The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-11-03
LIE AAJoR.s LOO.

| Margate, England, for a season. The
major was an old bachelor and veal
thy, If he had taken to any other
/ walk IN life except the army he would
] have been known as a philanthropiSt.
/ No army officer has room for philan-
1 thropy and duty at the same time.
1t would demoralize the service and
! turn all barracks into nurseries. Down
/ in his heart Major Thornton had al
ways had a soft spot for general hui
| rlanity, but he realized that he would
/ have to wait until he left the service
| to show it. He was finally retired I'M
der the age limit, made a trip across
/ the waters, and the day we ind him he
was strOlling about Margate and wish
1 ing he could do something for human
ity's sake. An opportunity was sooE
| afforded him.
When the major returned to his
room to slick up a bit for luncheon
/ he made find in the lower hall 1t
was a magnificent diamond sunburst.
His first thought was to do down to
! the office and turn IN the lost jewel;
/ his second was to wait and give the
/ loser a glad surprise. It would not be
/ long before such a costly thing would
be missed and the whole hotel thrown
/ into a fiutter, and at the right mo-
ment he would produce the thing and
make his dramatic point and grandly
wave aside the profuse thanks of the
/ loser.
They were discussing the matter in
While he was out ON the promenade
/ there had been an arrest in the hotel.
/ The wife of a prominent manufacturer
i stopping at the house had made an
! cutlery that the jewel had been taken
! from her room during a mOmentary
! absence Suspicion was directed to a
waiter named Saunders, who had come
/ up to the next room with an order,
/ and when suddenly accused of the
/ theft he became confused and en-
! a GEad mr. had hner7 a p
rest and taken away. None of those
1 who saw him and heard his lame ex
/ plantations could make the least ex-
| cUse for him. A search had failed to
| find the jewel on his person, but it
| was, of course, argued that he had
passed it to a confederate.
! The major heard all this and much
moro, and he had started in to defend
the waiter and talk about the unre-
/ liability of circumstantial evidence
and cite instances, when the lady as
/ sured her hearers for the tenth time
/ that she had the jewel in her hand
and was looking at the hinge of the
pin not a moment before she left the
room She was most positive that she
1 left it behind her on the dresser. She
would swear to that in all the courts
| of the land. The aggressiveness and
! positiveness of the lady rather star
/ tied the major. If she could not be
made to believe that she had dropped
| the thing in the hall where he had
I found 1t what sort of a position would
it put him in i? OF course, the right
way would have been to out with it at
once. The loser might have still in
sisted and persisted. but there would
/ have been people to believe that she
was mistaken. At any rate, all would
have hesitated to believe that the hon
est-faced, whitehaired army officer
had anything to do with the pin get
ting out of the room.
The right moment passed and the
major kept the sunburst in his pocket.
Saunders had been put through the
third degree at the police station and
given his liberty. He had come down
from London fairly recommended, and
UP to that moment no fault had been
found with him. He returned to the
hotel and talked about a suit for dam
ages, and fairly frightened the WO-
man into giving him a hundred dol
lars in cash and making humble
apology. When she had admitted her
mistake regarding Saunders it was
only natural that she should seek to
fasten the crime on some one else.
When the waiter had been freed the
majors quandary was worse than ever.
If he restored the jewel he would be
asked why he delayed 1t was very
doubtful, also, if his story Of finding
it in the hall would be believed. The
loser was too positive for that. The
man Saunders went away at once. If
the jewel could in some way be re
turned to the lady would anybody be-
| lieye that the waiter had become con-
characterization On the contrary,
wouldn't everybody declare that the
real thief had become frightened and
| was still guest at the hotel?
How we argue to ourselves and how
other people argue about US are two
different things AS a matter of fact,
the major was the last one to be sus-
pected, and vet he had the feeling that
all looked upon him with suspicion.
: I~r J. TO-
or on the sands the subject was con-
stantly turning up. and he sometimes
wondered why he was not arrested as
the criminal He stood this sort OF
thing for two weeks and then decided
TO go elsewhere. He would go up tC
London and from thence mail the
Jewel to the lady and go on to Paris
at once. He departed from the place
! but from the time ne left the hote
until the train started he was in 9
, cold sweat. The sight of a policeman
gave him. feet as cold as ice. Wher
, he reached London he suddenly re
nembered that valuable parce
ike that must be receipted for anC
might give a false name, but If the
r parcel was traced back wouldn't hi.
[ personality be remembered? The ma
Tor sat on a bench in st. James park
trying to figure it out when voice
spoke In his ear:
Major Thornton. sir. Il you vii
permit the liberty, sir
It was Saunders the waiter. HI
was well dressed and looking pretty
clipper. The major made room fol
him on the bench and the waiter sa
down to continue:
: Major, that was a bad deal they
gave me at Margate.'
Yes" was the reply.
at may be the means of running al
. honest mans reputation. Such thingl
get out. you know. and once q man il
this profession is spotted as crooked
no hotel wants him thereafter. If
e hadn't lost my head should have
made the lady pay five times the price
she did,
Il was not one Of those who though
. you took the sunburst.,
! ..,rl,a,,l- ,.n.1 sir-thanlr rnlr from