Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1901-07-19
TELLTALE PICTURES.
THAT HAVE DONE THE
WORK OF DETECTIVES.


a CriminaI-A Portrait and a Stolen
Diamond Pendant.
An artist who had suddenly become
almost famous by his production OF a
painting exhibited at the Royal acad-
envy was one day called upon by Il
man whose visit was productive of the
most extraordinary and undreamt OF
consequences.
The picture represented a lonely
stretch of beach. upon which the sea
was beating in long. creamy rollers In
the foreground, bending over a dead
| body, was n man with a wild express
sion on his face aud with naked
knife in his hand. y ships boat, evil
IDENTIFY just beached, was also ia the
| picture. and by the side OF the muir
dered man was a bag of gold. The pic
| ture portrayed the advent of two cast
| Always upon a friendly shore. The one
| had murdered the other SO that the
| treasure might be his.
The painters visitor was gray hair
ed. wild eyed man.
"In heavens name, sir he gasped
| out, how did you learn the dreadful
story that you painted? | see you know
all L murdered my mate Bill to get
| the money that was his. / threw his
body into the sea. / don't know what
impulse led me to the Academy. The
first thing | saw was your picture rep
resenting the scene that took place 80
years ago"
Needless to say, the picture had been
the outcome of Imagination. Yet MUIR
der will out. and the guilty conscience
of the man who had killed his comrade
for lust Of gold had convinced him that
the painting was no coincidence, but
was indeed the actual portrayal of Il
daStardly and unwitneSsed crime.
There is probably no picture better
known in England than The Doctor"
by Mr.. Luke Fildes, yet there are prob
ably very few people aware of the fact
that that selfsame masterpiece was
the means Of bringing to light the per-
petratiOn of n crime that would other
wise never have been known.
4 certain doctor in large town COM
mitted suicide. and among his papers
was n letter which ran as follows: Il
have today seen Luke Fildes' Doctor
The picture represents a medical man
watching by the bedside of n child. 1t
has so haunted me that am going to
make a confession at the same time.
When Arthur's'-his brother's-"boy
died. l came into money that my dead
brother had settled on him. He died
as all the world thought of acute pneu-
monia. Yet his life might lGve been
saved had acted. as FiFdcs' Doctor is
so evidently doing. with the use OF ali
the skill that lay i'm my power 1 has
4
money. 1 can bear II no more
\ well known artist was commission
ed to paint the portrait of lady I'm ex-
allied circles. who boosted the posses
sion of a most unique jewel in the
form of pendant. The lady was very
anxious that this heirloom should he |
included in her portrait. The artist. of |
course, complied with her request.
Shortly after the painting had been |
completed Il daring burglary was per
petrated. with the result that the lady |
lost her heirloom. and no trace of the |
thief or thieves was forthcoming. |
Years passed by, and the lady gave up |
all hope OF ever seeing the precious |
heirloom again.
Now, it so happened that the artist /
who had painted the portrait of the /
i'm India.
In the course OF his wanderings he |
came to Bombay and. as every visitor
to that place does. strolled through the
native bazaar.
Suddenly his attention was riveted
by a piece of jewelry in a jewelers.
shop that seemed familiar TO him. 1t
was n diamond and ruby pendant.
Where had he seen it before? He ran
sacked his brain, but could not remem-
Der.
He returned to his hotel and hap
pened TO take from his portfolio n
sketch of the portrait he had made
years ago OF the lady with the pendant.
In moment the enigma was solved.
The piece of jewelry he had seen was
the peculiar pendant that his fair sitter
had been so anxious he should include
in his portrait.
He hurried off to the chief of police,
and told that worthy what he suspect
ed, namely, that the bazaar he had Wis
tied contained the long lost Jewel of
the English lady. Inquiries were at
once set on foot with extraordinary re-
suits. The jeweler in the bazaar con-
fessed to having given years ago n
quite insignificant sum for the jewel,
which he had bought from stableman
In the employ of n neighbOring rajah.
The stableman was sought for, and
turned out to be none other than IA
nous English craftsman, who had APP
parently turned honest, but who,
confessed to having been
the thief of the jewel that had been
so miraculously iscovered.-Pearson's