The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-04-11
A ElO[D[g[RGN PM[ER2[[RRG1A90U)9o
Bv FRANCIS LYNDE.
tcopyr.gn,, 1897, s. $ Mcclure Co.,

TO Brankville, and my eccentric friend
had been showing ME an lngenlously
rontrived electrical apparatus by means
Of which he could, without leaving ms
desk. see and hear everything that went
ON in the sitting room below. Leonard
s a novelist. and his hobby is study or
life from models.
what do you think of that for
schemev' he said, pridefully. Il call II
nv automatic human analyzer. Its
Helen's idea, and it's "a brilliant one.
When I want to study any particular
Rrankville type she tolls the subject to
The house to a tea-fght, or a sewing CIR
10. or something of that sort and l can
sit here and dissect it ait my leisure.
Isn't it great!
ct is the most ingenieasly abominable
king / ever heard Of" / yentured to
say.
Il don't deny that replied Leonard,
~but necessity knows no law. I've got
TO have models if | Eave to spend the
last shred of self-resrect 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 personality of
burglar is sheer necessity. and
don't know what to do. Burglars are
not kept on draft in Brankville, and
Helen can't help me with tea party"
why don't you go to Sing Sing and
study them en- bloeT'
You don't understands; that wouldn't
de at all. A burglar ceases to be bur-
CHAR when he becomes convict. I've
got to have the chemically pure article
for my purpose"
Then go to the city and investigate
Eim in his native lair.
Leonard shrugged his shoulders, not
without contempt Suggestion isn't
your forte / might as we'll study lot
of lay figures in a cyclorama with Il pol
iceman for lecturer. No; I've got to
get a specimen and analyze it. and IN
be hanged If know how to do it.
l laughed. ''Why don't you put an
1ad' in the papers: 'Wanted-A burglar.
1o spend a short vacation in country
house at Brankville- n-the- Hudson
while he is being taken apart and put
together again. Must be an adept III his
profession Terms liberal
With his usual obtuseness, Leonard
did not seem to see anything humorous
lin the suggestion. I On the contrary, ne
appeared to take it seriously; and when
utes later he said, thoughtfully:
-.Say. Tom, you're not so confounded-
" anserine as you look. Let's go down
and eat ON that last idea of yours"
A week later l had telegram form
Leonard.
Come up ne said: ''the B problem
is solved. and I want you to interview
me-"
T fhA of wiring
him that / must return at once; and he
met me at the station.
Good boyw he said. shaking hands.
Z4-Pinched for time?"
l nodded.
-.All right you can do it in ID minutes.
and catch the next train to the city, if
you have to-
do what?'
why. interview me, of course. Didn
you read my message?'
In view of fact that Leonard had
kept up running fight with the in
terviewers ever since the early dawn
of his little day of popularity as a novel
list. the request was quite in keeping
with his other eccentricities, and / knew
the Daily Monograph would be glad to
have him make his first exception in its
favor.
$50 ahead said /. with pencil sus-
pended. "What shall / say?"
anything or nothing about my work.
but you must pile 1T on thick and it
comes to the personalities. Make on
out the biggest fool Of a crank you can
invent, and wind up with paragraph
on my abnormal fear of losing the mil
lion or so dollars my book has earned.
fhot fxx-x, iJinfiaa 1ly caut1AuS
to invest it; say it's reported that l keep
it in a burglar-proof safe in my bed
ROOM"
But you don't do anything of the
sort!' 4 protested, whereupon he cut in
.mpatiently:
"Great heavens, man! do you have to
be hit with club? Can't you see what
I'm driving at? You ought tots your
own suggestion. with little necessary
revision"
/ wrote the interview while he waited.
and he read it after the down train had
whistled.
THAT will bring me my burglar. if any
thing WILL" he said, returning the note
book. Don't you think so?'
81 hope it will And l also hope that
Mr.. Michael Horriges, or Hon Patsy
VI
chance to be, will scare the foolishneSs
out of you on the model question for
twelve-month.'
Thanks, but if you've any sympathy
to spare keep it for the other fellow.
I'm loaded for bear-griZzly bear, at
that" said Leonard confidently, as l
boarded the train. Goodby; if you hap
pen to think Of anything that will make
it stronger, put it in.
For fortnight nothing came of the
interview, save q combined attack of
pther interviewers upon the outworks
of Castle Freakley, 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
are 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 with
incandescent globes, no one could guess;
but by this time Igeonard's vaoarias