The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-06-30
SELECTED STORY.
Restitution and Forgiveness Bring
Happiness.

day evening, said the detective,
heard the familiar hymn, Jesus Lover
of My Soul" which wildly brought tC
mind an incident which occurred years
ago. was at the time in the employ
OF the detective agency of Rathburn &
Weston.
One day the senior member said tC
me, "Mr. Allison, go and see Brandon
Creswell. His cashier has absconded
taking quite sum of money. Make
the case your specially"
Used as l was to startling events
with which those in our calling are
constantly coming in contact, when
heard the above ! was dumbfounded.
The criminal, Chester Clinton, was one
OF the most popular young men in the
city. Fine looking, generous, agree.
able, and with prosperous future be-
fore him. To know him was to be his
friend. We were both members of the
Hamilton Club, an organization for
amusement and mutual improvement.
In one of the three rooms owned by
the club was piano, and many even
ing had l sat listening with pleasure to
his playing and singing. Now he was
criminal, a fugitive from justice.
Soon after receiving my orders was
in the presence of Mr.. Creswell.
He was the proprietor of an iron
foundry, a man of wealth, and although
not by any means the wealthiest man in
the city, enjoyed the distinction of hay
ing-taking both buildings and grounds
into consideration - the handsomest
residence in the place. He was evil
IDENTITY a wide-awake business man of
few words.
He said, Z" 1 trusted Mr.. Clinton i'm
plicitly, and he has repaid me by alb
sconding with $4,000; and besides this,
an examination of his accounts shows
he has stolen from me within the last
two years, $1,000 more. want you to
hunt him up. Draw on me for any rea.
sonable sum for time and expenses, un-
til further notice." Thus closed the
interview
need not enter into details, but for
six months this case was uppermost in
my mind. l travelled to near and dis
tant points, looking up supposed clues;
was in correspondence with the chiefs
of police of ali the cities of the country.
put my whole soul into the matter,
determined, if possible, to bring Cln-
ton to justice. All my efforts, how.
ever, proved of no avail and at last l
concluded that he had escaped to some
foreign land and made the case subor-
dinate to other and more recent ones.
Although had met with such poor
success in this case, had managed to
make something of reputation as
detective, and six years after found
myself in the employ of the govern
ment, with headquarters in Washing
ton. l passed most of my time there,
but when four years more had elapsed,
very important case called me to
small city in one of the Western terri
tories. had gained valuable informa-
ton there for the government, when
on the evening before my intended re-
turn to Washington, 1 happened to
stroll into Methodist church.
A few moments after entering, the
leader announced as the closing hymn,
"Jesus Lover of My Soul" The sing
ing began and many in the audience
Joined therein.
Gradually one masculine voice, clear
and strong, rose above the rest. I'm
mediately became interested in the
face of the singer. His eyes were
turned upward and DER his face came
an inspired look, especially while sing
ing the second verse. All others had
stopped singing and stood breathlessly
listening to him. He actually seemed
to be in communion with some unseen
spirit as he sang these words:
Othe, refuge have none
Hangs my helpless soul on Theei
Still support and comfort me.
AL my trust on Thee is stayed;
Cover my defenceess head
With the shadow of Thy wing.
Such depth of feeling / had never
witnessed.
AS the hymn was about closing, some
thing in the tone of the voice caused it
to dawn upon me with the suddenness
of an electric shock, that this man was
none other than Chester Clinton, the
defaulting cashier.
AS yet had seen nothing in his face
to indicate that it was he, but, as before
mentioned, many times had / heard
him sing; never, to be sure, religious
song, but popular songs of the day, and
there was certain inspiring tone even
in those, which had touched my feel
ings as few other singers ever have.
l asked who the man was.
''Horace Wentworth, one of our es-
teemed citizens" was the answer.
This did not change my views, for l
knew the voice had revealed his iden-
tity.
My first feeling was one of elation.
Here was rogue and it was my duty
to unmask him. l determined l would
have him arrested the following morn
ing and then send East for requisition
papers.
Then other thoughts came to me.
His face with its inspiring look seemed
before me. Then l recalled the words,
"One of our esteemed citizens"
looked up from my reverie just as
man may dress az we'll as
G as his own good judgement