The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1910-12-29

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Blondell suite and was greeted by fathel,
and ddaushter with the eager question: n
N"Well, Have you got the Royal RubyaDf \
for something in his usually impenstrabls
face bore trace Of success. ,si
"Im not quite certain" he answered.
stepping to the center table and taking the
long g.stemmed clay pipe from bis pocket
Before the astonished eyes Of the watchers
he tapped the bowl Of the pipe against biz
palm and some Of the tobacco dropped out.
AT the second tap a slittering stone rolled
from the big bowl, Poe picked 1t up and
Landed 1t to Miss Blondell.
k"7ls Royal Rabylp she cried.
"Qite intact' he answered, "in spits
Of being carried In a rats mouth, and hidden
in pipe bowl. An ingenious gentleman,
your thief" AZ
They pressed him for explanations, /,
"Well,' said Christopher Poe, with some.
hesitation, ranning slim hand through bis
tufty hair, in Characteristic movement,
II didn't have time to ask for the details.
But here are few rough suggestions.
Your imagination will supply easily any-
thing that may be missing. Torche, a cons
cert performer, with wonderful trained rat,
has an exacting mistress of criminal rc. .vrd.
She reads that the Royal Ruby is to be
worn at the ChAtelet. Together the pair
evolvea scheme to secure the jewel for the
vanity of Misnon, the mistress" 4
"Yes," the Blondells breathed eagerly.
"They have forty-eight hours in which ia
train the rat topounce at once on any round,
glittering, red thing. Torche has trained
him to retrieve by smell and sight, before.
A rats sense Of smell is stronger than its
sight, but this one has been taught TO dis
tinguish colors in performing. n
"Torche goes to the ChAtelet, easily learns
which is the Blondels' box and secures
the one next to it. Tonight, the rat being
letter-perfect, he takes him in the pocket
built in one baggy trousers leg, as he carries
him continually, on and off t,e stage. He
goes early to the performance, waits for the
Blondell carriage, stumbles against Mr..
Blondell and, with sleight- of-hand motion,
cleverly clips the chain showing above your
scarf Knowing that you will have secured
the scarf so the stone will not drop until you
remove it, or seeing your hand over the
stone and realizing the folly Of getting away
whit in the crowd, he hurries ahead Of YOU
into the opera-house and is just in time to
drop the we'll rat beside the curtain
to your box, which joins that to his, and
push the animal in with deyterous shove
Of his foot, himself concealed from the.
audience by the plush curtain, The rat
seeks the dark corner by the stage; TorcHt
has practised the thing well by dropping the
rat in the closet to his own room and throw
ing cherry frst and then paste ruby into
him, teaching the snimalto seize the glitter.
ing BIT Of red at the signal OF a low whistle
which he uses on the stage The rat grabs
the Jewel and runs for its home in Torche,'s
trousers leg, guided BY sense Of smell, T Y
(" But that sounds impos.ibls cned Miss
BloHdel ~. IS N,
Not when one considers that the rat has
been trained for years and vas particularly
instructed for this performance. OF course,
Torche took big chance at failure sil
around. His chances OF success were about
one in six, but there was slight danger of
detection, and the game was worth the,
candle. The very boldhess Of the pllh'
made 1t successful
''How did you find out all thisi cred
Blondell, his eyes bulging with interest.
"What was the clue youpicked up IRON the
floor in the box9n r. Ts, y''y
"Qnly splinter from chair leg, With 81
few hairs clinging toit," smiled Poe ''Whenl
the rat made his hasty exit he bumped
against the chair and several Of his hairs
were torn of and held by the splinter. II
suspected they were the hairs Of small
animal and on examining them felt certain, /
by the color and bristly texture, that they
were the hairs Of a rat or mouse. So E,ltl
rxQ and two together, secured list Of con-
cerf<Nerformers from theatrical friend,
and foliA one who had trained mice and'aI
rat. tooa chance and called on hin, !,
after asking the description Of the performer
and finding that it tailed exactly with the
man in the box next to yours, whose strange
whistle L hau nOuCeu anu connected Win
the peculiar signals usually given by animal
trainers to their pets. IA
1t was all quite too simple Ifouhd tie
man Torche and used the bait Of Offering an
engagement knowing that he would De
glad OF work to avert possible suspicion
from himself. 1t was quite too, easy
though little out of the banking line.
Even Torche felt that had seen through
the game and tried to knife me when I fe-
ferred to his rat. Poor fellow htl prob
ably get life sentence for trying to satisfy
Mignon's vanity 1t was the folly Of 4
hover, The stone would have been ,traced|
in time. ANYWAY. unless they intended 10