Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1911-10-04

cepted him. She was considerably ex-
cited.
Il have found a little girl on Vine
street" said she. who saw that man
go into the house, No. 21.'
"SandersOn!'
Eyes. 1t was about an hour after
the robbery. The girl says he used q
key, but the landlady does not know
him. It's house where they rent fur
BILE and all that. The landlady is tell
ing the truth, but I'm sure that the
little girl is not mistaken"
What do you make of that?' asked
Hewitt.
why, the man must have used some
body else's key. He has a-what do
you call it?-a pal living there
You may be right said Hewitt.
more excited than she had ever seen
him before. We'll look this up. Wait
for me in that drug store while l run
into headquarters and ask Staley what
he knows. Then I'll join you"
Staley was the chief of police, a crea-
ture of politics, but not an aggressive
ly bad man. He was tricky. but not
malicious; clever up to a certain level
and utterly dense beyond it.
''Har' said he. drawing the word
out into a sort of singing note when
his eyes rested on Hewitt. Here's
the shrewdest boy of the bunch. You
come right along with me-" and he led
the reporter into the innermost private
room.
"Are you good at puzzles?' said he.
Fair" said Hewitt. "What have
you got?"
"A note from Sanderson to his pail
| responded Staley, and Hewitt's heart
sank
You see" continued the chief, Its
| the money we want. We've got the
| man beyond a dOubt-that is, we've
| got one Of them. There's another OH
| ginning. and. Of course. the fellow on
the inside would like to communicate
with him.
| "Well. why not give him a chance?
says l. SO l fixed up a scheme by
| which SandersOn was able to write
note in his cell last evening and pass
| it to a little, unimpOrtant crook whom
! we were holding here on suspicion and
! were ready to let go. The note was
| passed all right, and one Of my men
Swallowed the little crook. and what
do you suppose he did? By lingo, he
| went home and went to bed.
"When found that this was straight
l had the fellow brought down here
with Sanderson's note on him. | said,
Where did he tell you to take this 2
And the crook replied, Nowhere; just
take it and run along What do you
make of that?"
81 don't know said Hewitt. what
was in the note?'
''That's what I want you to tell me-
responded the chief. Here it is"
He laid before Hewitt the following
humorous message written on half a
sheet of note paper:
r G e T DrH n s NH
H L e E o E
Ill Is. IL, &c, IA, 112, 81,
Ill, %, ITO, IL, Ill, Ill.
This is too much for me-" said
Hewitt. but l know somebody who
can read it,
"Who?"
Miss Reed of our paper
Il believe you, my boy" said Staley,
with enthusiasm. She's the brightest
girl in this town."
She'll be here in two minutes said
Hewitt, and he made his word good.
After devoting five or ten minutes to
a close study Of the mystic scroll Miss
Reed ventured to express this opinion
The man knew that this would fall
into your hands,
What makes you think SOP asked
Staley.
Il judge from what it says" she re-
Piled
you've read it?''
Yes; it is quite simple. The fig
ures refer to the letters He might
as well have set down the alphabet,
but that would have been too plain.
Now, take the first number, Ill. 1t
can't really be Ill. because there are
not so many letters as that. But sup
pose you read it one, eleven-that is,
first row, eleventh letter. That's S.
Similarly Is is first row. fifth letter.
That's T. and II is 4. TWenty-siX is
second row, sixth letter That's L."
Seems to he my name.' said Staley,
poring over the document. STALE
and 1l2 IS Y. That's me- Twenty-one
is l, and III is S-STALEY is.
Twenty-Five is A, and 40 is N. and Il
is A.
And III twice means S." said
Hewitt. 'Staey is an ass Well
upon my word
The chiefs face was purple. but he
forced a laugh.
Funny. eh?' said he Mr.. Saun
derson thought he'd be funny. Well
well. Let's see what happens to him
But-er-I wouldn't mention this out
side. You're a good fellow. Hewitt