Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1896-01-30
CoPN1eftf. U.s.. 81 q pvrNAll's sons.


began.
Eyes, Mr.. Barnes" she replied.
"Will you be seated:" The detective &C.
copied her invitation, and she contin-
ned: "To come to the point at once, I
wish to SEQ You about my lost ruby. 1t
was present from Mr.. Mitchell to me,
and besides being very costly / attach a
sentimental value to it. want you to
undertake to recover it, and will give
you 81 900 if you succeed"
Mr.. Barnes had never had SO many
thousand dollar offers made to him in so
short q time before. He smiled slightly
and said:
Your offer comes too late, Miss Rem
sen. l have letter from Mr. Mitchell
himself. making a similar offer. 1t
would scarcely be proper for me to &C.
cept two rewards for one service"
"Then You refuse to help me?'
ION the contrary, will use my ut
most cndeavors to detect the thief and
recover your property for you. But
need no money from you
"You are very conscientious, Mr..
Barnes, aud 1 admire it. I honor
man who places his duty above money"
II thank you for your courteous re-
mark. Now. if I am to help you, you
must begin by assisting me-"
Twill do whatever can, certainly"
"Then, tell me, have you no suspicion
as to who might have taken your Jew
el?" The girl hesitated, and the detect
i've watched her face keenly. As she
did not reply at once he asked another
question:
Ibid you feel tho person take the pin
from your hair:''
eyes, l did; but I did not realize
what was occurring till he had it,
why did you not make any resistance
or cry out?''
Again she hesitated, but in moment
she said firmly:
Il know that You have right to ask
me these questions, and 1 will reply to
them if you insist upon it. But first, tell
me, would it be right for me to call
name to you as one that may have sus-
pected when had but the fiimsiest OK
cuse for my suspicion? Might 1 not
thus do more harm than good by attract
ing your attention to false scent?'
"Tlat is certainly possibility, Miss
Remsen, but it is one which am in
clinod to risk. I mean that 1 prefer to
trust to my experience than to have you
omit to tell me your suspicious
VERY we'll; only promise me that
you will rot jump to conclusions and
thus perhaps annoy the person whom I
shall name"
II agree to that. Twill take no action
without sufficient reason other than that
furnished by yourself
very well. You asked if suspected
any one, and again why did not resist
the thief. If you will remember, nv
head was bowed. At first l could not
understand how something seemed to
move my pin. l fancied that it had be-
come entanglcd in the sultan's robe
Then the clock began to chime, and in q
moment it flashed across my mind that
perhaps Mr.. Mitchell was taking nv min
in order to win his wager. Therefore
said nothing. This makes my action
clear to you?''
Perfectly. Then am to understand
that Mr.. Mitchell did not tell you in ad-
vance that he would do this?''
mo, he did not, and that is why I
have sent for you
II don't understand you"
why, all the time that thought he
had the pin was not worried. even
went SO far us to act Indignation at the
festival That was partly Tor your edit
cation and mystifcation. wanted to
help Mr.. Mitchel's plan. But when it
occurred to me yesterday that Mr..
Mitchell, if he had meant to take the
pin, would have told. mo in advance,
saw ut once that my first idea, was
wrong and that my ruby is really gone.
Then wrote to You"
"Then You feel sure that he would
have told you in advance"
Positive.
May he not have feared to ask you
to duplicate yourself in robbery and
possible scandal? You know he was
liable to arrest, and it might be a con-
siderable time before he could have
proved that his theft was only a Joke.