The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1911-10-18

"Crewe," / said, you have not Ell
planned anything of the mystery I
me as yet. l do not know how tn
burglar entered the tower, nor how
you knew him to be a South Amer
can. nor the meaning of the her
| tracks,
Crewe started. my dear Langtork
forgive me-" he pleaded. "I will d
so at once. Do you know anythin
about the habits of the sloth?"
"I never heard of such an animaI
before today" 1 answered.
"Just So" Crewe answered, smilinsX
Nov if you, an educated Americar
know nothing of this animal, it /
safe to say that nobody else does, 81
cept, here and there, some natura
list. Is it not reasonable, therefore
to assume that the man who owned
it was intimately acquainted with it,
in other words that he was a den
zen of South America, the continent
in which the sloth has its habitat
And if that deduction were not loI
| ical enough, we have the testimon T.
] of the pawnbroker and his neighboI&
to the effect that the man was a
Italian-the generic term in Englan
for all southerners of swarthy con
plexion."
YES" I said, granted the sloth,
will admit that it's owner was pro
ably a South American. But whd
gave you the idea of its being
sboth, and how does it come into til
story?
why" said Crewe, 'T saw Il
marks upon the brick work of til
tower, and also at Noting HILL TT
sloth has only three toes, and i
marks are as much like hen-tracl
as anything in the world. You hay
undoubtedly seen a sloth's feet at til
Geological Gardens when you were
boy"
Undoubtedly; but they have @
tirely escaped my recollection"
"That is the difference betwed
u.s." said Crewe. smiling. "But,
continue, the sloth has acquired I'll
remarkable habit of hanging by
toes from the branches of tree
With its head down, it's heavy bod
suspended by its slender paws,
sleeps happily all through the da|
awakening only at night, when it pr
sues it insect prey. When Suspend
in this manner nothing can dislod
1t; in fact, the sloth seems able
defy the laws of gravitation.
weight of a ton, affixed to it's bod
would not pull it downward or
turb 1t in it's ecstatic slumbers.
the other hand, by unclasping Il
paws and pulling upward the slo
can be easily and harmlessly
moved from its resting place. And
our organ-grinder had a sloth
place Of monkey. The plan of d
playing it in the streets openly, und
the guise Of sick monkey, was
brilliant conception, and shows
that our criminal was a man of hi
degree of mentality.
"The rest of the picture, Langtd
you can fill in for yourself. Havi IS
discovered the most convenient no
for his enterprise, the burglar
taches long rope around the ere
ture, coiling the other end arou
his body, and places it upon the wa
Our sloth, feeling the smooth surfa
beneath him, and being unable
sleep perpendicularly conceives
idea that he is upon the stem of
peculiarly high and smooth pa
tree, at whose summit he may no
to find a comfortable branch frd
which it is his delight to feed.
ascends as long as the rope holds o
When he reaches the level of
window, his master maneuvers h
against the bars, feeling which,
imagining them to be branches,
sloth promptly fastens himself by 4
feet, let's his head fall, and pass
into a delicious slumber.
1--WE now have our sloth firmly
fixed to the bars. No weight, pull
from below, can dislodge him.
other words, the burglar has
chored his rope outside the wind
of the room to which he desires
gain admittance. Now, aided
darkness of one of these perpetl
London fogs, he ascends the ro
bracing himself against the bri ii
walls, reaches his destination. effe(
his haul, and then descends in
same way. afterward pulling do
the animal, probably through sol
slip-knot arrangement. 1t was me
ingenious contrivance. Langton, and
our robber had not wrongly adjust 2'
his rope. so that it slipped round =
throat and strangled him, he mi 3
have scrambled up out of reach a