Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1911-03-17

was taking dinner with my friend
Horace Jones and his wife the other
day. Jones has accumulated q snug
sum hunting up rascals. In other
words, he is a detective. When we
were drinking our coffee and smoking
l 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 me?"
"Well, let it be the most important
case to you"
"All right. I'll give you the Viii
| liams case"
saw his wife look up at him, evi.
IDENTIFY 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 a 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 a
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. l having been detailed on the
case, she was giving these facts to
me. At this point l interrupted her
"T thought you said, Mrs. Williams,
that you alone know the combination.
How can Miss Ward open the safe
without itT
"Possibly in this way: She has u
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
If she preferred to pay detective for
doing it l was quite willing. / was
introduced into the house as a nephew
of Mrs. Williams. from distant land,
and, of course. to Miss Ward.
81 found the governess a very at
tractive young lady. Had l 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 it, eh, dear? That's quite
natural I'll switch off from that part
of the story, though I'm sure you have
no reason to be jealous. Well. l took
up my residence for a few days or a
few weeks, as the case might require.
and was assigned a bedroom directly
opposite the safe in which the jewels
were kept.
at didn't take me long to find out
that Miss Ward was as smart as a
steel trap, and l 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, 1 saw
through that l inferred that her
brother was dominating her, compel
ling her to keep on with the thefts,
while she feared this scheme would at
last be detected and one or both would
spend a term in the state prison. At
any rate, she was worried.
81 remained awake all night for sew
aYo1 I,iobtc In c,1canccfOD and ne 7 had
no excuse to remain in bed all day
gave up the plan of catching the thief
in the act and determined to try and
worm myself into the confidence OF
Miss Ward and see if l couldn't get
the secret from her. 1 found her
quite willing to be courted and"-
Horace interposed Mrs. Jones.
Pardon, my dear" Then to me: "My
wife can't bear to hear me speak of
my premarital affairs"
"Of course she can't" chimed in
with Mrs. Jones. "How would you
like your wife to talk about her own
premarital affairs"
''Um! That's different. But to go
on with my story. | didn't get much
from the governess, and while l was
making up to her Mrs. Williams re-
ported that she had lost another jewel.
Meeting Miss Ward after This theft,
l found her in a very bad humor.
Why l could not understand, for net-
Their she nor any one else had been
caught stealing. She astonished me
by coming out bluntly:
"'Mr. Detective. If you wish to find
out who is stealing the jewels change
your room
"You could have knocked me down
with q feather. l knew | had met my
match and answered never word. l
went to Mrs. Williams and told her l
would take a room farther from the
safe. She gave me one at the end OF
the hall where l could see without
being seen, the light, which was kept
burning low all night. being directly
over the safe.
"Time passed, during which l was
getting impatient at doing nothing,
though 1 was not dissatisfied at being
kept in the house with Miss Ward.
One night 1 heard a light tap at my
door. Putting on a dressing gown, l
opened 1t. Miss Ward was standing
in a dark corner and pointed toward
the safe. There stood Mrs. Williams
fumbling with the lock.
"Shes asleep whispered Miss
Ward.
Mrs. Williams opened the safe, took
out something, closed the door and
went away. The mystery was solved.
As a sleepwalker she was transfer
ring her Jewels from the safe to a tin