Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1903-09-26

ENTERED WITH A REVOLVER IN MY HAND.
planned that the door Of his room,
which he had locked on going out, was
ajar.
The absurdly conspicuous position of
the jewelry in the room also had its eff
feet upon the jury, as indicating con-
spiracy. It became clear that the fell
low might have cleared himself imme-
diately after arrest if he had chosen to
do So
Nothing else but an acquittal was
possible, and Montagu left the court a
free man. I left it very much puzzled
and fiercely angry man, for beyond
doubt / had been made tool by this
rascal for some purpose which I could
only conjecture. The Scotch-Irish OBJ
stinacy which l inherited from my
grandfather asserted itself, and this
fellow Montagu became to me as if ne
had been my natural food and beast
of prey.
When he left the court building l was
on his track, and for an hour or more
had some interesting experiences in
"shadcwing" 1t became obvious to me
presently that another person whom
recognized as detective Of the regular
police was also on Montagu's trail, and
Montagu must have perceived 1t also,
for he began to dodge and double and
finally shook us in a manner really
quite clever.
For some minutes / watched the de-
tective madly rushing around the
neighborhood It was futile, and upon
sudden inspiration went into bar
ber's shop and had my beard removed
Then bought hat of style that l
had never worn before and a rather
loud" overcoat. After these precau-
tons l rode in a cab to a railroad sta
ton, where, to give myself confidence
in my own judgment, / Immediately
bought a ticket for Chicago. A. few
minutes later was aboard train, rid
ing in the same car with Stanley Mon
tagu. I rode with him all the way to
Chicago, followed his trail with great
difficulty for few hours in that city
and eventually traced him to hotel
where I was fortunate enough to secure
the next room to his.
Ny first act was to bore a hole
through the partition, and by means Of
this aperture l was presently able to
observe confidential and very joyous
interview between Montagu and anoth-
er man, who divided with my former
client an enormous roll of money. The
other man was Warren Ramsdell.
The game then became perfectly
clear. When jewels Of great value are
stolen their description is flashed all
over the world, and their sale becomes
very difficult But by associating him
self with a known criminal and by put
ting up job by which it would imme
diately appear that that criminal had
the jewels and could be induced to re-
turn them Ramsdell had stopped all
the usual precautions and had made
the sale OF the jewels easy and safe.
Having heard the conversation of
these rascals, 1 stepped around to the
hall door of their room and kicked 1t
open. entered with a revolver in my
hand and perfect readiness to shoot
somebody cleaning from my eye. This
state Of feeling is always perceptible
and never fails to have its effect upon
the other parties concerned.
The result was that l obtained
complete record of the disposal Of the
jewels. by means Of which all except a
very few of the smallest were subse-
quently recovered. But, after all, my
mysterious client escaped punishment,
for Mr.. Ramsdell felt obliged to shield
his own brother, and the case against
the two thieves never came to trial.