The Old Man in the Corner

ink-yes!" he added with a smile, noting Polly's look at the bit of string, on which he was still at work, "yes! aided by this small adjunct to continued thought-I made notes as to how I shoul

ned the unfortunate jeweller very closely ab

recommended by a friend, and bore an excellent character. She and the parlourmaid room together. The cook, who knew me when I was a schoolboy, sleeps alone; all three servants sleep

racted from my bedside, the safe opened, and the keys replaced-all while I was fast asleep. Though I had no occasion to look into th

rning at about half-past seven there was no smell of chloroform in the room. However, the proceedings of the daring thief certainly pointed to the use of an anaesthetic. An examination of the premises brought to light the fact that the

ou had the diamonds in your house last

h, perhaps, the parlourmaid, whilst waiting at table,

o my searching all y

not object, either, I am sur

e shoulders. "No one, not even a latter-day domestic, would be fool enough to keep stolen property in the house. However, t

ce, and had then gone on, probably climbing over the garden walls between the houses to No. 22, where he was almost caught in the act by Robertson. The facts were simple enough, but the mystery remained as to the individual who had managed to glean the information of the presence of t

to No. 22, in order to ascertain whether Mr. Knopf had come back; the door was opened by the old

of obviously Hebrew extraction. He spoke with a marked foreign accent, but very courteousl

re is no such person as J. Collins, M.D. My brother had never felt better in his life. You will, I am sure, very soon trace the cunning writer of that epist

Robertson, he has a terrible cold. Ah yes! my loss! it is for me a very serious one; if I had not m

d Cape diamonds-all gone; and some quite special Parisians, of wonderful work and finish, entrusted to me for sale by a great French

slightest blame to his old and faithful servant Robertson, who had caught, perhaps, his death of cold in his zeal for his absent m

, beyond the fact that she had been recommended to him by one of the tradespe

magine how he, or in fact anybody else, could possibly kno

eemed the great h

on went to the station and had a look at the suspected tr

usiness in the afternoon, had done l

ourse, proved to be false. After that he absolutely refused to speak. He seemed not to care whether he was kept in custody o

remember that the burglary, through its very simplicity, was an exceedingly mysterious affair. The constable, D 21, who had stood in Adam and

residents in the neighbourhood. The coachmen, their families, and all the grooms who slept in the stablings were rigidly wa

lar shop was a very brisk one; scores of people had bought note-paper there, similar to that on which the supposed doctor had written his tricky letter. The handwriting was cramped, perhaps a disguised one; in any ca

was made, which suggested to Mr. Francis Howard an idea, which, if properly carried out, w

the corner after a slight pause, "evidently trampled into the ground by the thie

nd it a small piece of waste ground about seven feet square which had once been a rockery, and is still filled w

other, dislodged one from that piece of waste ground, and found a few shining pebbles beneath it. Mr. Knopf too

here the find had been made, and there conceived

der whithersoever he chose. A good idea, perhaps-the presumption being that, sooner or later, if the man was in any way mixed up with the cunning thieves, he wo

old afternoon. He began operations by turning into the Town Hall Tavern for a good feed and a copious drink. Mr. Francis Howard note

London streets, he ever remembers to have made. Up Notting Hill, down the slums of Notting Dale, along the High Street, beyond Hammersmith, and through Shepherd's Bush did that anony

this weary tramp. The man was obviously striving to kill time; he seemed to feel

ice the man had walked up and down the High Street, from St. Paul's School to Derry and Toms' shops and back again, he had looked down one or two of the side streets and-at last-he turned into Phillimore Terrace. He seemed in no hurry, he oven stopped

his call in the immediate neighbourhood. Two stood within the shadow of the steps of the Con

of Phillimore Terrace than, at a slight sound from Mr. Francis Howard,

yards) and was lost in the shadow, Mr. Francis Howard directed four or five of his men to proceed cautiously up the mews,

Howard felt quite sure that the thief was bent on recovering the stolen goods, which, no doubt, he had hidden in the rear of one of the houses. He would be caught in f

in spite of the presence of so many me

logistic article as to the astuteness of our police; but as it was-well, the tramp sauntered up the mews-and-there he remained for aught Mr. Francis Howard or the other constables could ever explain. The ear

Terrace houses must have belonged to th

re you that the police left not a stone unturned once more to catch sight of that tramp whom they had had i