep an eye on them and don't
disturb them unless they are goin to bid
on the garden. If they bid, dig them up
and keep them safe till come out agen
your brother james.
So there was an explanation Of the usJfz
terry, or rather of two mysteries. had
been right, after all-the burglary at the
mayor residence was the work of jim
my Timble.
| lost no time next morning in inter-
viewing Mr., George Atkinson and in per-