THE MEN IN THE LOT
“Come ahead, Larry,” said Mr. Newton.
“Will the people in the house let us?” asked the boy, to whom the idea
of anyone going through a private residence in this free and easy
fashion seemed strange.
“I guess they won’t mind,” replied the reporter. “You see we newspaper
men have to go ahead and do things. If we waited every time for someone
to give us permission we’d never get any stories.”
“But maybe they’ll stop us,” objected Larry.
“You leave that to me,” spoke Mr. Newton. “I’ll make it all right if
anyone objects.”
With Larry following, he started upstairs, where, as one of the
detectives had informed him, the thieves had made an entrance. As they
were going up they were met by a well-dressed man.
“Here! Where are you going?” he asked.
“I’m a reporter from the _Leader_,” said Mr. Newton. “I want to get a
correct account of this robbery.”
“We don’t want any reporters in here,” said the man sharply. “We don’t
want this thing in the papers at all. You have no right in here. I
order you out!”
Larry was beginning to get frightened. He had yet to see how a seasoned
reporter meets a rebuff of this kind.
“I’m very sorry,” began Mr. Newton in a smooth tone. “I’m sure the
_Leader_ doesn’t want to annoy anyone. We are just as sorry as you are
about this robbery, but we are only doing you a service.”
“How doing us a service?” replied the man. “If you call blazing a lot
of untruths about the matter all over, why I suppose it is.”
“Pardon me,” interposed Mr. Newton, “but the _Leader_ is not a yellow
journal. It does not publish fakes. It always tries to get at the
truth. Sometimes, as in a case of this sort, where we are refused
information, we have to get it from the next best source. Sometimes, I
admit, we may be given the wrong information.
“But I’ll tell you how we can help you. You want to recover the
jewelry, of course?”
“Seeing that we are going to offer a reward for it you might guess so,”
replied the man sarcastically.
“So much the better,” resumed Mr. Newton. “Now if we publish an account
of the robbery in the paper, and give a description of the jewelry, it
will aid you in recovering it.”
“I don’t see how.”
“Because the _Leader_ is read by a large number of persons. They will
see an account of this; they will look over the list of jewelry stolen.
Among others who will see it are pawnbrokers, to whom the thieves, it
is most likely, will offer the stuff for sale.”
“Well?”
“No one who reads an account of the crime and a description of the
jewelry will be willing to lend any money on it. They will be on the
lookout, and as soon as any of the stuff is offered them they will
notify the police. Then the officers will come, arrest the men, and
your jewelry will be recovered.”
“Of course, I didn’t think of that,” said the man. “In that case
perhaps we might give you an account of the affair.”
“I think it would be best to,” remarked Mr. Newton, with a wink at
Larry.
“You may follow me,” said the man who had at first objected to the
reporter getting any information. “I’ll show you where the thieves got
in, and then I’ll give you a list of the things that are missing.”
Larry and Mr. Newton followed the man’s lead. He took them through a
long hall and to the rear of the house. He stopped at a small window
over a porch and said:
“There’s where they got in. At least so the police think. There are
marks on the window sill.”
“So there are,” observed Mr. Newton.
“The thieves evidently climbed up the porch pillars,” said the man.
“I hardly think so,” returned Mr. Newton.
“But the police say so,” spoke the man.
“They’re not always right,” responded the reporter. “I would say they
climbed that tree and, from the low branch dropped on the roof. Then
they opened the window. You can see where the limb has been freshly
broken and where leaves and twigs from the branch have fallen on the
roof.”
“That’s so, I’d never have noticed that,” said the man. “You ought to
be a detective.”
“I’d rather be a reporter,” said Mr. Newton.
“Well, at any rate, they got in,” went on Mr. Robertson, as he said
his name was. “Then they proceeded to help themselves and they got
considerable. Some of the officers think the thieves had help from the
servants or else they would not have gotten in so easily.”
“This was not an inside job,” said Mr. Newton thoughtfully.
“What makes you think it wasn’t?”
