Year: 1872

Immediately occurred to me that ne was
after those two sovereigns / had so stu
pidly displayed and that, II 1 jumped
up and asked what he wanted, / might
very likely get the worst oft. So l lay
quite still, watching him out of the cor
ner of one eye aud when he stopped to
listen, 1 snored. That reassurred him (;
and he crept up to the bed, took my
trousers, which lay on the foot of it, and
felt in the pockets. / heard my poortwo
bits of gold chink as he took them out,
and nearly groaned.


"Never mind,' said l to myself," III
have the police down upon this house
tomorrow, as sure as eggs is eggs; so
you may make offquietly now my man.


To my surprise, however, instead Of
going out at once, now he had got what
he wanted, the owner of the house-for
| had recognized him went toward the
washstand and put his hand up to o
small white jar which stood on shelf
just above it. Then he stole softly out
of the room, and closed the door behind
him.


1 lay quiet tor matter of halfan hour
or more, and then searched my trou-
sers. The sovereigns were gone, sure
enough but the silver was loft. There
was not much, indeed; for 1 had paid
my score over night, and had stood treat
at the wayside public house besides.
Next l went to have look at the jar on
the shelf, and found that it was full of
soft soap. Evidently, my host was not
so bold a rogue as had thought for;
and if had shown myself to be awake
he would probably have made an eX-
cuse, and let me go off with my money,
since he was 50 careful to provide
against my suspicious. For l suppose
his idea was this (: If took the mat.
ter pretty easy, content to believe
that I had lost my money somehow,
and that he knew nothing about it,
we'll aud good. If made more fuss, he
would invite me to have q search, and
defy me to find any gold in the house
for he had owned to being very low in
the pocket just then; but il l proved
outrageous, and threatened the law, he
would have conveniently discovered
the sovereigns in the Jar Of soft soap,
and declared ] must have put them
there for security over night, and had
been too drndk to remember anything
about it in the morning.


That was the way / interpreted the
matter. SO 1 determined just to take
my money back, walk off,and say moth.
ing about it; not being particularly
anxious to have to stand in Witless
box, and own that l had been in such
bad compaay-for that would not have
helped me 10 good situation, would il?


1t was now fast getting broad day ;
so 1 washed and dressed myself, and
before I had done, heard people STIR
ring in the house. Then took the jar,
and tried to fish my sovereigns ou. but
they were stuck far down in the nasty
stuff; and as steps came towards my
door before had got them, wrapped
the whole thing up in my handkerchief,
and stuck it in my pocket. Then l went
down stairs; bade the slattern, who was
the only person 1 saw, good morning,
and left the house; and precious glad
was to get away from it.


After walking about three miles as
hard as could put foot to ground, 1
came to the place for turning off the
bye.road l was in on the Heath; and
close by there was bit of a pond, which,
it occurred to me, was handy for cleans
ing my soverelgns. So l out with the
little Jar, and, squatting down at the
edge of the water, proceeded carefully
to wash it. I got hold of one sovereign
quickly enough, cleansed it, and put it
in my pocket; but the second had been
pushed deeper down, and, while fishing
about with my finger, l came upon some
other hard substance, which proved,
when extracted and washed, to be di-
amoad ring; and rare, large, sparkling
diamond it was too. After that need
not tell you that / searched the jar thor,
oughly, rubbing every bit of the stuff in
it carefully between my hands; and, be-
sides my other sovereign, l found a
pretty, bright colored stone, which !
learned afterwards was valuable sap
phire; and that was all.


Then / went on and before / had got
far l met q string Of horses out for ex
ercise, and accompanying them on {
pony was my cousin, who expressed
himself glad to see me, md asked me tc
20 home and have bit Of breakf1s
with him, which did; and during tht
meal told him what | wanted, and h
said that he feared | could not be en-
ploycd in their stables, just then, bu
that he would make inquiries, and d.


his best for me. After that informed
him Of what had happened the night be
fore, and showed him the jewels.


"By the lord Harry!' cried he, quit


excited, II should not wonder if thi


was part OF the great Bedford robbery!'


"What is thar" l asked.


"Have you not seen it in the papers?


he replied "Lord Glitterbright's hous


was broken into last month, and he


ladyship'S jewel-box stolen. We wi
go and show these things to the InspeC


tor, who is a friend of mine, presently


for if am right may be a good job fc


you, Joe. Look Lere!"


And he fetched a newspaper, an


showed me an advertisement Of a hur


dred pounds reward for any one givin
information as should lead to the al
prehension of the thieves.


1T has nothing to do with my ring,


said i, ~ have no such luck"


"Most likely you are right" replie
my cousin; "but there's no harm in tr
ing"


So we went to the Inspector, who hs
a printed detail of all the articles stole
and the ring seemed to answer to one
them. So went that very aflernoC
| in company with a detective to Bedfor


and saw Lady Glitterbright,W who iden