The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-10-26


cause Of our troubles.
But the end was not yet. Within two
weeks another heavy theft occurred,
covering q value of nearly four thou
! sand dollars. The watchmen, inside
! and out. protested their vigilance, and
not n trace of the robber or OF the
| goods could be found.
! became moTbiGIy nervous, and the
I slightest unusual event excited my az
tention.
In this frame of ;nind / was one day
sitting i'm the counting room near
Mills's private desk, just after he had
gone out to mis- noon lunch. Intcntly
thinking, l stopped to pick up a frag-
ment of paper that lay at my feet, and
was about to throw it into the waste
basket when my attention was arrest
ed by a few printed and written words
upon it. 1t proved to be half of a
pUstcfIice box bill.
The fragment read Charles V. Ons-
low" and on the line below, BOX
! 1888" That was all. But how came II
in our Office, since we had no Onslow
in our employment, nor was there such
q man among our customers? 1t could
not have lain on the floor long, for
| Mills was fussily neat and would have
noticed It.
seized the directory. Yes, there was
| the name: Charles V. Onslow, agent,
| No. - Washington street. l was there
in a few minutes. 1t was large biuld
ing entirely devoted tO offices. on
slow occupied one of the two small
rooms on the top floor. On the door OF
the other read the name John May"
Onslow's door was locked; an1 so, alas,
found was Mays.
/ sought the janitor; but he could
| give me little information. Onslow, he
| said was at his office very irregular,
often being absent for weeks. He rare
| ly spoke with him, except when he
| settled his quarterly bill, which he did
very punctually. In appearance On
slow was a compactly built man of
medium height, quite round-shouldered
and had long black hair and a full
beard. There was no Connection, he was
certain, between Onslow and his neigh
Dor May. They rarely met. The two
rooms were formerly let to one tenant,
but the door communicating between
them had long ago been nailed up, and
the rooms let to separate tenants. May
he continued on his own account, now
that ! had got his tongue loosened. was
a brisk, erect man, with very high
voice, heavy black moustache. gold.
bowed eyeglasses, and wore a very
small cloth hat.
None the wiser for my prying, inn
pertinent curiosity. carefully alb.
stained from any allusion to the sub
ject on my return to the store. Though
Onslow was nothing to me, / still KEPT
the fragment of the blu, and deter,
mined | would some day make the ac-
quaintance of the man. Weeks elapsed
and neither ourselves nor the police
had made a single point.\ Finally W,
discontinued the inside watchman.
Two nights afterward a sweeping
robbery was attempted.
On opening the store a great guam
tity of our choicest stock was founi
piled in confusion at the rear of tn,
first floor. Footprints were plainly Wis
ibe, and a rear window, opening on &
narrow alley. was found partly raised
with the outside shutters down.
CONSERVATION seized us. About fv,
thousand dollars worth of silks proved
to be missing, but at least ten thou
sand dollars were represented by wha
was left in the pile.
There was a buzz along the stree
and among the police. We became
marked concern and an irritating sym
pathy poured in upon us from the en-
tire trade. Only the well-known wealth
of the firm prevented a serious impair
ment of our credit; but even this coult
not long sustain a continuation o
these operations.
The last robbery. differing in SOM
respects from all the others. exploded
many theories we had previously en-
tertained. Did we have among our EN-
poyes thief skillful enough to con
ceal himself in the store before closin;
hours, and who, after operating witt
outside accomplices during the night
contrived to quit his hiding place un
noticed in the morning? 1t hardl,
seemed probable or possible in view O
the many precautions we had taken al
along. In the present case it must hav
been intended to use a large wagon I,
carry off the plunder. This employed
gang of skillful professional thieve
and perhaps even the completely of tn
outside watchman.
Evidently the thieves had been un
had been scared off before securing al
the goods selected.
Matters now went on quietly 70
many weeks, and we concluded that tn
last grand attempt was intended a
final. But we maintained a. stric
watchfulness in every respect notwith
standing
The vacation season came on, hut
would not go away for a single da,
even. So Mills started off in my place
several weeks ahead of his usual time
When not occupied with regular bus
iness, my mind was never off the sub
jcct of the robberies and. as trade wa
now dull. / spent much time in confer
ence with the police and in trying L
find some of the stolen goods in th
stocks of retailers in all parts of tn
city and vicinity.
The chief Of police had sent 10 tn
police Of all other cities a full descrip
tion of the stolen property. With thi
matter heavy on my mind, was goin
down Washington street one afternoo
in highly nervous condition when m
attention was attracted by the Yer
beautiful marking on a medium size
case in passing wagon. In letter
like copperplate ! read
JOHN BAGLEY.
No Duane Street, New York City.
Per Fall River Line from &. V. o.
The instant saw the initials &C. Y
O." / stopped short ana hailing tn
astOnished teamster asked who shippe
the case. lie looked me over curiousl