Year: 1879

People said that it was very good
match declared it was time David =
and Josiah, too, for that matter - was
settled in life; and the people of the viii
lage had become accustomed to see the
young farmer and Ruth Hartley at Sill
verton church together when the cir
cumstance occurred which set Silverton
and Brotherip Barton talking.


Farmer Hartley was the guardian of
the son of an old friend, who came of
age on particular Monday, when he
was to receive from the farmer the sum
of three hundred pounds.


On the Saturday, Hartley, being in
the next market town, brought the sum
with him ready for delivery on the
Monday.


On the intervening Sunday the cous-
ins and this ward were at the house to
dinner, and the farmer did, over his
pipe, go to his oak chest before them,
open it, produce the roll of notes, and
display them. Then he rolled them up,
and fastened them with wax, which he
stamped with an old-fashioned gravel
seal, dangling from his silver watch
chain, saying it would look better to
hand the lawyer the notes in a sealed
packet.


The family passed the day very pleas
antly, the cousins left about ten, the
ward remaining at the farm, he being
on visit from the neighboring town,
where he had just completed his appren-
ticeship.


Next day, when the farmer went to
the oak-chest, it was unfastened; the
packet of notes was gone.


The lawyer, who had arrived to ne
gotiate the cessation of Farmer Hart
ley's guardianship, had but one course
of duty to pursue. He informed the
farmer the money must be paid, and in
timated the farmer himself must bear
the loss.


The local constable, keen-witted old
policeman, who had once been in the
Metropolitan force, was consulted.


He directly instituted minute exam
ination of the premises.


I1t DOOl III tnc lOWcI-
beds, behind the house; marks of open
ing window from without, which lit
the room wherein the oak chest stood,
and a fancy waistcoat button, which lay
positively on the window-sill.


The boot marks and that fancy button
secured the clue to the thief.


The farmer having openly brought
home the money on the Saturday, it
was clear to the meanest comprehension
that the thief must have been aware
of the existence of the notes in the
chest.


Who was acquainted with the fact p
Five persons only, 1t was evident -
Farmer Hartley, his daughter, David
Thomas, Josiah Thomas, and the ward,
one William Palliser.


OF those five, it was absurd to accuse
the farmer, because no man can rob HIM
self; while it was equally impossible to
suspect young Palliser of stealing the
money he was about to receive on the
following morning-the more especially
as he was so shocked he begged nothing
might be done, ami expressed desire to
let the whole matter rest until it was ex-
planned by some extraordinary means.


AS TO Ruth Hartley, it was felt she
could have no motive in robbing her
own father; and, therefore, suspicion
could alone, and with any degree of ra-
tionality, fall upon the two cousins. But
here, again, the question arose, what
could be the motive for either of those
prosperous men to commit burglary ?
while, on the other hand, they both
knew that the farmer, having been rob-
bed many years before, always kept
loaded firearms in the house.


But there were the boot marks and
the button, and upon these the old con-
stable based his investigation.


An hour after he had left the farm, he
returned to it, bringing with him pair
of boots and waistcoat. The latter had
David Thomas name written in it, one
of the fancy buttons was missing, and
that found on the farm window ledge
perfectly agreed with those on the waist
coat.


AS to the boots, they fitted the impres.
sions in the garden ground near the
window to hairs breadth and they also
fitted other marks on side bed in a gar
den in front of the farm, where David
had gone on the previous dayin order tC
/ f<l~ l. l.