The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1901-09-17
How NARROW
Got His Thief
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.


NARROW, and the very day he is charged
I'll give you q check for f500!'
The detectives thin face flushed. He
was young and unknown and so far had
never had a chance Now it had come,
and he might not only make his reputa-
ton, but $500 as well, and that last
would give him all that was best in the
world to him-the girl he loved for wife
and without 1t 1t might be years before ne
could afford to marry.
He turned eagerly and gathered up the
papers and notebook.
s'I'H lose no time" he said. "I'n do
my best" But all the same it seemed an
almost hopeless task. Fred Emberson,
the thief, had had good IL hours start.
He had gone at o'clock the day before
to the bank to pay money In and to cash
a check, as usual, ready for paying the
mems wages on the morrow, and he had
never returned The check had been
cashed, the money never paid in, and
Fred Emberson had vanished.
Mr.. Richie was hard and bitter man.
He had been soured five years before by
the disappearance of his only daughter.
She had met at the house Of some friends
she had been visiting a man with whom
she had fallen in love. He had been in
eligible in every way-a poor man with
no prospects, with apparently nothing. to
recommend him-but that made no differ
ence to her.
Mr.. Richie had stormed and raved,
had refused emphatically to see him and
had forbidden her ever to mention him
again. She had refused. She had tried
for some months to induce the two men to
meet, she had persisted in sticking to the
man she loved, and then she had run
away and married him.
Mr. Richie never forgave her-never
would. He returned all her letters I'M
opened. He washed his hands of her and
settled down, bitter and soured, to live
out the remainder of his life in hard work.
NARROW sent his men to the station to
make inquiries, and then made his way
toward the rooms In which Fred Ember-
son had lodged during the year he had
been with Mr.. Richie He went up to
them, questioning the landlady as he
went and getting no information except
that she had not seen Emerson since he
had left for his Office the morning before.
He was almost giving up at last when
suddenly tiny scrap of cardboard fallen
between the mantelpiece and the wall
caught his eye. He took his penknife
and began forcing 1t up. 1t might be
nothing of course, but he had turned
over every scrap Of paper and every book
in the room and he would miss no chance.
The cardboard came up slowly. 1t was
wedged in firmly between the mantel-
piece and the wall, but he loosened 1t at
last and held 1t up to the light.
When he saw it, he gave little gesture
Of disappointment. 1t was the photo
graph of a child. That 1t belonged to
Emberson seemed the last thing likely.
He called up the landlady and held 1t
out to her. She shook her head over 1t.
She had never seen 1t before, but 1t must
have belonged to Mr.. Emberson, she said,
for her own daughter had occupied the
room before he had had 1t, and the photo
graph was Of no child they knew.
NARROW looked at it again and made
note of the photographers name, which
was printed on the back. 1t bore the ad-
dress of small town, and he frowned a
little as he looked at 1t. What had Fred
Emerson, a thief, to do with a little
child?
He shut up his pocketbook with snap
and gave a final look around.
He was just turning away when his
man came back from the station with the
information that Emerson had been seen
taking a ticket, not to London, as they
had expected, but to little place called
Staybridge, half way down the line. 1t
was a trick, of course. He would go on
to Euston and pay excess fare and be lost
at once in the London crowd.
Still NARROW sent his man to telegraph
to the station at Staybridge and waited,
still impatiently searching the room, for
the reply.
It came promptly. Only one person
had come by that train on the day before
and that was a mechanic in a working
suit apparently on the lookout for work.
Evidently it was not Emberson, and Mar
low decided that his only chance now was
to go to Topping, where the photograph
had been taken.
He started Immediately, sending his
man on to London to try to get some in
formation there and meaning to wait for
him at Topping. He got out at little,
quiet country station. The town lay be-
hind tia sleepy market town full Of
sheep and cattle and farmers gigs and
bright with spring sunshine.
He found the photographer easily
enough, and there a copy Of the photo
graph he had brought from Emberson's
rooms. 1t had been taken just about a
year ago. The photographer remembered
1t distinctly, because the woman who
brought the child broke down crying at
the finish for no reason at all that he
could make out.
~ suppose you know nothing Of her,
do your asked the detective, and the
photographer shook his head.
''No, but she came here from a place
not far from here" he said. "At any
rate, sent the proofs thereto a place
called Staybridge, about five miles away"
Detective NARROW started a little.
Staybridge! He was on the road at last,
surely! Staybridge was the place to
which Fred Emberson had booked-the
place at which the workingman had got
out! Detective Marlow's pulse quick
ened, and ten minutes later he was walk
ing away from Topping toward the dis
tant village.
1t was hot walk that day. The roads
were dusty, and he was tired when he
reached 1t at last
He made his way slowly through the
struggling houses and quiet shops toward
an inn. He would have to stop, of course,
perhaps for some days, certainly for one
night.
He went in and had some tea and then
set out to look around. He was all Inn
patience. The thought Of the LOO stirred
him. -- -------------------<s---