Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1909-08-04
THE RAT SW|MDLE.
BY BRUCE PARKER.

turn back the metal he receives. Gold
| is valuable in very small quantities.
! It's Just as good In filings as II Is in
| coins and as good In chips as in bars.
There are lots Of ways small bit Of
| the metal can be carried away. and as
soon as one method is found out an
other is invented.
when was inspector at western
| mint a young man named Trevor came
| Into the service, In whom 1 took a deep
! interest. Indeed. it was natural that
\ | should be interested in him. because
| he was engaged TO marry my daugh-
\ ter Betsy. | had no objection TO the
| match provided they would wait long
1 enough for Trevor to become sufii-
| GENTLY valuable at the mint to com
mand an adequate salary and to have
saved little money for u nest egg.
He thought differently. He wished tc
be married first and get the salary and
! the nest egg afterward. But | stood
| firm and he was obliged to wait.
I'm mint the gold insots are sent
10 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 a deficit of about $40. OF
| course l was greatly troubled. Before
| letting any one out of the room made
q parSonai SEARCH pf eyery emDioyep
Trevor worked in the rolling room.
and when he came up to be searched
be seemed 10 me to be a tri1e agitat-
ed Now. we Inspectors are like de-
tectiyes. We build up theories on
small occurrences. 1t popped into my
head that Trevor In his impotence
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 Sl4. and the
. next and next shortages Of various
similar amounts.
My theory about Trevor was a terri
Bile anxiety to me. liked the boy. ane
knew Bet was bound up In him. To
discover that he was a thief would be
disappointment to me and heavy
blow to her. Ordinarily | did my own
investigating. but In this case | was
so disconnected over Trevor's probable
guilt and so ayerse to watching him
that | introduced a detective into the
rolling room under the guise of an en-
ployee, with instructions to look for
clew and to watch Trevor especially.
Whether my feelings betrayed me
TO Bet or to Trevor or both or whether
they saw through the detective ruse l
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
the coinage department saw that
something was on his mind and went
with him in a 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 anythingY
surprised. shifted and replied that
certainly did smell something dead.
Its a rat In trap he replied.
..well, what of thatY
".Go in there pointing to a place
Of concealment. and watch. We will
close in 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
rat had not been there more than q
day, probably not half a day. That
knew because had seen one taken
ont the evening before BY an employee
"a .stamper;' III call him Jim Smith
who tossed it out through the slot
above the window.
RATS had bothered US more or less
and | was not surprised at the trap
-. shn oa,ch uhat r,,1,toS ,co xros