“Because if it was the thieves would not go to all the trouble of
climbing a tree to drop on a roof, and then force a window. They would
have it arranged so they could get in easily. This was an outside job,
and the servants knew nothing of it.”
“I’m glad to hear you say so,” said Mr. Robertson. “I would not like to
think we have dishonest servants. Now, if you will come with me I will
give you a list of what is missing.”
With a much different manner from that with which he had greeted them
Mr. Robertson led the way to a small study. There he gave Mr. Newton a
list of all the stolen articles and their value.
“We think the men, or man, must have chloroformed us,” Mr. Robertson
added.
“Why so?”
“Because we all slept so late this morning. We all woke up drowsy and
stupid, as if some drug had been used.”
“Perhaps there was,” said Mr. Newton. “It has been done before.”
“Now don’t write up too much,” was Mr. Robertson’s parting injunction.
“No more than is necessary,” replied the reporter. “We’ll have a true
account and a description of the missing jewels.”
Then, having secured all the information he wanted, Mr. Newton,
beckoning Larry to follow him, went out of the house.
“I wish you’d go to police headquarters and get a list of the jewelry
as the police have it,” said Mr. Newton to Larry. “I want to compare it
with the one Mr. Robertson gave me.”
“Will they give it to me?” asked the boy.
“Just tell them I sent you and it will be all right,” spoke Mr. Newton.
Larry accomplished his errand successfully, and reported back to the
office of the Leader, where Mr. Newton had said he would meet him.
Larry’s list was somewhat different from that furnished by the family,
as the people had not told the police all of their loss.
Mr. Newton made a good story of the big robbery. He gave a picturesque
account of how the family awoke, to find themselves in a stupor, and
how, finally, they were roused up and discovered the big robbery.
Then there was a picture of the robbed house, and several views of the
celebrated Reynolds diamonds, as well as cuts of the more prominent
members of the family. Altogether it made a stirring story, and Larry
wished he could have taken a more active part than he did. However, he
consoled himself with the reflection that, some day, he might be a real
reporter.
No other paper had as good an account as did the _Leader_, which
statement Mr. Emberg made after the first edition came out.
“You and Larry deserve credit,” said the city editor to Mr. Newton.
“I didn’t do much,” said Larry.
“You helped all right,” put in Mr. Newton. “You did all right.”
The Reynolds story was the biggest one of the day and there was enough
news in it to carry it on the front page of most of the papers for two
succeeding days. There seemed to be no clew to the thieves, though all
the detectives were working on the case.
One thing was certain, the jewels, which formed the largest part of the
booty, were gone. They were more prized than anything else that was
taken, according to the family, and a reward of one thousand dollars
was offered for their return.
A most careful supervision of all the pawnshops in New York and the
immediate vicinity showed that the diamonds and other precious stones
had not been pledged.
“The thieves are hiding them until this trouble blows over,” said Mr.
Newton.
“Whereabouts do you suppose they have put them?” asked Larry.
“I don’t know. If I did I’d go there and get the stuff and claim the
reward,” answered the reporter.
For several days little was talked of but the robbery. Then other,
newer, and more important news of various kinds came in, and the theft
was, for the time being, forgotten.
One night, when Larry was coming from evening school, he took a
short cut. It was through a broad field on which had stood a large
warehouse, but which had been burned, leaving a sort of hole in the
ground, filled with rubbish.
As Larry was picking his way through this, for it was a dark and rainy
night, he thought he saw, off to the left, a moving light.
“I wonder what that can be,” he thought.
He looked at the tiny flame, and saw that it had now ceased its motion.
“Guess I’d better take a look,” he said. “You never can tell what’s
going to happen.”
He walked cautiously toward the glow. As he drew nearer Larry saw that
there were several men grouped about a lantern that stood on the ground.
“About here’ll do,” one man said in a low tone.
“Anywhere so’s we can find it again,” joined in another voice.
Then Larry could hear the sound of picks and shovels striking the
ground.
“I wonder what’s up?” he asked himself.