The Florence daily tribune., 1899-02-17
MY CLEW.

.Tlr -coundrel clear,-d of 800 worth Of
.l1te. and NOT content with that, the i'm
ptdent villain actually had the andaoity
-handinv "a piece Of paper to me-''to
leave this behind him
He wnlkc,, 90 the sideboard and came
once more 10 me with "A piece OF meat
liver il looked like--upon the point Of
wood N sSewer.
'Tou see, - he said pointing to It, "this
scoundrr comes here, steals my plate
leaves his black guarily poetry behind
him and poisons my favorite dog Seci
rho-e white si,gukS are arsenic
The dcnth al that dog ''riled' him
even more than the loss OF his plate
and he declared he'd give a good sum II
only | could lay hands ON that quiet mov-
ing gentleman who had claimed ON the
paper lac had left To have the step cf u
mouse.
During the last three months thcrc had
been no less than five burglaries com
mitted In the neighborhood of south Lon
don and in each case piece of paper with
"A rhyme upon II had been left behind by
the criminal
These = bberies h Il doubtless all been
pcrpetated by the same hand. and that
such a CLEVER criminal would be fool
staggered me
One thing struck me about that piece
of poetry found ON MIR Graham table
1t had not been written in his house. The
paper had evidently been laid upon Il
rough table while the burglar wns writ
ing
FOR month tried 10 earn that money
OF Mr. Ciroham's by doing the cat trick
on Mr. Mouse step" l could not get
the least cl,w - TO who that worthy was
II was one November night that l
dropped in at a Kitchen OF thieves in a
street OH the seven Dials Things had
evidently been had in the business that
day The company were in as big fit OF
the dumps ns Il six months tagging
stared each one of them in the face.
strikes me the cold slab (prison)
would he about as jolly It's as black
glimmcr outside as ! set peeps ON, said
one OF the company 10 me
DrubS possessed n banjo, and after n lot
uf persuasion he handed it TO another
man, who il appeared could play it--in
fashion 1t certainly did liven us bit
aud after jig or two the player favored
us with some songs
\ line in ono took my fancy. l had
heard il before;
The aent who walked as soft rs any
mousel"
Good song that, " l said after had
done clapping; "a ttpperl What's it
callcdy
Amt got no name, he replied. Il
made 1t myself I'm a bit of poet!'
He was the man wanted But the
question was how was TO make certain
of himg Watch and catch him at his
trickSf That seemed the simplest course
and for ten days CrT,ir-that was his name
-didn { move without me stealthily ON
his track
At last he began to spend good deal of
his time in the neighborhood of big
house nj Hainmcrsmith. | knew what
he was MP to The end came when one
wild rainy night in December he set off
from his lodging in the Dials, his pockets
stuffed out in II suspicious manner, with
me and IA detective after him.
1t was beautiful TO watch him at 2
O'Clock that night in the grounds sur
rounding thar house. First of all he took
from his pocket lot of small pieces of
wood and stuck them in different places
in the ground Then he took u long roll
OF wire and carefully tied it around the
posts, from one TO another. That was to
trip up>any one who might pursue him.
The next sep was to low window.
Dabbing u big piece of putty against it,
holding on to the putty cut the pane
round The glass was out in n jiffy, the
shutters were thrown back, and Mr.
Burglar stepped into the room.
His first preceding then was to slip to
the front door, open it and leave it just a
little ajar
IN not boast of my courage but I've
done some things which l don't think "a
coward would venture on, but the
thought of meeting Mr.. Grair at 'the
other end OF II revolver wasn't pleasant
My companion and talked the matter
over, and must give him the credit of
suggesting the following trick;
Taking piece of the strong wire Crair
had used, we fastened it about n foot high
across the first step-there We're four
just outside the house door My compan
ion crouched down beside the steps and
|, gently pushing the door open, entered
the house
glided noiselessly across the hall and
peeped in at the doorway of room.
There was Crair busy at work ransacking
a cupboard he had forced open.
left the door and crept stealthily up
stairs to the first landing A moment
later chair which l had found there
slipped down the stairs with crash.
| looked over the banisters and saw
dark figure dash through the hall TO the
front door. Then there came "a cry,
flop, n good deal of very strong language,
seemingly uttered by one whose throat
WAS grasped by that nastiest of collars--a
strong man hand
He was lying on the ground, the hand
sutIs on his wrists, and my friends knees
very inconveniently situated on his stom-
ach when flashed the light of Crair's
dark lantern on him.
We found in Crair's pocket piece of
paper with verse of poetry upon it some
thing like the one left with Mr.. Graham.
Al the next central criminal court sit
tings he got eight years. 1t was that one
line, The gent who walks soft as any
mouse, - that did for him.-London News