Tombstone epitaph., 1915-09-26

enter the waiting cab. directing the | astonished driver to take him to the Palais dOrsay.
 Fifteen minutes later he walked into the Blondell suite. and was greeted by | father and daughter with the eager question. Well? Have you got it?" | for something in his usually i'm penetrable face bore trace of sue l cess
 I'm not quite certain" he answered. | stepping to the center table. and talk ing the long-stemmed clay pipe from
 his pocket Before the astonished eyes of the watchers he tapped the bowl of the pipe against his palm, and some of the tobacco dropped out. At the sec ond tap a glittering stone rolled from
 the bowl Poe picked 1t up and hand
 ed it to Miss Blondell.
 Its the Royal Ruby" she cried.
 Quite intact" he answered, fin
 and hidden in a pipe bowl An in-
 genious gentleman, your thief"
 They pressed him for explanations.
 Well" said Poe, with some hesita-
 tion. running a slim hand through his
 tufty hair in a characteristic move
 ment, T didn't have time to ask for
 the details. But here are few rough
 suggestions. Your imagination will
 easily supply anything that may bs
 missing. Torche. a concert performer.
 with a wonderful trained rat. has ap | Sctr nf inc
 She reads that the Royal Ruby is to
 be worn at the Chatelet Together the
 pair evolve a scheme to secure the
 jewel for the vanity of Mignon, the
 mistress"
 Yes" the Blondells breathed eager
 ly.
 They have 4S hours in which to
 train the rat to bounce at once on any
 round. glittering red thing Torche has
 trained him 10 retrieve by smell and
 sight. before. A rats sense of smell
 is stronger than Its sight, but this one
 has been taught to distinguish colors
 in peI -crmiEg. Torche goes to the
 Chatelet. easily learns which is the
 Blondell's box. and secures the one
 next to il. Tonight, the rat being let
 ter perfect, he takes him in the pocket
 built in one baggy trousers leg, as he
 carries him continually, on and off the
 stage. He goes early to the perform
 ance, waits for the Blondell carriage,
 stumbles against Miss Rlondell, and.
 with sleight-of-hand motion, cleverly clips the chain showing above your scarf. Knowing that you will have se- l l. ,t,
 drop until you remove 1t, or seeing
 your hand over the stone and realizing the folly of getting away with it in
 the crowd, he hurries ahead of you in to the opera house. and is just in time . to drop the well-traiIed rat beside the , curtain to your box, which joins that to his. and push the animal in with a dexterous shove of his foot, himself con. } cealed from the audience by the plush curtain. The rat seeks the dark cor ner by the stage; Torche has practised
 the thing we'll by dropping the rat in , the closet to his own room, and throw. ing a cherry first and then a paste , ruby in to him. teaching the animal to , seize the glittering bit of red at the l signal Cf low whistle he uses on the : stage. The rat grabs the jewel. and ? runs for its home in Torches trousers ] leg. guided by sense of smell"
 But that sounds impossible!" cried 3 Miss Blondell
 , Not when one considers that the raj ? has been trained for years, and was } particularly instructed for this per [ for.nance. Of course. Torche took a ? big chance at failure all around. His ] l chances of success were about one ir ! six. but there was slight danger oi ] detection, and the game was worth l. the candle. The very boldness of the g plan made it successful"
 s How did you find out all this? 2 ] cried BlonGell. his eyes bulging with ;. interest. What was the clue you D picked up from the floor in the box?"
 Only a splinter from q chair leg r with few hairs clinging to it." smiled ', Poe When the rat made his hasty
 exit he bumped against the chair, and a several of his hairs were torn on and Q held by the splinter. I suspected they S were the hairs of small animal. anC r on examining them felt certain, by the
 color and bristly texture, that they r. were the hairs Of a rat or mouse. So a put two and two together, secured 2
 list of concert performers from a the V atricai friend, and found one who hac d trained mice and a rat I took q Q chance. and called on him, after askins . the description of the performer art finding that it tallied exactly with tho . man in the box next to yours, whose strange whistle l had noticed. ant n connected with the peculiar signal. d usually given by animal trainers te their pets.
 Tt was all quite too simple. I fount
 the man Torche. and used the bait o {, offering an engagement, knowing thai |, he would be glad to work, to avert pos fl sible suspicion from himself. It real , ly was quite too easy. though a little a out of the banking line. Even Torchs D felt that had seen through the game ? and tried to knife me when I re Q ferred to his rat. Poor fellow, he1 h probably get a life sentence for tryinf a to satisfy Mignon's vanity. It was thu , folly of a lover. The stone would have . been traced in time. anyway. unlesi
 they intended to cut it up and sell 1t