FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS REWARD.

Auckland Star, Volume II, Issue 597, 8 December 1871, Page 2

FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS REWARD.

[from tinsley's magazine.] "How horribly annoying! But what a blessing that the wretches did not discover that the diamonds were in the jewel-;case !" It was the morning after a grand ball at the British Embassy in^Pariß, and .Mrs. Foljambe de Vere. who 'had during, the last few hours, been the victim of as dari g a robbery as ever distinguished the police annals of La Grande Ville, was despairingly lamenting over her loss. " Well, I must say that you rather brought it oh.yourself,".remarked one of the gentlemen present (he was the brother of the agitated lady, and therefore in some sort privileged to speak his mind). " The idea of leaving valuable jewels on your j dressing-table in an hotel!.'_.. , "But the door was locked ; you heard me tell the detective 50.,... Who in the j world would have imagined they were not: safe ?" ,„.,.., ,_. ... " Any one with common sense," retorted Major Fielding (relations are so rude, and j this one in particular was provoked !atthe moment by the prospect of being detained, through his sister's carelessness, in Paris, when the frost bad broken up, and his horses were eating their heads off- in the i shires). " Any oue with a grain of common, sense.' What can be easier, as that Monsieur Dupont said, than for a man j employed in one of these hotels to take en. impression in wax 'of a'-bedroom key ? Probably,too, they have accomplices in the house, which makes everything serene." "The wretch !" exclaimed pretty, not over-wise Mrs. de Vere., '-'How I do, hope he will be punished ! Nothing would be too bad for him-. But .0, dear J. Q f dearj j What shall I say to aunt Catherine ?" "'' I do believe she loves those.bracelet better, tliau »ho does anything else in the world.. Howl wish £ had not. worn one of them last night! But it is a blessing that I did.; not do as she wished me. to, and. put them! both on." " Let us hope," suggested amiddle-aged, much made-up Countess, who had spent! the chief portion of her life in Paris; and-: set up for an esprit fort, " that Lady Ca-| therine will see, as you seem to do, myj dear Nellie, the finger" of Providence inj this affair." j Before the puzzled. Ufetle,. woman could; reply, the j door L [of] J fie ' salon was; thrown noisily op.v, and in walked; (or rather stalked) a tall, dignified-; looking, elderly jVlad^** Whpse-^biapk; eyes aud nearly* * yebon brows'made! singular contrast with the mass of pow-j dered hair: whiehrose: up/rom-her narrow! but lofty forehead." Although-expected by the party of some half-dozen friends and! acquaintances whom the news of the rob-j bery had gathered together, the entry ofj the Lady Catherine Fairfax produced aj decided sensation amongst the group. From the expression of her countenance —one which betrayed no feeling beyond} her customary impassible composure— it was evident to all present that the dire-! ful news of the jewel-robbery had not yet reached the ears of dignified Lady Cathe-: rine. "My dear," she said to her niece, whose: white forehead she had just v touehed with the chilly lips of age, 1'5 fhavecoitte to ask how you liked-your bad/ I.had)given up: going to.such gay things,myself,,, but —Ah Lady Brixham,"liow rj'ye do p Why, Nellie, -yon have cjuite alevee ! Perhaps, as tlie room is" so full,'l— "'■ ,<:0, no, dear abut,,?' broke in Mr§. de Vere,who, feeling that there was safety in a multitude, dreaded*nothing more than a confession en te'te-aAtete. with her auut of her own carelessness'jut. the matter of the jewels. "Do stay ; buo.G a dreadftflthing has happened! The jewel.!?.l wore, .last night— A'-r _ ;.:-..v, .so I r . !n r.j>o a-\-^>A A[ "Not'lost! ..Not the emerald.and, diamond- bracelets ! *' halt.•shriekedvu_*.Wy-ship.-'"Keally*'Nellie—";■-: •'• h V •' But Ihave not iost them, aunt Cathe-; rine. Why will you fancysuchthingsp'' i "Not lost, but stoletiv which5 i 'fear 'is pretty much the same $hlng,'':p Tut:in i;Ma-| jor Fielding. ' '*'~:? " And "so,"'said the family autocrat J after listening in portentous, 'silence to the plain unvarnished fact,' tliat. s| daring and evidently practised thie£iiadj during the past night (or rathergtaornmg.l entered herY^niece's., sleeping apartmeutl and thence, -withj felonious . fingers, ab« stracted all the jewels'.with which -.-Ml-sl FoljaSl.be de Yore had, lon the .previous occasion, adorned her person—" aud so you really had the egregious« folly to leave all that yuluabjejewpllery—•jewellery the chief part of which .was not your own—| pray do.me the favour to remember that —on your dressiiig-'table itt an hotel! A public hotel—a place frequeuted by al| descriptions ofrpt'^ple ! A placer-hat — \ \ " But my decfrf&uiit,'' pleaded Mrs. d^ Vere, " the.door was locked.iSO how coulcl I suppose-^"'- ' "> ■:•-. " Suppose a 'fiddlestick £' - Such abl , surdity ! As if- no one had tfkey^butyouri ( self! ! Such e'gi-ejiious want of common sense and forethought I never'saw! should 'hiiye, placed the ornaitien'ts uhdejf lopl. aud key in a trunk, or—" -. , A"- CIYA 1 AAE .1 .W '' |

