News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1914-09-02
An Aristocratic
Thief
By F. A. mitchell

lin and had gone there some time be-
| fore me in order to secure Il place to
live against my coming. | was on my
way there from Paris, travelling on a
first class railway coach. Beside me
sat a man, and before him sat anoth-
er man, the two being evidently travel
| ing companions, for they were talk
| ing very earnestly in German Ian
guage l did not understand. Directly
before me was vacant seat on which
tossed my hand bag This was very
careless of me, for it contained all the
money had with me.
| | had been up late nights in Paris
and was very tired and sleepy. | fell
into doze and from a doze into II
sound sleep. More than an hour pass
ed before | awoke, and when did
found that the man who had been seat
| ed beside me was the only other per-
son except myself in the compartment:
! He had changed his seat to one oppo-
! site me next the window and was
reading a periodical. Near him lay
my bag, just where | had placed it.
l opened it and looked for my pocket
! book.
Now, | leave it to any woman if she
on awakening from a slumber to find
she had been robbed of money from a
bag lying beside man would not look
up at him accusingly. The mans eyes
were upon me, and my looks told him
that | suspected him of stealing the
money ! had lost just as plainly as it
could have been expressed in words.
He looked frightened and said some
thing to me in German, but he might
as well have spoken in Sanskrit. Then
he tried me in French. | can speak
a little French, but can understand it
scarcely at all. At any rate, | didn't
catch what he had to say.
The man looked so cut up that 1
grew suspicious of him. But why he
had not left the train with it while |
was asleep | could only conjecture.
Perhaps the train had not made stop.
He was not a cool thief by any means,
for without my taking any action
whatever he took out a roll of crisp
DlLlS tIlu Sdlu " Lie III Il IGuCu.
"Combien?" C'How much?'') which
l understood was asking me the
amount l had been robbed Of l held
up one finger and said Mile francs"
meaning that | had had 1000 francs
in my pocketbook. My money had
been brand new, like the notes he held
i'll his hand, and | did not doubt they
were mine. | gathered that he pre-
ferred to return my money rather than
have me call a guard at the next sta |
ton and have him arrested. He count !
ed the roll in his hand, and it amount |
ed to exactly 1000 francs. Then he
handed it to me, saying something in |
French which l did not understand.
l was very glad to get my money |
back at all and especially so easily |
When we reached the next station the |
thief looked at me anXiousy and on
seeing that l made no move to cali any
one to arrest him drew long sigh of
relief This was the only stop we
made till we reached Berlin, and when
we rolled into the station and the
coach door was opened by the guard
the rascal jumped out and disappeared
in Il great hurry.
My husband had secured house in
the capital, had engaged servants and
had everything ready not only for our
but to enable us to entertain
guests. OF course every one of the
corps must do more or less
I /
a fortune and we were abun-
dainty able to bear the expense we
to do our full share; but, of
course, | must go through the prelim-
naries of being introduced at court.
All this had been attended to, and
was full fledged member of Berlin
society. The first important function
attended was state ball at the pal
ice. | was standing talking to a lady
whose husband was member OF the
diplomatic corps when | saw the en-
)eror coming with a gentleman who
vas bedizened with decorations, the
laughing at something the lat
er was telling him. When they came
lear enough for me to distinguish their
eatures the marrow froze in my bones
The man to whom the emperor was
istening was the thief who had stolen
hen returned. my money. | shrank
way. but not in time. He saw me,
nd the expression on his face denoted
S much surprise as mine did conster
alton. Then he said something to the
mperor. who looked at me with an ex-
ressiOn of amused surprise.
Calling to a lady standing near me,
he emperor and the thief talked to
err and it was evident that they were
llking about me. Then the three
pproached me. and the lady, after
taking the required presentation, told
le that the thief was Count Helm
ch Schmieden. one of the emperor's
lost intimate friends. He had been
fling his majesty of how lady on
ain had been robbed and how he
Ither than submit to arrest had
lid over the amount stolen. Just as
: had finished the story he espied me.
The matter was considered an adj
irable joke by the emperor and. in
ed, by the count. who claimed that