Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1915-09-17

astonished driver to take him to the
Palais d'Orsay.
Fifteen minutes later he walked into
the Blondell suite, and was greeted by
father and daughter with the eager
question, We'll? Have you got IT,"
for something In his usually i'm.
penetrable face bore trace of sue
cess.
I'm not quite certain" he answered,
stepping to the center table, and TAX
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 glittering stone rolled from
the bowl. Poe picked it up and hand
ed 1t to Miss Blondell
Its the Royal Ruby!" she cried.
quite intact" he answered, "in
spite of being carried in a rats mouth,
and hidden in a pipe bowl. An in
genious gentleman, your thief"
They pressed him for explanations.
WELL" said Poe, with some hesita-
ton, running a slim hand through his
fluffy hair in a characteristic move
ment, Il didn't have time to ask for
the details. But here are a few rough
suggestions. Your Imagination will
easily supply anything that may be
missing. Torche, concert performer,
with a wonderful trained rat, has an
exacting mistress of criminal record.
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 pounce at once on any
round, glittering red thing. Torche has
trained him to 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 performing. Torche goes to the
Chatelet, easily learns which is the
Blondell's box, and secures the one
next to 1t. 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 Blondell, and,
with Straightforward motion, cleverly
clips the chain showing above your
scarf. Knowing that you will have Sc
cured the scarf SO the stone will not
drop until you remove it, 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-trained 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 well by dropping the rat in
the closet to his own room, and throw
ing cherry first and then a paste
ruby in to him, teaching the animal to
seize the glittering bit of red at the
signal Of 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 impossiblel" cried
Miss Blondell.
Not when one considers that the rat
has been trained for years, and was
particularly instructed for this per-
formance. OF course, Torche took a
big chance at failure all around. His
chances of success were about one in
six, but there was slight danger of
detection, and the game was worth
the candle. The very holiness of the
plan made it successful"
How did you find out all this ?"
cried Blondell. his eyes bullying with
interest. What was the clue you
picked up from the floor In the box?"
Only splinter from a chair leg.
with few hairs clinging to it," smiled
Poe. When the rat made his hasty
exit he bumped against the chair, and
several of his hairs were torn of and
held by the splinter. / suspected they
were the hairs of small animal, and
on examining them felt certain, by the
color and bristly texture, that they
were the hairs of rat or mouse. So 1
put two and two together, secured a
list of concert performers from a the
atrical friend, and found one who had
trained mice and a rat. | took a
chance, and called on him, after asking
the description of the performer and
finding that it Tailed exactly with the
man in the box next to yours, whose
strange whistle I had noticed, and
connected with the peculiar signals
usually given by animal trainers to
their pets.
1T was all quite too simple. / found
the man Torche, and used the bait OF
Offering an engagement, knowing that
he would be glad to work. to avert pos
sible suspicion from himself. It real
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