Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1915-06-23


not. II seemed to me that had been
the thief ! would prefer to steal some
other property than to attempt to make
money by owning myself the thief OF
property stolen and recovered. But,
an ! have said. the professionals were
working the case, and l was simply
acting for them. When. however. one
morning received the following note
BY mail confess was surprised:
Dear sir--I have seen your advertise
ment. l am not fool enough to walk into
trap. II $4,000 will tempt you to re-
turn me the necklace the money Will be
yours. II is worth s3Oooo. In other words.
Ill go halves with you. II you agree 10
these terms put an nd. IN next Sundays
personal column OF any first class New
York newspaper and will write you
when. how and where to deliver the goods
and receive the funds.
The detectives were very hopeful on
receipt of this letter. As for me,
could not believe that the man who
had seen me and talked with me
would consider me person to divide
the price Of stolen goods even In the
expectation of pockefing $4,000 The
detectives said that | was probably
right In my Inference, but no one
could tell exactly what was the mans
game. 1t was doubtless something diff
ferent from what appeared on the sur
face. They insisted on my inserting
the adj. which did. and In reply l
received note instructing me to take
the necklace on certain night at IL
o'clock to a house which the writer de-
scribed so infinitely 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 In the
hands Of innocent persons who did
not know that the transaction was H.
legitimate.
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
substitute in my place. They told me
that the moment the rascais saw that
another than the man with whom the
property had been left was not acting
the whole affair would fall to the
ground. | have never been shirker
Of any duty. aud 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
! 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
repaired to the place OF rendezvous.
was armed, and | knew that | was
every moment under the eye Of the
police until l entered the house where
the transfer was to take place, and
after that II was surrounded by them.
though they were in plain clothes and
kept In shadow. The house was d.
lapidated dwelling. There was light
In one room. the window being covered
by a shade. went to the door and
raped. A man came to the door. and
l asked him II a man was there who
wished 10 buy some jewelry. He led
me into the room lighted by candle,
which stood on table. He pointed
to seat on one side Of the table and
sat down himself on the other side.
SHOW up" he said. taking roll Of
bank bills from his pocket and, after
showing me that they were Of hun
dred dollar denomination. waited for
me to produce the necklace.
| The police had found II impossible to
| suggest any secret signal by which
was to notify them that It was time to
close In on us, 50 We had agreed that
they were TO do so ten minutes after
my entrance to the house. II were
In danger was to cry out or fire my
pistol To delay the matter few mo-
ments I asked the man some ques-
lions.
do you represent the party who
turned over this satchel to meT'
Yes"
Does he know you are dealing with
that persona"
He does"
"HowT'
He has seen you through hole In
the partition"
l opened the bag and took out the
spurious necklace. The man extended
his left hand with the bills in it, while
with the other he clutched the neck
lace. at the same time blowing out the
candle, leaving the room In total dark
ness. gave yell as signal for the
mon outside to come in which they