The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1914-07-31
An Aristocratic
Thief
By F. A. Mitchell

way there from Paris. travelling on y
0rst class railway coach. Beside me
cat a man. and before him sat anoti,-
man. the two being evidently travel
ing companions. for they were talk
Ing very earnestly In German. a Ian
guage l did not understand. Directly
before me was a vacant seat. on which
I tossed my hand bag. This al very
careless Of me. for 1t contained all the
money | had with me.
I had been up late nights In Paris
and was very tired and sleepy. fell
into a doze and from a doze into a
sound sleep. More than an hour pass
ed before l awoke. and when ! did l
found that the nan who bad been seat
ed beside me was the only other per-
con except myself In the compartment.
He had changed his seat to II Oppo-
site me next the window and was
reading q periodical. Near him lay
my bag. just where 1 had placed It.
I opened It and looked for my pocket
book.
Now, | leave 1t to any woman II she
awakening from a siumber to lind
she had been robbed of money from a
bag lying beside u nan would not . .
up at him accusingly. The mans eyes
we're upon NE, and my looks told him
that l suspected him OF stealing the
money I had lost just as plainly as it
could have been expressed In words.
He looked frightened and said Dill
thing to me In German, but he might
as we'll have spoken In Sansknt. Then
he tried me In French. I a speak
q little French. but can understand it
scarcely at all. At any rate. I didn't
catch what he had to say.
The man looked so cut up that l
grew suspicious Of him. But why he
had not left the train with it while I
was asleep | could only conjecture.
Perhaps the train had not made a stop.
He was not a cool thief by any Means
for without my taking any action
whatever he took out a roll OF crisp
bills and said to me In French:
"COmbien?" CHOW much?'D which
l understood was asking me the
amount | had been robbed of. | held
up one finger and said. 'Mille francs"
meaning that l had had loo francs
in my pocketbook. My money had
been brand new, like the notes he held
in his hand. and l did not doubt they
were mine. l gathered that tie 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 1t mount
ed to exactly 1000 francs. Then he
handed 1t to me. saying something in
French which I did not understand.
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 a%nxiousiy and on
seeing that / made no move to call any
one to arrest him drew q 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 a great hurry.
My husband had secured q house In
the capital. had engaged servants and
had everything ready not only for our
comfort. but to enable us to entertain
guests. OF course every 0ne Of the
diplomatic corps must do more or less
entertaining. and since | brought my
husband q fortune and We were abun-
dainty able DO bear the expense we
proposed to do full share; but. OF
course. l must 60 through the prelim-
inaries Of being introduced at court.
All this had been attended to. and
I was a full ledged member Of Berlin
society. The flrst important function
I attended vas q state ball at the pal
ace. was standing talking to u lady
whose husband was q member 81 the
diplomatic corps when ! saw the EN-
peror coming with a gentleman who
was bedizened with decorations. the
emperor laughing at something the lat
ter vas telling him. When they came
near enough for me to distinguish their
features the narrow frOze in my bones.
The man to whom the emperor was
listening was the thief who had stolen.
then returned. my money. ! shrank
away. but not In time. He saw me.
and the expression on his face denoted
~ much surprise as mine did conster-
nation. Then he said something to the
emperor. who looked Mt me with an ex-
preston of amused surprise.
Calling to q lady standing near me.
the emperor and the thief talked to
her. and it was evident that they we're
talking about me. Then the three
approached me. and the lady. after
making the required presentation. told
me that the thief was Count Helm
rich Schmieden. one Of the emperor's
most intimate friends. He had been
telling his majesty Of how a lady on a
train had been robbed and how he
rather than submit to arrest had
paid over the amount stolen. Just AZ
be had finished the story he espied me.
The matter was considered an ad.
mirable joke by the emperor and. in
deed. by the count. who claimed that
he had paid me the money not so