Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1912-01-12

"Crewe," I said, "you have not ex-
planned anything of the mystery TO
me as yet. 1 do not know how the
burglar entered the tower. nor how
you knew him to be South Ameri-
can, nor the meaning of the hen
tracks"
Crewe started. my dear Langton.
forgive me-" he pleaded. Il will do
so at once. Do you know anything
about the habits of the sloth?"
Il never heard Of such an animal
before today" l answered.
Just So" Crewe answered, smiling.
Now If you. an educated American.
know nothing of this animal. it is
safe to say that nobody else does. ex-
cept, here and there, some natural
list. Is 1t not reasonable, therefore,
to assume that the man who owned
It was intimately acquainted with it
in other words that he was a dent-
zen of South America, the continent
in which the sloth has its habitat?
And If that deduction were not log
ical enough. we have the testimony
OF the pawnbroker and his neighbors
/ to the effect that the man vas an
| Itaiian-the generic term in England
! for all southerners of swarthy COM
| plexion."
Yes" I said, granted the sloth,
will admit that it's owner was prob
ably a South American. But what
gave you the idea of its being a
sloth, and how does it come into the
story?
why" said Crewe. 81 saw its
marks upon the brick work of the
tower, and also at Noting Hill. The
sloth has only three toes, and its
marks are as much like hen-tracks
as anything in the world. You have
undoubtedly seen a sloth's feet at the
Geological Gardens when you were s
boy"
Undoubtedly; but they have en-
tirely escaped my recollection"
THAT is the difference between
u.s." said Crewe, smiling But. t.
continue, the sloth has acquired the
remarkable habit of hanging by it,
toes from the branches of trees
suspended by it's slender paws, /
sleeps happily all through the day
awakening only at night. when it pur
sues it insect prey. When suspende,
in this manner nothing can dislodg
it; in fact, the sloth seems able t
defy the laws Of gravitation.
weight of ton, affixed to is body
would not pull 1t downward or dis
turb it in its ecstatic slumbers. o
the other hand. by unclasping tn
paws and pulling upward, the slot
can be easily and harmlessly r,
moved from its resting place. And S
our organ-grinder had a sloth
place of a monkey. The plan of di
playing it in the streets openly, undo
the guise of a sick monkey, was
brilliant conception, and shows I
that our criminal was man of hig
degree of mentality.
THE rest of the picture, Langto
you can fill in for yourself Havir
discovered the most convenient hol
for his enterprise, the burglar g
taches a long rope around the ere
ture. coiling the other end aroul
his body, and places it upon the wa
Our sloth, feeling the smooth surfa
beneath him, and being unable
sleep perpendicularly, conceives Il
idea that he is upon the stem of
peculiarly high and smooth pal
tree, at whose summit he may no
to find a comfortable branch fro
which it is his delight to feed. I
ascends as long as the rope holds OF
When he reaches the level of t
window his master maneuvers hi
against the bars, feeling which, a,
imagining them to be branches, t
sloth promptly fastens himself by t
feet, let's his head fall, and pass
into delicious slumber
I'VE now have our sloth firmly
fixed to the bars. No weight, pull
from below, can dislodge him.
other words, the burglar has q
chored his rope outside the windC
of the room to which he desires
gain admittance. Now. aided
darkness of one Of these perpetr
London fogs, he ascends tbs roI
bracing himself against the bri
walls, reaches his destination, effeC
his haul, and then descends in I
same way, afterward pulling doI
the animal, probably through sol
slip-knot arrangement. 1t was a mC
ingenious contrivance Langton, and
our robber had not wrongly adjust
his rope, so that it slipped round /
throat and strangled him, he mig
| I.