The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1911-04-18

/ was taking dinner with my friend
Horace Jones and his wife the other
day. Jones has accumulated a snug
sum hunting up rascals. In other
words, he is detective. When we
were drinking our coffee and smoking
asked him to give me the most i'm
portant case In which he had ever
been employed.
"You mean the most important to
my employer or to mef'
"Well, let 1t be the most important
case to you"
"An right. I'll give you the VIII
iams case"
/ saw his wife look up at him, evil
IDENTITY with an intent to stop him, but
he told the story all the same
Mrs. Williams came to the Of
fee one day she was widow--and
stated that something was occurring
in her house she wished investigated.
She possessed a number Of valuable
family jewels, which she kept In
safe imbedded in the wall on the sec
ond story OF her dwelling. She alone
knew the combination, and yet the
jewels were gradually disappearing.
She had a governess for her children,
Miss Elizabeth Ward, whom she sus-
pected. having been detailed on the
case, she was giving these facts to
me- At this point | interrupted her.
al thought you said, Mrs. Williams,
that you alone know the combination.
How can Miss Ward open the safe
without itr
Possibly in this way: she has Il
brother who Is a skilled mechanic In
the service Of a safe and lock COM
pany. He visits her frequently, and l
suspect that either he has instructed
her in lock picking or she conceals
him in the house and he watches his
opportunity TO pick it himself unob-
served
at struck me that to discover the
truth all she had to do was to watch
and she would catch either Miss Ward
or her brother stealing the jewels But
II she preferred to pay detective for
doing It l was quite willing. / was
introduced into the house as a nephew
Of Mrs Williams, from a distant land.
and, Of course, to Miss Ward
81 found the governess a very at
tractive young lady. Had | not felt |
very sure she was an adventures | |
should have fallen In love with her.
Indeed, I'm not sure but Don't like |
to hear II, eli, dear? That's quite !
natural. I'll switch of from that part |
Of the story, though I'm sure you have |
no reason TO be jealous. Well, | took |
up my residence for few days or
few weeks, as the case might require,
and was assigned bedroom directly
opposite the safe in which the jewels
were kept
"It didn't take me long to find out
that Miss Ward was as smart as
steel trap, and | made up my mind
that TO catch her-or her brother,
which was the same thing-I would
have to be awake every night in the
week. But she seemed worried With
The true detective instinct saw
that I inferred that her
brother was dominating her, compel
ing her to keep on with the thefts,
while she feared this scheme would at
asst be detected and one or both would
pend a term in the state prison. At
my rate, she was worried.
II remained awake all night for sew
,ral nights in succession. and as / had
40 excuse TO remain in bed all day l
yave up the plan of catching the thief
n the act and determined TO try and
worm myself into the confidence of
Hiss Ward and see If | couldn't get
he secret from her / found her
quite willing to be courted and"
"Horacem interposed Mrs. Jones.
Pardon, my dear" Then to me: My
wife can't bear to hear me speak of
ny premarital affairs"
"Of course she can't" | chimed in
With Mrs. Jones. How would you :
Ike your wife to talk about her own
affairs7''