Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-13

Il have sent for you, as Lloyd probably
| told you. because of robbery at my place
| last evening. 1t appears. as far as 1 can
| guess. to be one of three by the same hand
| or by the same gang. Late yesterday after
noon
Pardon me, Sir James," Hewitt inter-
| rupted. but 1 think l must ask you to
| begin at the first robbery and tell me the
whole tale in proper order 1t makes things
! clearer. and sets them in their proper
/. shape.''
Very well! Eleven months ago, or there
about l had rather a large party of visitors.
| and among them Col. Heath and Mrs
Heath-the lady being relative of my own
| late wife. Col. Heath has not been long
| retired you know-used to be political resi-
| dent In an Indian native state Mrs. Heath
had rather good stock of jewelry of one
| sort and another, about the most valuable
piece being a bracelet set with particu-
| larly fine pearl-quite an exceptional pearl,
In fact-that had been one of heap OF
| presents from the maharajah of his state
, when Heath left India.
| 1T was very noticeable bracelet the
\ gold setting being mere featherweight
| piece of native fligree work-almoSt too
] fragile to trust on the wrist-and the pearl
| being. as 1 have said of size and quality
| not often seen. Well, Heath and his wife
| arrived late one evening. and after lunch
| the following day. most of the men being
| off by MISUNDERSTANDING, l think-my
| daughter. my sister (who is very often
| down here) and Mrs. Heath took it into
their heads to go walking-fern-huntin
and so on. My sister was rather long dress
ing. and. while they waited, my daughter
went into Mrs. Heath's room, where Mrs.
| Heath turned over all her treasures to
| show her, as women do, you know. When
| my sister was at last ready they came
straight away. leaving the things litterins
about the room rather than stay longer to
| pack them up. The bracelet. with other
| things. on the dressing table them
One moment AS to the door?"
| They locked 1t. AS they came away
| my daughter suggested turning the key
| as we had one or two new servants about
! And the Window
| That they left open. as l was going to
tell you Well. they went on their walk
| and came back, with Lloyd (whom they
| had met somewhere carrying their ferns
| for them 1t was dusk and almost dinner
| time. Mrs Heath went straight to her
room. and-the bracelet was gone
| WAS the room diSturbcd?'
Not a bit. Everything was precisely
where it had been left, except the bracelet.
| The door hadn't been tempered with, but
| of course the window was open, as l have
! told you
you called the police, of course?'
| Yes, and had man from Scotland Yard
| down in the morning. He seemed a pretty
| smart fellow. and the first thing he noticed
| on the dressing table. within an inch or
match which had been lit and thrown
down. Now. nobody about the house had
had occasion to use match in that room
that day, and. if they had. certainly
wouldn't have thrown it on the cover of
the dressing table. SO that, presuming the
thief to have used that match, the robbery
must have been committed when the room
was getting fundamentally before Mrs.
Heath returned. in fact. The thief had
evidently struck the match, passed 1t hur-
riedly over the various trinkets lying about
and taken the most valuable
Nothing else was even moved?
Nothing at all Then the thief must
| have escaped by the window, although 1t
was not quite clear how. The walking party
approached the house with a full view of
| the window, but saw nothing, although the
| robbery must have been actually taxing
place a moment or two before they turned
no.
There was no water pipe within any
practicable distance of the window, but a
| ladder usually kept in the stableyard was
| found lying along the edge OF the lawn.
| The gardener explained. however. that he
| had put the ladder there after using 1t hlm-
self early in the afternoon.
''Of course ii might easily have been used
| again after that and put back.
Just what the Scotland Yard man SAID.
He was pretty sharp too. on the gardener
but very soon decided that he knew nothing
of it, No stranger had been seen in the
I nejghbcrhood nor had passed the lodge
gates Besides, as the detective said 1t
scarcely seemed the work of stranger. a
stranger could scarcely have known enough
to go straight to the room where a lady
only arrived the day beforehand left q
| valuable Jewel and away again without be-
| ing seen. So all the people about the
house were suspected in turn. The serV-
ants offered. in a body, to have their boxes
searched and this was done; everything
was turned over. from the buffers to the
new kitchen maids. l don't know that
should have had this carried quite so far
if | had been the loser myself, but II was
my guest, and / was in such a horrible
position Well, there's little more to be said
about that, unfortunately. Nothing came
of it all, and the things as great a mys-
terry now as ever. l believe the Scotland
Yard man got as far suspecting me be-
fore he gave l. up altogether, but give it
up he did in the end. think that's all
know about the first robbery. Is it clear?'
"Oh. yes: l shall probably want to ask
few questions when have seen the place,
but they can wait. What next?'
Well Sir James pursued. 1.-The next was
a very trumpery affair. that l should have
forgotten all about, probably, if it hadn't
been for one circumstance. Even now
hardly think it could have been the work of
the same hand Four months or thereabout
after Mrs. Heath's disaster-in February of
| this year. in fact-Mrs Armitage. a young
widow. who had been "A school-fellow of
my daughters. stayed with for a week
or so. The girls don't trouble about the
London season. you know, and l have no
town house. so they We're glad to have their
old friend here for a little in the dull time.
Mrs. Armitage is a very active young lady,
and was scarcely in the house half hour
before she arranged drive in pony cart
with Eva-my daughter-to look up old
people in the village that she used to know
before she married. So they set off
in the afternoon, and made such round of
IL that they were late for dinner Mrs. Ar
mitage had a small plain gold brooch-not
at all valuable, you know; two or three
pounds. ! suppose-which she used to pin
up a cloak or anything of that sort. Be
fore she went out she stuck this in the PIN
cushion on her dressing table. and left
ring-rather good one. 1 believe-lying
close by"
This" asked Hewitt. was not in the
room that Mrs Heath had occupied. 1 take
it?"
mo; this was In another part of the
building. Well, the brooch went-taken,
evidently. by some one in a deuce of a
hurry for. when Mrs. Armitage got back
TO her room, there was the pin-cushion with
little tear in II, where the brooch had
been simply snatched off. But the curious
thing was that the ring-worth a dozen of
the brooch-was left where it had been put.
Mrs Armitage didn't remember whether or
rot she had locked the door herself al
though she found it locked when she re-
turned but my niece. who was indoors all
the time went and tried II once-because
she remembered that a gasfitter was at
work on the landing near by-and found 1t
safely locked The gasfitter, whom we
didn't know at time hut uhO sipce