The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-05-23
MISS PEEKSKILL'S SPIROMETER
BY JULIAN HAWTHORNE
loopyrishtl

supply of outraged dignity thrown In.
She scrambled TO her feet and shook
her fist in the faces of her accusers.
launching forth at them volume OF
shril denials and upbraiding which
fairly abashed and overwhelmed them.
The gist of her Grafton was as follows;
She utterly repudiated, scorned and
hurled back the charge. So far from
being thief, she was herself the vic
tim of brutal robbery and violence, and
the innocent object of scandalous sus-
picion. She had never stolen 80 much
as a lump of sugar since she was born.
She had invented hygiene instrument
of more value than all the pearls in
or out of the ocean; and the thieves were
now doubtless on their way to Wash
ington to defraud her of her patent.
Did Mrs. Morford make this charge?
Let them be set face to face, and she
would soon show them where was the
right of the matter Meanwhile she
called upon the officers. at their peril, TO
instantly pursue and capture the
deprcdators, and restore her her prop
erty. Fifteen millions were at stake;
anu III IL NClt lbSh, Blu NOdiN s.AtAS NaAS
that all concerned would regret It,
'WeT, ma'am," said the first officer.
MS soon as he could pull himself to-
gether, "what you state may be all
right; but the thing is just here-them
pearls is gone. They amt been seen
since you left. They was there just
before you left. What's more, the but
ler he seen you carryin' them off. If
you took 'em by mistake for your hy-gin
instrument, why wasn't that left be-
hind in the place ofit? But you swiped
'em both, and that's what give you
away. That is to say, that's the charge,
and it's for you TO disprove it if you can.
Your yarn about being robbed is a good
card, but you'll have to show it wasn't
the pearls you was robbed OF. One
thief may steal another's Doodle, d'you
see, but that don't git the first one out
of the jug. Hyou can get bail, so much
the better, but between whiles. guess
you'd best come along of u.s."
Had Miss Peekskill been man, the
chances arc she would have spent the
night in duress. Certainly few men
would have asked the person who
caused their arrest to go on their bail
bond. But this was precisely what
Miss Peekskill did, and Mrs. Morford,
being also not man, but n woman.
and power ia the neighborhood as
well, caused magistrate TO be routed
out, who fixed the amount, and by
eleven o'clock that night the two ladies'
were locked in each others arms in
the very drawing-room which had been
the scene of the robbery; they were
crying and comforting and forgiving
each other; and yet affairs, from the
legal point of view, were precisely in
statu quo; neither of them in the least
could explain how Miss Peekskill had
contrived 10 take the pearls by mistake
for her spjrometer. and yet to take the
spirometer, too; and until the prob
lem was solved, Miss PeeksIdll was in
danger of states prison, unless she
jumped her bail, which Mrs. Morford en-
treated her to do, but which the maiden
herself utterly declined to consider the
possibility of.
So the night passed, and the morning
came.
With the morning arrived the police
captain of the district, ahd requested
an interview with Mrs. Morford. The
beautiful woman, pale from the agita.
tion of the night, met him robcd in o
delicate satin-lined negiigee, in the
eastern boudoir. with the morning sun.