The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-12-11


come, because he played and sang. and
Mrs. Harbord was woman who was fond
of amusement, and hated being what she
/ called duh" John Harbcrd idolzed his
wife and his little 2-year-od daughter and
would have been happy enough in their
society, but he found LaXton an agree
able companion. and saw no harm in his
constant visits ana his polite attentions TO
Mrs. Harbord.
The night OK which the pan was 10 be
put into execution arrived. and all went
well up 20 a certain point Laxton man
aged 20 remain behind. The place was
locked up and the keys given to the house
keeper, an old lady. the wife of an ex-
police sergeant, who lived on the prem
ises. AT O'Clock I4axton undd the shut
( ters of the room looking on TO the back
yard and lowered the rope, which he had
brought in and concealed in an old deed
/ box.
Now it happened by one of those mis-
! chances that are at the bottom of so
many tragedies in real life that on this
particular evening John Hartford, who
| had been sent by his employer to see
client at Epping. got into the wrong train
on the return journey, and found himself
/ some distance down the line. When he got
back 10 the city it was O'Clock, and he
] remembered that he had left in his desk
| at the office a present which he had pur-
| chased for his wife, and which he partic-
uiarly wished to give her that night
! He thought he would go back to the Of
flee and get the housekeeper to let him
| in and take the present-a pair Of earrings
from his desk He rang the bell of the
front door and the old ex-sergeant came
down and opened it. He explained his
errand, and the old man told him to come
| upstairs and he would give him the keys
of the offices Harbord followed him to
| the top of the house, received the keys,
| and promised to bring them back again.
Then he went down, taking the candle
| which had been lent to him, and, opening
| the door of the clerks office, went in. All
was still. The men In Mr.. Ramsden's
private room where the safe was had just
| commenced their work when they heard
the bell and the ascending footsteps. They
| held their breath and were as silent as
death. To have made sound would have
| been to have given an alarm.
Hartford searched his desk, but could
not find the earrings. and yet he felt sure
! he had slipped them in there when he
came in from lunch. He turned over ev-
erything in the desk, and after a quarter
of an hours search he found them They
had slipped into big empty envelope. He
put them in his pocket, and suddenly his
| attention was attracted by a sound in the
private Office. He thought perhaps the
| cat had got locked up there, and opening
the doors, passed through a communi-
| eating office and came 10 the door of Mr.
| Ramsden's private room. He opened II,
! and instantly his candle was blown out.
At that very moment the old police SER
! geant wondering why Hartford was so
| long, came downstairs, went into the emp
| ~ office and was astonished to hear a
scufTling noise in the private room. He
ran in, and in the moonlight streaming
through the open window he saw Harbord
and Laxton standing by the safe and
some one disappearing through the Win
dow. In another moment he received a
heavy blow on the head. He staggered
out of the room, ran down the stairs, and
called for help at the top of his voice.
When the police came they found him ly-
ing at the front door, where he had fall
len, fainting from loss of blood. At that
moment Harbord looking white and scar
ed. dashed down the stairs, and was in
stantly seized by the crowd who had gath
cred. His incoherent attempts at expla-
| nation were looked upon as proofs of his
guilt. and he was seized by the police.
In the meantime, a constable had been
round to the back, and had discovered
the rope hanging from the window there,
but LaXton and his accomplices had got
clear away with their booty, the value of
which, it was afterwards shown, was
nearly five thousand pounds.
At the trial all John Harbord's explana-
tioDs were swept aside His friendship with
I.axton and the constant companionship
after business was proved The earrings
we're looked upon as an excuse to gain
admission and it was supposed that the
whole thing had been put up by the two
men and the gang who had been with
them. The receiver Of a portion of he
sto.en goods saved himself by turning
4 md hai Tay
ton had admitted them, but Laxton was
not a prisoner and the informer wanted
10 make his evidence worth a free pardon,
so he did what the prosecution wanted; he
implicated the man who was already in
. the clutches of the law, and swore that
Harbord was in the conspiracy, and had
come in order to receive the diamonds and
take them down boldly by the front way
in the event of the other thieves finding
a difficulty in getting away through one
window, OF any of them being stopped and
questioned in the back street by the po-
lice.
During the progress of the trial the ola
sergeant of police succumbed to the in
iuries he had received, and though there
was no direct evidence that Harbord
struck the blow, the crime in which he
was supposed to have been concerned hav-
ing now the further element of manslaugh-
years penal sorvitude Laxton in the
meantime had fed the country, and all
trace of him was lost from that day
This was briefly the story which John
Helston was brooding over as he sat until
the darkness fell on the riverside farm
of Laburnum Villa.
He sat absorbed in gloomy thought, for
getting everything but the past, until a
gentle hand was placed upon his shoulder
soft VOipR WhiSnpre6 in h cor
Father" Then he rose and stopping
down. pressed his lips to the forehead OF
his daughter, and prayed God silently that
for her sake he might yet prove his in
nocence and wipe the shameful stain from
his name
Two years went by, and John Helston
had divided his time between his "home''
+ by the river and his lodgings" in London.
and in tine happiness he found in his
daughters society had managed to put
the great grief of his life, his wifes de