The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-04-11
Copyright, 1887, S. S. Mcclure Coz

@AoA bICA SuO wing HE an lnSS0lOuSly
contrived electric apparatus by means
of which he CO uld, without leaving his
desk, see and hear everything that
went ON in the sitting room below.
Leonard is a novelist. and his hobby
is a study of life from models.
What do yola think of that for
scheme?" he said, pridefully. Il call it
my automatic human analyzer. It's
Helen's idea, and it's a brilliant one.
When 1 want to study any particular
Brankville type she tolls the subject to
the house to a tea-fght. or a sewing
circle, or something of that sort, and 1
can sit here and dissect it at my leis-
ure. Isn't it great?'
1T is the most ingeniously abomina-
BILE thing I ever heard of, - ventured
to say.
L don't deny that - replied Leonard,
but necessity knows no law. I've got
to have models If L have TO spend the
last shred of Self-respect in the family
buying them. But Just now I'm in a
fix. I've come to a chapter in the new
novel where an insight into the per-
sonality of a burglar is a sheer neces-
sity, and I don't know what to do.
Burglars are not kept on draft in
Brankville 2, and Helen can't help me
with tea party
why don't you go to Sing Sing and
study them. en- bloc?'
You don understand; that wouldn't
do at all. A burglar ceases to be a
burglar when he becomes d convict.
I've got to have the chemically pure ar
ticle for my purpose"
Then go to the city and investigate
MIN in his native lair.
Leonard shru eyed his shoulders, not
without contempt Suggestion isn't
your forte. 1 might as well study a lot
of lay figures in. a cycBorama with a
policeman for a lecturer. No; I've got
TO get a specimen and analyze it, and
I'll be hanged if [ know how to do it,
L laughed why don't you put an
'ad' in the papers: 'Wanted-A burglar,
to spend a short vacation in a coun-
try house at Brankvlle-on-the-H Hudson
while he is beng ken apart and put
together again. Must be an adept in
his profession. Terms liberal
With his usual oh tuseness, Leonard
did not seem to see anything humor-
Gus in the suggestion. On the contrary
he appeared to take it seriously; and
when his wife called us to dinner a
few minutes later he said, thought
fully:
Say, Tom you're not so confouded-
~ anserine as you look. Let's go down
and eat on that last idea of yours.
L
Leonard
Come up" he said; tine B problem
is solved, and 1 want you to interview
me-
I went on the afternoon train, wiring
him that 1 must return at once; and !
he met me at the station.
Good boy" he said, shaking hands. |
Punched for time?"
] nodded.
..All right: you can do il in Is min !
utes, and catch the next train TO the |
city, if you have to-.
DO What?'
why. interview me, of course. Didn't !
you read my message?"
In view Of the fact that Leonard had |
kept uD a running fight with the in
reviewers ever since the early dawn of |
his little day of popularity as a novel |
lst, his request was quite in keeping |
with his other eccentricities, and l |
knew the Daily Monograph would be |
glad to have him make his first ex-
ception in its favor.
Go ahead, said /, with pencil sus-
pended. What shall I say?"
Anything or nothing about my work
but you must pile IT on thick when ii |
comes to the personalities. Make me
out the biggest fool Of a crank you can
invent, and wind up with a paragraph
on my Obnormal fear of losing the mil
lion or so dollars my book has earned
Say that I'm too idioticaIly cautious to
invest it; say it's reported that keep
1t in a burglar-proof safe in my bed
room.
But you don't do anything of the
sort!' l protested, whereupon he cut
in impatiently:
Great heavens. man, do you have to
be hit with club? Can't you see what (
I'm driving at? You ought to-it-s your
own suggestion. with a little necessary
revision
I wrote the interview while he
waited, and he read it after the down
train had whistled.
That VIII bring me my burglar, if
anything WILL he said. returning the
notebook Don't you think SOP"
I hope il viii. And I also hope that
Mr.. Michael Horrigan. or Hon. Patsy
M'Gonigle. or whatever his name may
chance to be, viii scare the foolishness
out of you on the model question for a
twelve-month.'
Thanks; but if you've any sympathy
to spare keep it for the other fellow.
I'm loaded for beaI-grizzly bear. at
that" said Leonard, confidently. as 1
boarded the train. "GOodby: if YOU
happen to think Of anything that will
make it stronger, put it in
For fortnight nothing came of the
interview, save q combined attack of
otner lnterVieWerS upon the OutWorkS
of Castle FTeakley, as Leonard called
his small architectural folly in Drank !
Vile In the meantime, however, the :
BrankVillians began to wonder why
their eccentric genius did not use the ,
arc light which he had had wired into
the cottage, at no little expense. Just
why he wanted an are light at all when | ,
the house was already aglow nightly I
with incandescent globes, no one could
guess: but by this time Leonards {
vagaries, which We're many, were be- :
ginning TO go unqueStioned. ,
But one curious thing which feminine
Brankville remarked was that Helen ]
Leonard was growing singularly nerv- {
Gus and distract. and it concerned itself s
Vainly to discover the cause. The truth I
OF this matter was that Leonard had
taken his wife into his confidence, per- f
force, in the affair of the burglar quest 7
and her courage WAS not quite equal to \
her convictions. S
"Oh, Harvey, let us give it UP and /
ruiz away she pleaded one evening. S
study. This suspense is too hideously y
terrifying 20 live with. Every time I |
hear a noise in the night 1 imagine all
sorts of dreadful things happening in /
your ROOM t
You can go if you want to- said S
Leonard: 1 told you you'd better at [
first. But I've got to sit it out and 4
catch my man; L can't write another
line without a burglar S
IF you stay ] SHALL rejoined Helen, I
With forlorn-hope fortitude. I shouldn't 7
mind it so much if he'd only come