The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-08-06
WOO2 RAT \ THIEF.
How Four-Footcd Robbcr Nearly
broke IN Camp.

FROM the New AorA sun.
You wouldn't think now" said a re-
turned camper. "th4t a plain raj conld al
most braol, mn, 81 ..,-,., I'D 49, -,
"P "'N 'i'Ne 0'H
Iflehds HOOK ashdU0e at one another, but
it, a fact, and since I've been looking into
the question I've heard of several casss
,,t,,,, q, rot ,,,t,,,,t t, -.., 81,
So ''''' sent " MA" !" jan
IL was thiS way dozen or more OF us
go camping every year up in the noun
tains Sometimes We camp out and pitch
a tent and sometime we live in "A ntlle
log house on mesa that reaches out into
the San Gabriel canon. This cabin is Just
a log affair under the oaks, with a row
of hunks all around and a big dreDlace
that is in itself a soIoce TO the weary fish
erman. This year We had a man to do
the heavy work about the camp one Of
these Dago red fellows woodchopper by
profession. He was. of course. always
about the place. So when l missed four
candles one night and JImpkins lost his to-
bacco and some one else paper of hooks
We began to make up our minds that the
Dago was working us. ana in a cold-bIood-
ed way at that Bur We said nothing, lust
watched him, and when we found he didn't
smoke that rather uonpmssed us. The
next night nv toothbrush disappeared and
another candle but the Daco didn't use
tooihbrushes The following night five or
six cards out of a pack disapDeared. and
a box of patent California matches the
Kind that look like s!ives cut out of a
block and smell like the mouth of a vol
cano when The SULPHUR is blowing your
way.
'WeU we made M orr minds that the
Dago was the thief. and opinions were dl-
vided as to whether he was kleptomaniac
or a plain thief; so We determined to send
him off on an erraud and then search his
tent. We sent him down to another camp
and when he had assed the bend we went
into his tent and made thorough search
but found absolutely nothing We had
wronged the man. unless he carried the
stolen goods with him or concealed them
someWhere but this seemed improbable
The next night another candle disappear
ell, also a corkscfew and a number of
small things, and as the door had been
locked it became evident that the thief
was on the inside While we knew 1t was
nonsense I think that every man there
felt that possibly some other fellow had
developed a streak Of kleptOmania. The
only thing to do was to watch; so I took
it upon myself 10 go into the detective
business, and when We turned in I pre-
tended to sleep and waited TO see what
would turn up. Nothing happened for an
hour and then every man in the camp was
fast asleep, some snoring as hard as they
could.
AS l lay there watching the dying en-
bers and the snoring suspects 1t occurred
to me all at once that perhaps one of us
was a somnambuiist and took the things
in his sleep. / had heard of such cases.
l was passing this over in my mind when
/ noticed something moving on the table
where we had been playing cards. The
light from the fire illumined it very plain
ly, and l saw that it was some kind oil
animal about the size of rat. As I look
ed another appeared, having evidently
climbed up the table-cloth that hung to
the floor. The next thing | noticed was
a card waving i'm the air, then it seemed
to pass down the table, then a candle
mysteriously disappeared from the three
nails that constituted the candlestick.
First l thought ] was dreaming, then
saw something climbing the wall, ana
where the light cleaned out strongly on