Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1899-06-08
DURING HER MAJESTYS
PLEASURE.
H A H, my friend,'' said Detective
BY .. a. Smith.


- Inspector Westwood, sit is all
very well for people who know abso-
lutely nothing about the matter to
complain of the alleged inefficiency of
the police force, to call its members a
set Of bunglers, and all that sort of
thing; but if they only took the trou-
bic to find out all the particulars Of
our unsuccessful cases, they would soon
realize why the police are sometimes
completely at a loss.
1T would not be reasonable to ex-
pect a man to stand on nothing, in
.space-now, would it? Yet often we
of the force have no more ground to
work on than the man in space has to
stand upon, so it cannot be surprising
If we then effect nothing. i admit
there are a great number of crimes
whose perpetrators are never brought
to Justice; but, as they furnish no clew
whatever, we are, of course, batf1ed-
unless some lucky accident should re-
veal their identity"
HAS any such lucky accident &C.
Cured to you in any of your investiga-
tions?" / asked.
81 should rather think So" the in
.spector replied. why, it is to one
of them that 1 owe my promotion.
Surely you have heard of the incident?
Not to my knowledge" l answered,
$50 you had better enlighten my ig-
norance."
well. two or three years ago there
was a series of petty robberies In the
mansions round Richmond, Kingston
-on-Thames, and Henley way. 1t was
in the summer time, when people were
staying at their country houses. These
robberies were very mysterious, and
the remarkable thing about them was
that they We're always committed In
broad daylight. The things mostly
stolen were valuable diamond rings,
brooches, and trinkets of that sort,
which are allowed by ladies to lie on
the dressing-tables of their bedrooms;
though on one or two occasions costly
bracelets set with gems, and diamond
necklaces worth fabulous sums. were
distracted by the thief. Bulky valu-
ables. such as watches and family plate,
were invariably left untouched; as L
said before it was chiefly the jewelry
of the ladies which was stolen.
"Of course. the police were commani-
Gated with, but as the thief-or thieves
left no trace whatever of their modus
.operandi, they were unable to accom-
plish anything, for one cannot consider
the absence of stolen goods as 'clew'
The superintendent, it is true, had a
theory at first that the robberies must
have been committed by some person
or persons in the respective houses,
but as all the domestics happened to be
old retainers of unimpeachable integ-
haf theory soon
exploded. The same fate befell anoth-
.er. which suggested that the thefts
were committed by some stranger
4strolling unobserved into the houses,
for the articles were invariably alb
stracted from upstairs rooms, and it was
preposterous to suppose that the
thieves could have got in the houses,
gone upstairs, and left the premises
again without having been observed;
particularly in broad daylight
I'm spite of all vigilance and precau-
tons the thefts still continued. There
was scarcely house of any size in the
district which had not sustained some
loss or other. 1t seemed to be regular
endemic of losses, and that, with the
great heat of the season, formed the
chief topic of conversation amongst
the inhabitants. Public feeling ran
high over the matter-naturally
enough, perhaps, under the circum-
zstances-and the following, with but
slight variations. was the plant at all
the garden parties and social gather
ings:
'.'Oh, my dear Mrs. Fitz-Blank, re-
ally do not know what is coming over
the place; one cannot trust a single
article of value out of ones sight. Only
this morning / placed that lovely mar
ouise ring, which was given me by
the shah of Persia, on my dressing
table while / went into my boudoir
for something or other, and when 1 got
back the ring was gone! Gone, utterly
vanished, although / turned the place
INSIDE down to find it. wouldn't have
lost it for worlds, either. There was
no one else in the room, only myself,
and no one could have entered without
nv knowledge. Oh. it worries me so;
it is all so mysterious
Very mysterious sympatheticaily
replied Mrs Fitz-Blank. But what can
the police be about to allow such whole
sale robberies to be carried on? They
seem utterly helpless---or inefficient
and I certainly shall get Horatio to
speak of the matter the next time he Is