The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-01-12
The EVENING STORY

by Belle Man.ates.l

one of the many duplicated brown
stone fronts at little past o'clock
in the morning. The door opened to
his ring and an excited head of, the
house explained that burglars had car
ried away the family plate and his
daughters jewels.
ST awoke suddenly" corroborated the
daughter, lat 2 o'clock, and found that
my Jewels had been taken and also
little gold alarm clock"
There has been a lot of burglarizing
in this neighborhood." observed the Of
fcer- What awakened you?"
81 don't know. The big clock on the
stairs struck as 1 opened my eyes. :"
quarters and asked for a couple of po-
hcemen. Then he went outside to find
the policeman on the beat.
IAN alarm clock seems an unusual
thing to take,' he remarked as he was
leaving.
s'This wasn't usual clock. The alarm
is the reveille-tbe bugle call; you know.
It is gilt, and in the shape of a sol
der"
The officers first glance outside show
ed the policeman on duty approaching
with a man in custody. The man wore
dark trousers, a coat buttoned up to
the chin. with no evidences of linen
underneath, and cap pulled over his
eyes. His next glance revealed gllm-
mer from the mans coat pocket. In
d
a gilt clock in the shape Of a sol
der.
Caught with the goods!'' he exclaim-
ed. Where di you find him, Kelly?'
He was watching this house and
grabbed him on suspicion"
''You did Well Tll take him inside
and identify the clock"
He escorted the prisoner up the steps
and rang the bell. AS they were enter
ing the unlighted hall, the man in GUS
49, H. J~-l- A~r>x~
the officer, deity tripped him up,
lodged past the frightened head Of the
house and went into the reception room
where the lights also had been ex-
tinguished. The room was dimly light
ed from the library. AS the man rush
ed through the room a strain of the
reveille rang out from the clock. Then
suddenly the library was in darkness.
In the meantime, the officer had
picked himself UP, and with the head of
the house CROPPED his way through the
rooms until the lights were turned on
again.
(which way did he go?' demanded
the officer of the startled girl.
Through the library and out into the
back hail. she answered.
AS they continued the chase to the
servants quarters. a figure glided from
behind a screen in the library and
passed through the reception room into
the hall. After a thorough search of the
house, the crestfallen officer had to
admit that he had been outdone.
81 found him." he explained, sin the
custody of the policeman on this beat.
I saw the gilt clock sticking out of
his pocket and I brought him in to have
you identify it-''
officer. After a brief colloquy with
headquarters he turned to the father
and daughter.
TITS all right. The two policemen L
called caught a couple of men entering
a basement. They found your silver
and the jewels all right, but no clock
There must have been three thieves
Make another search, Silvia said
her father. Maybe you We're mistaken
about the clock"
She went upstairs and returned car
rying the clock.
ut was there, after all. In my excite
ment had overlooked it,
tits a dead wringer for the one the
fellow had,'' said the officer.
only in form. doubtless. This was
made to order"
She slipped a bank note into the Of
ficer's hand, and he departed well sat-
isfied with his nights achievement
The Owen house returned to dark
ness and quiet save in Silvia'S apart
ments. She paced the floor. vainly seek
ing solution to the mystery. The
alarm clock had been given to her by
her lover, Valentine Lorrne. They had
been wont to take early morning rides,
and her hance had suggested an alarm
clock for Silvia's use. Being of an in
ventive turn of mind he had devised
clock with a rich, musical alarm. Mind
full of his days in the Spanish-Ameri-
can war he had chosen the reveilIe.
Two long months ago had come their
first quarrel. Neither would make the
overture for reconciliation. Yet every
night for old times sake, she had
wound the alarm.
She didn't know when she had re-
ceived her first subconsciousness that
the man whom the officer had brought
in was Valentine. When he had slipped
past her in the dark, she had felt his
presence. and then had come that one
strain of the reveille. She had misdi-
rected the officer in order that her
lover might escape. She supposed that
he would go out by the front door until
she found the clock in her sitting room
By it, she found scrap of paper on
which was hastily scraw1ed: Come to
me today at 10 o'clock in our park"
Why he had taken and returned the
clock is so mysterious a way she could
not imagine.
The park she sought at the appointed
hour was a small, unfrequented spot
in an questionable part of the city.
She found Valentine waiting for her.
-"Silvia," he said tersely, as he came
up to her. lis it all right between us
again?"
YES she whispered.
He led her to little sheltered seat.
"Tell me- he asked. chow you got
the clock to me? When heard the
reveille in my room I knew was for
given"
Get the clock to you? Why, valen-
tine, did you not come into my room
and take it while I slept?',
81 went to your room only to return
it and leave the note. I found it in my
room when I awakened. The reveille
is never far distant from my thoughts,
SO when I awoke this morning at 2
O'Clock and heard 1t, I thought for a
moment that it was an echo of my
dreams. Then it dawned upon me that
it was our clock. I am not a believer in
mental telepathy. but had a firm con-
x,infint1 that voII vvara In fro1.hlo and