"My dear Lady Catherine," broke ,« the Countess, « I really think you arß \ n hard upon poor Nellie. Aodden?^ happen— WUI m " You call having your most valuable jewels stolen an accident, do you P .nortiS Lady Catherine; "now I call it—but never mind, I suppose I must put up wiS the loss. All I can say is, that such a thin! never happened to me. J never was rob bed or cheated or taken in during _h« whole course of my life, and I defy a _v one to prove the contrary. Robbed in deed ! A person is a fool who allows hi m " self to be robbed. I have always said s 0 • _tt.d.lam upo.nseventy, and ought, I should think, to know a little of thTwcS^^T^* After this short but vehement e~7*, of herwrath.LadyCatherinecond. ' e£ i (as a rule she objected to listening 8/ any voice save her own) to ask amm^ceive some. information regarding the measures which had been taken for the recovery* of the ingehioiisly a,b-stracted property. \jrs> was a source of secret satisfaction to her ladyship to learn that the detectives of La Ruede Jeruselem weretiri the alert aud that one of the mostexprienced of Pietri's celebrated body,had. declared his belief that the delinquent could not long escape detection-, ! . - r .* " They are wonderful fellows, those employes of La Police de _urete.'Vremarked Major Fielding;. '<arid _ shouldrj. tbe surprised if tKey Were oh the rascal's track now." '•''•''•' ' ~':-'' •-' ': zi ■Bs The days went by— -not slowly, they never did in the Paris of those days : the Paris of which it has been "said that c'etait le lieu dv monde ou le mieuxse passar dv, bonheur—the days went by,; ah&',4n spite all the efforts: of Mbtsieur Pietri's perfectly organised police, the villian who had appropiated to himself, amongst other minor treasures, an heirloom in,the Fairfax family, valued at seven hundred pounds, had hitherto managed to escape detection. At last, when nearly a fortnight after the , famous robbery bad nlasped, a card—on which was inscribed the name of Monsieur Belot—was presented, in the salon of her own hotel, to Lady • atheriue Fairfax. She was alone; it was five o'clock in the evening, the season winter, and- the gas burningrbrightly, as only Faris.gas can or coufd burn in.the daintily, if not comfortably, furnished little room. .. Lady Catherine incontinently desired that Monsieur Belot might be ushered into her august presence. Once there, the visitor, whom ber Ladyship described a few hours later as a gentleman of highly distinguished manners and; address, lost no time in explaining the object of his visit. He wasj he said, the secretaire ! privaUs&imo— -if'l mey be allow'ea to coin : the word —of the great Monsieur Pietri, j and his mission.from that dignified official was to request Lady Catherine Fairfax to kindly allow the authorities a sight, in furtherance of the endsoorf r justice, of the fellow bracelet to the one of which tho zealous Paris detectives were in search. It would , not be detained more than a . day; — the time to photograph it ..and_ to put the employes throughly aufait of tlxeir business. It is needless to. particularise the interview, which,did; not last many minutes, and terminated, as most of Lady Catherine's acquaintances m t _ aris before the end of the following day mew, by.. her ladyship's placing. :with many thanks, her muchprioad; treasure into the. keeping of bigh-bred, fashionable-looking Monsieur Belot. •-. . •).