The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-03-07
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"Ah-ha!" says I. Iookin' wise. "Some
of the help has made love to it. Ell?
Called in the sleuths yet?''
'Oh, I dislike to send for detectives"
says Mrs. Pell, land yet"
Il know" says I. Much in IT,"
only six or eight fifty-donar bills"
says she.
"Oh, pooh!" says /. Pooh two or
three times! What's a little matter of
three or four hundred to"
"Fhat1l do from you, Shorty" says
Sadie, cuttin' in sarcastic. You don't
happen to know that the purse itself is
worth four or five times as much as
that. OF course, something must be
done about finding it The question is
What?"
Maybe you think answered that off
hand. Well 1 didn't. The best 1 could
do was to let on to Mrs. Purdy-Pen
that it was tough on her; but 1 couldn't
work up much excitement over it.
Folks that lug around such expensive
knickknacks as gold purses stuffed with
yellow bills, and leaves 'em reckless, de-
serves to have 'em lifted. Besides, there
was always the chance of its not being
lost at all, and that it might turn up
of itself. My gentle hint along this line
only gets me jumped on by both ladies
in chorus; so / ducks and says maybe
I'll think of something before dinner.
Course, the sensible thing to do in
case of that kind is either to make your
holler loud and prompt, OF else let il
slide over without maxim single peep.
But they don't do either. They calls in
first this one of their special friends.
and then that and buZZss over it in pri-
vate; and the result is that inside of
an hour the tale is all over the place,
with everybody lookin' slant eyed at the
servants and whisperin' things behind
their hands.
You know how such repoTts'll spread.
1t don't lose anything by bein' passed
on, either By the time I've changed
my clothes and come down stairs again,
l meets Pinckney, lookin' kind of puz-
zied, and he wants to know what's all
this about Mrs. PuTdy-Pe11s bein'
choked by the butler and robbed of all
her jools.
1T means that it's time the facts had
a show down." says I. Come on with
me till I find Sadie"
She and Mrs. Pell are surrounded five
deep, hOldin' an explanation powwow,
and just as we arrives on the scene
Mrs. Twombley-Crane shows up 1ookin'
red and clustered. She wants to know
what's the grand stew. and a dozen OF
EN- all starts talkin' at once, givin' her
as many different yarns. and Mrs. Pur-
dy-Pell is on the point of bu' stin' loose
in tears; when an assistant butler tip
toes in. CaTTyin' the miSsin' article on
silver tray. He reports that IT'S been
picked up on the lawn close to the wall
of the west wing and looks like it had
been dropped out of some of the guest
chamber windows.
There" says everybody. "Of course,
you laid it on the ledge and # slipped
Off"
But my room is in the east wing"
says Mrs. PelI, takin' the purse, land
and the money is gone!''
Sure enough, it's as empty as a poor
box. Now here's a mystery that gets
itself tied up in a knot. How could q
purse dropped out of an east window
land on the west side of the house?
And if it had been pinched by one OF
the help, why should they chuck two
Thousand dollar bag after they'd run the
risk of gettin' it? Pinckney wants to
know what kind of money it was
All new fifty dollar notes. says Mrs.
Pell.
"Oh-h-h-h!" says two or three in cho-
rus. Why, don't you remember
that"
'sh-h-h-h!' says another. Here she
comes now"
Honest, that was all there was to it,
and I was as far up in the air as any
of EN-; but I'll bet there want one in
the bunch that didn't look straight
towards the girl that comes skippin'
through the room. It's Dottie Decker.
Don't know Dottie, Ell? Well, you've