Morris tribune., 1915-09-17
A CLEVER
RUSE
By JOHN TURNLEE

A gentleman boarded a North river
boat at New York one afternoon, went
TO the purser's Office and engaged a
stateroom, giving his name, Edgar
Rawlins. He was followed by a man
who was given room near him and
Brown. In the evening as Mr. Raw.
Inns was coming out of his room he
was met by Mr.. Brown, who said:
BEG pardon, sir! Have you bunch
of keys?"
81 have"
81 have left the key Of my suit case
at home Would you kindly let NE
have your ring that may see If there
is one on it that will tit my lock?"
Mr.. Rawlins produced his keys and
handed them to Brown, who went into
his stateroom, He remained there sew
eral minutes, then returned and thank
ed the man who had favored him, re.
GREETING that he had not found a key
that would serve his purpose. but he
was just as much obliged.
Mr.. Rawlins forgot this seemingly
unimportant episode, making journey
to Chicago and returning within
week The day after his arrival at
home he went to his private safe,
opened it. put away some papers that
he had taken with him on his journey
and was about to close it when he no
ticed that drawer in which his wife
kept some valuable jewels was partly
open. He pushed it back in place,
then, he knew not why, pulled it out
far enough to enable him to look
within.
It was empty!
He examined every other drawer in
the safe to see if the jewels had been
placed elsewhere, then called his wife
and asked her if she had removed
them. She said she had not. A thor
ough search of the safe was made, but
the jewels were not found. There
had been no breaking into the house,
so far as was known, and if there had
been the safe could not have been
opened and locked again without the
key, which Mr.. Rawlins always kept
in his possession. and there was no
duplicate.
The loss of the jewels was mys-
terry. If the lock had been picked it
must have been done by some one
who lived in the house. Yet there was
no one there who had the mechanical
skill requisite to pick u lock and no
| one suspected of having the slightest
| desire to perpetrate theft. The in
mates consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Raw
Inns, son twenty-one years old. steady
as clock: daughter eighteen and
the servants, who had been with the
| family many years. Both the son and
| the daughter had their friends, who
with other guests, had been where the
safe was Kept in a hallway at the reat
| of the house on the second story. Nc
person except a friend of the family
was known to have been there during
the limit of time when the jewels
must have been taken.
No hope was entertained of regain
! ing the lost jewels, but it was finally
decided to employ detective for the
! purpose of making an effort to solve
the mystery. Edward Joyce was sen
to the house by the agency applied tt
and. after a thorough examination o.
every one in the house. set about
looking over the premises He tested
every lock of both door and window
and found all in good order, though
no one could vouch for the window OF
the second story having been locked
In the rear of the house was grape
arbor not quite so high as the SECOND
story windows and about ten fee
from the house. Any one, by climb
ing the arbor, could rest twelve foo
ladder on it and thus reach the win
dow. The detective, by means of F;
magnifyihg glass, discovered foot
marks on the side Stats and one Of thu
Stats had been freshly broken. 'Th'
widow near the arbor opened into tn
ball in which stood the safe.
The detective, after making an ex
animation of this route to the safe, de
clared that the house must have beel
entered by it and the robbery commit
ted at the same time. But he was N
nearer to how the safe could have beer
unlocked and relocked than before. I
s.ieory was advanced that the thief. hal