It was not until the burglars were leaving the house that Judge West’s young daughter, hearing a sound on the lower floor, aroused her parents, who immediately investigated and found that a cabinet in their daughter’s room had been rifled as well as the sideboard in the dining-room, from which several articles of value had been taken.
The judge immediately ’phoned to the village authorities, and as a result of their prompt action, two men who were lurking near the railroad station were arrested.
One of them had in his possession a wallet containing about fifty dollars in bills, which the judge identified as belonging to him. Constable Berry of Crystal Falls, believes that there was a third man implicated in the job, because none of the missing property, except the wallet and a few small articles of silverware, were found upon the two men under arrest. It is supposed that they were frightened away before their work was completed, but a search of the premises both inside and out, failed to reveal a large silver punch bowl, which is missing and the jewelry case of Elsa, the judge’s young daughter. This, it was stated, contained a necklace of pearls valued at nearly a thousand dollars.
An incentive to the capture of the third man is offered by Judge West, in a reward of five hundred dollars, for the return of this precious keepsake.
I just stared at Pee-wee, and he stared at me.
“G-o-o-d night!” I said, “the plot grows thicker.”
“Those are the very things,” he said; “it’s a mystery.”
“It looks as if we were the third man,” I told him.
“Who?” he wanted to know.
“The eleven of us,” I said.