Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-11-16

listened for 1t again, and In a quarter
Of an hour 1t was repeated, three
strokes followed by one. Struck by a
thought, [ reached out to a table be-
side me, lighted a match and looked at
my watch. 1t was a quarter past 3.
The sound | had heard was not a dis
tant chime, but II very near, and it
was in a watch. When the next time
for it to strike anne around | was "
ing on my bach and did not hear it,
but when it struck 3:45 my ear was on
my pillow, and I heard every stroke.
"That," | said, lis a watch that may
be made to strike the hour. 1t is In
this house and possibly In this ROOM"
In order to make it appear that / was
investigating / had requested such
change OF rooms as was convenient. [
had slept In this room two nights be-
fore l heard the chime, but each night
there had been a strong wind Be-
sides, I had proved that unless my ear
was connected with the watch by sol
ids the chime was ~inaudible. Believ-
ing the watch to be in the with
me, a few minutes before 1t should
strike again | got up and, pressing my
ear against the wall, heard it distinctly.
During the next hour | made several
such experiments with a view to locat-
ing the sound, but without success.
Then it occurred to me that a watchs
must tick andif I could getnear enough
to it | might hear it. | walked slowly
around the room. stopping at intervals
r. licfan on6 1ra xxfpO nnar a 1rnnIHp 20
the ticking grew more distinct. Thrust
ing my head up the chimney. | heard
a watch tick near my ear. I was about
to reach up to grasp 1t when a chime
rang out fine, clear, melodious strokes.
l put my hand upon a narrow coping
and took down what l could feel to be
a brooch. Then l grasped other arti-
cles and finally a watch.
''Eurekar' | exclaimed, delighted.
Leaving the articles where l found
them, I went back to bed, but not to
sleep. Day soon came, and, rising, I
examined the fireplace and found quite
a lot of jewelry. I compared the pieces
with a list of the lost articles and
found that about two-thirds of them
were on the coping.
What should be my next step? l had
found the plunder-or most of it-but
not the thief. And in this second part
of my work | was as much at a loss
how to proceed as | had been In the
first place. But 1 felt comparatively
easy. I had evidence that l was not
another kind of thief In palming my
self off as an investigator when l was
really simply falling in love. l called
Mr.. Ainsworth into the library after
breakfast and told him that l had
made important Roadway in the case,
having located a number of the miss
ing articles. l intended to say no more;
but, fearing that if left where they
were the thief would remove them, |
added that during the morning / would
turn them over.
That morning when the postman de-
livered the mail l received a letter
from England that obviated the neces-
sity of my remaining in the detective
business. The missive had been fol-
lowing me for some time and was COW
cred with "Try this and try that
place." Endorsed by different postal Of
fcials. 1t announced that the cousin
mentioned earlier in my narrative, a
vigorous man of thirty, had broken his
neck following the hounds, and since
his wife had not presented him with
an heir l was Earl of Barrowfeld.
1 called up my chief, reported the
case so far as | had followed it and Of
fered my resignation from his force on
the ground that / bad business of my
own that demanded attention. Before
Mr.. Ainsworth went out for the day I
told him where he would find the plum
der l had discovered and made a clean
breast of the fact that l had learned
where it was, not by a deep laid and
methodical process, but by accident,
and declined to receive any pay for my
services or to permit any charge to be
made by the bureau ! represented,
Mr.. Ainsworth declined to accept my
services either as a detective or as his
daughters music teacher. After argu-
ing with him for awhile 1 showed him
the letter l had received that morning
changing my condition from a detec-
tive to a nobleman.
while / dm not the son of an old
friend of yours" 1 said, 81 am or at
least have been in forlorn circum-
stances. 1 am your debtor, not you
mine, since l have received every kind
ness at the hands of your family"
1t was agreed between us that It
would be better TO inform the men,
bers of his family that 1 was not the
son of his old friend, but that in con-
sidering me a gentleman they had not
been deceived. Mrs. Ainsworth was
informed first that the bulk of her lost
property had been recovered; that I
had come to the house as a detective
and was going out a nobleman. From
her the news spread to the other men,