Middletown transcript., 1908-09-12

GROSS pIabIOFHd db III Uildt LuOFu'
ing. My interest in the Melville
Court burglary grew at once ex-
traordinarily profound.
The train was seen to draw in,
carriage doors to be flung open
and passengers to alight. But
Warrington Stout was for me
the center of interest. Although
he had partially turned round,
and / now had only view of his
side face, | could see that he
was intently watching all the
passengers by the train. Then
he took a step forward, appar-
emily having recognized some
one. A second later he and a
clean shaven young man in a
bowler hat were standing face to
face. In the later's hand was
something wrapped in brown
paper, apparently an oblong
box; he was carrying nothing
else. Stout looked at the parcel
nodded approvingly, and clapped
the young man on the shoulder.
Then he hurried him away to the
cab rank lining the platform,
hailed a hanson, gave direc-
lions to their driver, and both
stepped inside.
Good heavens! / exclaimed
aloud and the people on either
side of me edged away from an
apparent lunatic.
The detective fever fairly
ragged in my vains. The man
whom Warrington Stout had met
at Kings Cross was I felt con-
vinced, the missing butler; the
description exactly Tailed. And
the box he was carrying, at
which Stout glanced with such
approval, contained, without a
shadow of a doubt, the missing
jewels.
A Naval Review began to be
shown on the bioscope, but for
me the performance was over.
/ rose from my seat and left the
threatre. ] had all the pieces of
a strange puzzle in my hands;
they only required putting to-
gether. 1t was perfectly clear
that Warrington Stout was a
party to the theft and a receiver
of his own jewels. My valuable
assistance had been sought to
elucidate a bogus burglar. F'augh!
went straight to my humble
fat and looked up an A. B. G..
The train that reached Kings
Cross at 40 A. M. stopped at
Grantham at 5.06 A. NJ. If Mrs.
Stout's story was correct, and
the burglary took place at day
break, say, between 4 and 4.30-
the pseudo-b butler could easily
have reached Grantham Station
aud caught this train. That
point established. lit my pipe
and considered others.
What was Warrington Stout's
object in making away with his
wife's jewels? Assuming for the
moment her innocence in the
matter, | asked myself the rea-
son of the queer plot that he had
Matched.
Was he jealous Of those jewels?
A society woman's fame rests
with shame, let it be said-less
on her personality than on the
ornaments with which she crowds
her person. Was this man en-
vious of that fame? Had those
glittering jewels usurped the
love and care that he felt ought
to have been showered upon him?
Did he fancy that the wearing of
bau bles worth thousands of
pounds was blighing aud de-
troying the sonl of the wearer,
and had he chosen this extraor-
dinary method of putting them
in a place of security-probably
some bank? And was my sum-
mons TO Melville Court merely q
rather daring device to appease
and delude further his wife.
| summed up my impressions
Of Warrington Stout. No, he
was neither a sentimentalist nor
a moralist. My first shot must
be wide ofthe mark.
More whiffs of my pipe. All,
/ had it!
The Warrington Stouts were
in financial difficulties, and found
themselves under the painful me-
cessity of raising money. To
plan a fictitious burglary was
really a most picturesque way
of accounting for the absence Of
valuables that you have taken
yourself or employed a deputy
to take to the sign of the three
balls. You get ready money in