The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-07-07

ali the papers, just as they are, with
$4,000 in his inside -pocket-which none
of them ever got, except to give away,
being too delicate of soul TO work for
mere money!
But when in company with a Mr..
Emmons and a man from the office. he
entered the hall of the Emmons house,
few minutes later he grew pale
green with chagrin. In his mental
plan of the floor he had figured on
straight walls and staircases, while in
fact there was scarcely a straight line
in sight, and circles semi-circles, oYals
and spirals predOminated TO such an
extent that there seemed to his unac-
custOmed eye to be a perfect witches
dance of them, turning topsy-turVy
all his ideas of interior architecture.
He stepped into the telephone closet,
and saw that, owing to these surpris-
ing shapes. Mr., EmmOns had really
been right about facing both the back
stairway and the front room at the
same time, If the ability to see one of
these objects out of one eye and the
other out of the other eye might be
called facing" 1t was near enough
! to it for practical purposes. at all
events, for the walls We're so deeply
cOncave on the telephone side. and so
highly convex on the other that the
closet while il was between the stairs
and the room, was far enough back
from a straight line between the two
points to command them both.
L never see such a built house, he
grOwled in the anger of his great dis
appointment. In this mood his mind
was rich soil for the seeds of suspic-
, ion. and, from the certainty that he
could in no way explain the robbery,
he passed at one bound to the doubt
that any robbery had been committed.
1t was a foolish thing, come to think
of ii, to say that a monkey snatched
| that diamond and swallowed it, Who
ever heard of such an absurdity? 1t
was lie on the face of it. And even
granting that absurd lie, it was a big
ger absurdity still to suppose il pos
sible that crazy woman from out
side, or any kind of a woman, could
be there at just the OppOrtune mo-
ment-that all these queer things could
| happen at the same time. In short
Emmons had that princely stone him
self, and for some reason wished it be-
HeVed that il had been stolen. The
great mystery was that a man of his
known shreWdness should have in
vented such clumsy story to explain
| its disappearance.
Having reached this conclusion. the
| lieutenant assumed a magisterial ex-
see Mrs. EmmOns. The lady received
him with an eager smile on her keen
! old face, in the expression of which
the officer saw at once a close resem-
blance to that of her husband, and in
vited him to be seated.
oh, deaT,' she exclaimed, Il do SO
! hope you Will find out about all this,
1t is so trying-and such a queer thing
l never heard of anything like it in my
life"
He would not sit, but stood before her.
asking every question touching the case
! that he could COnjure up. All in vainl
EmmOns had told him her story al
| ready, and the most searching cross
questioning failed to elicit anything
new, or alter the facts as already
given. She was much more prOliX than
her husband had been, going into every
detail with vOlubiity and minuteness.
| But the sum of her testimony was that
| the strange woman had bounced upon
her, snatched the monkey. and disap-
peared apparently into nOthingness.
The two visiting jewellers during all
this time had remained, after their first
hurry into Mrs. EmmOns' room when
they heard her scream, where they
We're sitting at the moment the mon
key seized the diamond locked in This
was by their own request, Mr.. En-
mons said. for in the circumstances
! they felt that to leave would invite
suspicion of collision on their part with
the thief, and that they would better
remain until the diamond should be
found, or some definite course decided
on. These men the officer now ques-
toned as closely as he had Mrs. En-
mons. but with no better result. They
had seen a black thing shoot in the
| door. snatch the stone, swallow it, and
ScampeT out, and almost Immediately
hearing a scream and seeing Mr.. En-
mons running across the hall from the
telephone, they had jumped uD and
FASTENED with him to his wife's door,
where they heard her story of the
thief. They acknowledged that the
Whole matter had a queer look. and
they wished they were well out of it.
But they could not give any Informal
ton. 1t certainly would be impossible
for anybody 70 pass along the hail to-
ward the front of the house without
their seeing him. and they had seen
nobody. The thief must have gone to
the rear, and if she were not one of the
servants disguised, and in conspiracy
with all the rest of them, they could
not imagine how she was able to eS-
cape that way. There was, in fact. no
possible chance for person to do what
it seemed had been done. The problem
was too big for them.
The suggestion of a disguised
servant infused little hope into the
officers mind. He had now become
convinced that it was as absurd to
suspect Mr.. Emmons as he had for
merly thought it was to suppose that
the beast should swallow the stone.
These men vowed they had seen the
swallowing, and honesty and distress
were too evident in their words and
manners to be disputed. Besides, even
if this very rich man were not above
secreting the diamond his intellect GER
tainly was above connecting such a
paltry scheme for doing it. On the no.
ton of a servant in disguise he based
his lost hope, and asked to have them
every one, men and women, sum-
moned before him.
But at the very first view of them
this last hope vanished. The thief was
short and stout, and by the same ac-
cursed spite of fate which seemed to
have met the lieutenant at. each turn
and crossing of this case every man
and woman among these servants was
thin and tall The butler, il seemed,
who hired all the help, was a lath in
shape himself, and, maintaining that
short, stout people were usually
drinkers and always slow. if not down