Connecticut western news., 1909-07-22
THE RAT SPINDLE.
By BRUCE PARKER.


 to keep his eye open to be able to turn back the metal he receives. Cold is valuable in very small quantities. It's just us good in filings as 1t is in coins and us good in chips as in bars. There are lots of ways a small bit of the metal can be carried away, and as soon as ono method is found out an. other is invented.
 When 1 was inspector at n western mint young man named Trevor came into the service, in whom took deep interest. Indeed, it was natural that 1 should be interested in him. because he was engaged to marry my daugh- ter Betsy. I had no objection to the match provided they would wait long enough for Trevor to become sufll- ciently valuable at the mint to com mand an adequate salary and to have saved little money for n nest egg. be married first and get the salary and 1 the nest egg afterward. But l stood 1 firm, and he was obliged to wait.
 "In a mint the gold ingots are sent to the rolling room to be rolled into strips. When received they are care fully weighed and when sent out are weighed again. Of course both figures should tally exactly. Well, one day there was n deficit of about S10. Of | course I was greatly troubled. Before 1 letting any one out of the room l made 1 q personal search of every employee. l Trevor worked in the rolling room. and when he came up to be searched he seemed to me to be a trihe agitat- l ed. Now, we inspectors are like de 1 tectives. We build up theories on small occurrences. It popped into my head that Trevor in his impatiencc | to marry had fallen under temptation. But nothing was found on him or any one else. The next day there was an other shortage of about $14, and the next and next shortages of various similar amounts.
 My theory about Trevor was a terri ble anxiety to me. I liked the boy, and | 1 knew Bet was bound up in him. To discover that le was thief would be a disappointment to me and a heavy blow to her. Ordinarily I did my own Investigating. but in this case I was so disconcerted over Trevor's probable | guilt and so averse to watching him that I introduced Il detective into the rolling room under the guise of an em- ployee. with Instructions to look for a clew and to watch Trevor especially. Whether my feelings betrayed mo 1 to Bet or to Trevor or both or whether they saw through the detective ruse 1 don't know. but constraint sprung up between me and them. Neither party said anything about the matter be- tween us, but each knew the others secret. One day Trevor came up to me and said he'd like to see me in 1 the coinage department. l saw that something was on his mind and went with him in q state of dread, fearing a confession. When we reached the room we had started for. Trevor sud denly turned to me and said:
 "'Do you smell anything|'
 Surprised, I sniffed and replied that certainly did smell something dead. "Its a rat in trap he replied.
 "'Well, what of that?
 "'Go in there pointing to a place of concealment, and watch. We will close iu twenty minutes. Before that time you will see the rat removed. Then step out the door, go down the back stairs and look out the window into the yard
 Now, it would require several days for a dead rat to emit an odor. The
 
 day, probably not half day. That l knew because I had seen one taken out the evening before by an employee "a 'stamper;' I'll call him Jim Smith who tossed 1t out through the slot above the window.
 Rats had bothered us more or less, and I was not surprised at the trap or the catch. What puzzled me was that rats dead body should decay so quickly. Taking this with Trevors act-I hate punning; I don't mean to pun-I smelled a rat I hadn't been on watch ten minutes beGere Jim Smith came into the room, stopped at the trap and, jocularly saying, Hello, another ratr took out the corpse by the tail and tossed 1t out through the slot. In a jlffy I was down the stairs with my eye to a window overlooking the yard. had been there but few moments when I saw a man pick up the rat. put it fin n canvas bag and walk away.
 And so the man I had set the de tective to catch had caught the detec tive mapping. l kept mum and the next day removed the same rat from the trap and inside of him found gold worth $25.
 Tt is singular how criminals will give themselves away. If the man who used the dead rats to convey gold out of the building had taken the trouble to get q fresh rat once in awhile he wouldn't have been betrayed by an odor We didn't like to prosecute such cases of ingenuity for fear of putting