- ---" Such a delightful man ! and so shrewd! There is nothing like having to do with sensible people. The moment he opened his lips I felt that Monsieur "itelot and I understood; each/Other." i .' '•**■*' Th'efactof ha virig intrusted the companion of her missing treasure to the keeping of the great Pietri's secretary was, during the space, of eight and-forty hours,, a'source of .constant f "self-congratulation to Lady Catherine; and so'often and with so much unintentional broderie_ did she repeat the particulars* of .her interview, that, as Major Fielding .waggishly (when out of his aunt's hearing) remarked, it was very clear that Monsieur Belot had, on that occasion, endeavoured to profit by her ladyship's counsels and experience. ..._ Bat great as was 'Lady Catherine's confidence-in .her late visitor, jjhe ? could hot "quite succeed in inspiring her"hephew with the same unreasoning trust; and therefore it was that, on the day/.but cone .following- f the; (to the old ..lady) -hope.inspiring visit, Major Fielding stpolledofl to the Rue de Jerusalem, and, semjing :s m ihik card, requested an interview jwith-rthe Chef de la Police de Surete. Onceinlthe cabinet farticulier of that important fuuc- . tionary the English officer touched upon the subject of the second bracelet. 'Lady Catherine, he said, was all anxiety tokriow whether,, as. Monsieur Belot bad r led her to'-Ope.'the temporary possession by the detective officers of the bracelet which she had placed* in tbat gentleman's .hands had Ted; or was likely to lead, to any discovery 01' the stolen'property, As he spoke, the eyes —tolerably ..keen . ones—of Major George Fielding were fixed upon the face of his compuniou. The latter heard him • to?" the lend in silence, and than-an qaj-h, not loud, but deep, followed by a_shbrt burst of cynical laughter, escapedJds^ifts. tf Le sacre (foquiri 1" He exclaimed parid then the tru.h-r-a suspicion of, winch had already obtruded itself on 'the IVJajor's mmd —became at once apparent. It was no emissary from the Hue de Jerusalem no accredited searcher after stolen-goods— who had, ivith his bland respectability of manner, imposed upou the Kuglisli 4'midady." The man who had wiled away from this wise-in-her-own-conceits old; wqman her so dearly-cherished -.aud, was most •pi'obably-^as the ohef de Police, did npt to say—the very individual who had, less than a week previously^entered Mrsjide '^ere'sjbedroom; and taken; from it the bracelet, on obtaining the fellow ot which be bad doubtless subsequently set bis heart! 'BS* ---To- describe Lady Catherine's- state ot mind, when she became aware of the trick whichhad-been played upo*a he/ywould be impossible. At first she seemed positively stunned by the magnitude of uihejUj^-w, and refused to believe that through h^r own folly aud self-confidence shelj|# merely doubled her loss, had parted,. Qp her prestige, and abdicated the'rightol figpreaching her niece with the shortcomings of which sue had been guilty. , fe M Notwithstanding all the well-directed efforts of the Paris police, and-the offer ol a reward of five hundred pounds for the rY-edve-ry of the missing jewels:; tbe-'iujjei remains to this day undiscovered. TbJ subject is so sore a one to Lady Catwnne oaD ;:;■.;■-,-.:-, Mori * M

Eairfax that any allusion to it is carefully j avoided by ber friends. She is, however, '• many aye >r too old to be permanently •mproved by the rude lesson which she on {hat memorable occasion received. |