The Press., 1915-08-04

face. They insisted on my inserting the ad., which l did, and in reply l received a note instructing me to take the necklace on q certain night at Il o'clock to house which the writer de- scribed so minutely that l could not miss it. was warned that any at tempt to put the police on the writer's track would fail, for the man from whom had received the satchel would not act, but leave his interests i'll the hands of innocent persons who did not know that the transaction was H. legitimate.
 I had not objected to carrying the suggestions of the detectives thus far, but did not like the idea of going any further and asked the police to put q substitute in my place. They told me that the moment the rascals saw that another than the man with whom the property had been left was not acting the whole affair would fall to the ground. I have never been shirker of any duty, and since considered 1t my duty to do all in my power to help the police catch the thief yielded and agreed to carry out their plans.
 The first thing they did was to have a spurious necklace made up to repre- sent the real one. They had barely time for this when the evening for meeting the thief came round, and l repaired to the place of rendezvous. l was armed, and knew that l was every moment under the eye of the police until l entered the house where the transfer was to take place, and after that 1t was surrounded by them, though they were in plain clothes and kept in shadow. The house was a di- lapidated dwelling. There was light in one room, the window being covered by a shade. l went to the door and rapped. A man came to the door, and I asked him If a man was there who wished to buy some jewelry. He led me into the room lighted by candle, which stood on a table. He pointed to seat on one side of the table and sat down himself on the other side
 Show up," he said, taking a roll of bank bills from his pocket and, after showing me that they were of hum dred dollar denomination, waited for me to produce the necklace.
 The police had found 1t impossible to suggest any secret signal by which 1 was to notify them that it was time to close in on us, so we had agreed that they were to do so ten minutes after my entrance to the house. If I were in danger I was to cry out or fire my pistol. To delay the matter few mo- ments I asked the man some ques- tions.
 ''Do you represent the party who turned over this satchel to me"
 "Yes."
 Does he know you are dealing with that person?'
 He does"
 "How?'
 He has seen you through hole in the partition
 spurious necklace. The man extended his left hand with the bills in it, whil1 with the other he clutched the neck lace, at the same time blowing out the candle, leaving the room in total dark ness. I gave yell as signal for the men outside to come in, which they did not need. for they saw that the light was extinguished. They strove to cpcn the front door, but it had been locked from the inside. A few minutes were spent in breaking it down, during which time 1 sat in darkness. They made so much noise at the door that l could hear little or nothing that was going on in the room. One thing did hear. It sounded like the closing of a door.
 When the men came in they flashed their lanterns and relit the candle They found no one in the room but myself. There was no door in it ex- cept the one leading into the hall by which they had entered. This puzzled them for time; but, flashing their Ian terms everywhere, they at last noticed a traDdoor in-the floor. Pulling it un they descended into a cellar. There they found an iron door, which they could not pass till they had spent some time in prying it open. When this was accomplished they entered a tunnel serted house.
 Thus ended case of diamond cut Siamond. The villains were too smart for the police, out the police had given them only false necklace. We never received any explanation of the affair. Whether they were in league with the man from whom I had received the satchel or whether they were an entire ly different party we never learned. Quite likely they were criminals who had seen my ad. and, taking the adver- tiser for a fiat, had put up job to get possession of valuable property.