Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-02-17

to do that, but put it off till morning.
He gave me his promise to say nothing
overnight, and I was at the house soon
after breakfast. I sat down with the
girls and went over the case, as I had
with him, hoping to break them down,
but they had only anxiety OH their faces
as they listened. Then l boldly stated
what I had seen on the previous day,
and the shot told. Both blushed and
stammered and began weeping, and I
took it as a confession and told the IA
Their SO. He couldn't speak to them for
his emotion, and when l told him they
must consider themselves under arrest
and a search made of their rooms he
simply bowed his head in aoquiescence.
I wanted to keep the girls below while
I searched their room, and unfortunate.
ly for me l called in the village consta-
BILE to sit with them. He had to be told
more or less Of the case, and az soon as
he was at liberty he went out to spread
the news. In an hour it was known all
over town that the two girls had been
caught robbing the postoffice, and some
of the excited people even went SO far
as to say that the father had probably
winked at it.
My search revealed two letters from
two different men in New York. They
had been directed under other names,
but the two girls had opened them.
They had stolen these letters and forgot
to destroy them. / went out and made
inquiries, and then / discovered what q
blunderer l was. Both girls were carry
ing on a clandestine correspondence, us
ing fictitious names, and these were the
letters I had seen them pocket. When I
asked them to confirm this theory they
did so, but it was evident that in their
eyes clandestine letter writing was about
as bad a crime as robbing the mails.
The new had gone forth that they had
been detected in purloining letters, and
how could ! combat it? ! spent the next
two days in trying to explain matters
to the public, but found not one man or
woman who would believe me. Post
office inspectors didn't bring charges
and retract them, they reasoned, and a
strong petition was drawn up and sent
to Washington asking that the culprits
be duly punished. Letters were also
written stating that l must have been
bribed to act as I did and declaring that
l was not a proper man for the service.
You may well reason that l was sum-
moned to report in Washington without
delay and that my reception there was
anything but fattering to me. l had
lost my official head before saying 20
words. 1t was my first and only blunder
for ten years, but that didn't count. II
I got a grain Of comfort out of the stu
alton, it was when l heard that several
more complaints about lost letters at
Shelby had just come in that day.
I left Washington with no particular
aim, but OH reaching Denton l made up
my mind to go over to Shelby and have
one more look around. I went back in
my old role as hired maj and entered
postotfice about half an hour after
the mail had been distributed. Looking
through the glass door Of a box, I saw
one Of the girls sewing and the other
reading. Behind them was an open back
window, and within three feet of this
window was the general delivery box.
front Of the window and only two
feet away was the table on which the
mail packages were done up, and a score
Of letters were lying there to be wrap
ped. had just made out these things
when o good sized bird, black in color,
alighted on the window sill, hoped
to the delivery box and picked off
The top letter and darted away. In 10
seconds the bird was back, and in the
of ten minutes ! watched her
take away five letters. That bird was a
and the real thief, but I had
the reputation Of q family before
the mystery. ! at once made
myself known to the father, and we Wis.
tied the back yard to search for the let
ters. There in an old dog kennel which
had been tenantless for years we found
.;hem-every single one which had been
The maybe belonged to a
,eighbor, and singularly enough she had
lever been caught at the trick. As it
was summer the back window was open
III day, and there were times when only
me person would be waiting on the
With the usual cunning Of her
the bird watched her chance,
aking letters from both the table and
he general delivery box, and q dozen
,ther inspectors might have been put on
he case without solving the mystery.
lad that satisfaction, though / was not
'einstated, and l also take great pleas
ire in saying that after awhile the peo-
pie Of Shelby came to believe the Har-
,ers entirely innocent and made ample
Imends for what had been said and