LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2402, 14 December 1881, Page 4

LITERATURE.

THE OHIO ROMANCE. [‘ Cincinnati Inquirer ’] • Never condemn a person on oiroumatantial evidence. It is unreliable, even when the circumstances teem to fit into each other like a couple of cog-wheels,’ said John T. Morris, who is an experienced detective of Springfield, Ohio. ‘Give us the story, TJnole John.’ • Not long ago there resided in Franklin county a wealthy old maid, Miss Sabina Smith. By inheritance she was the possessor of an old fashioned, thongh comfortable dwelling house. She was reputed to have a good square bank account.' ‘ How old is she ?’

‘Well, on the shady side of seventy, hut had a weakness, like all old maids, not for kittens, poodles, or canaries, but for children. She had raised several orphan girls who are well settled In life. In 1865 she adopted a six year old black eyed girl, bright as a button, named Mollia McCann, whose father had fallen in battle fighting for flag and country, while her mother, crazed with grief, pined and faded away. Mollie soon learned to love her new mother, and from a prattling maid in short clothes and pinafores, she soon bloomed forth into a gushing sohool girl, and at eighteen was the belle of every rustic gathering —the pretty Miss Mollie McCann, over whom the boys raved and the girls envied. To all her admirers she turned a deaf ear, and with a pretty toss of the head and merry twinkle of h»r roguish eye, bade them ba off and not bother her.

• Mias Smith was sensible; knew that Mollle would probably marry and have a home of her own some day, ro she neither discouraged her fondness for society nor harped upon the miseries of wedded life in the maiden’s ear, but when she came back from the State Fair at Columbus, in 1873, and told her adopted mother about tbe young gentleman that she had met, his attentions and good qualities, Miss Smith was not pleased, nordid she hesitate to frown her displeasure and advise her ward to turn a willing ear to many suitors of the neighborhood, instead of seeking in far-off fields that which was nearer home.

* But Mollie was like many another, struck on a travelling man, and she carried on a secret correspondence with him through a lady friend for a long time, until at last they were engaged. ‘ Mias Smith and MolHe were the sole occupants of the house. The bedrooms were four in number, two of which were used as spare rooms, one occupied by Miss Smith and containing two beds. Mollie occupying one, Mias Smith the other. The fourth bedroom was called Molly’s, bat was only used by her when a lady friend was visiting her. In one of these spare bedrooms was an oldfashioned bureau and bookcase combined, the too drawer of which could be converted into a desk. The back part of this drawer was fitted up with small drawers. One cf these small drawers had from time immemorial been used as a money-drawer. In the summer of 1879 the sum of 355d015, was missed from the drawer, and in the summer of 1870 29r>dola. mysteriously disappeared, together with a quantity of gold coins which had been in the family for over a century. On the 20th day of last May Miss Smith loaned a neighbor 500d015.. giving him her check and he signing a note in her favor. Sickness prevented his presenting the check at the bank at Columbus, and, learning that Miss Smith was going to that city on the 30th, he requested her to get it cashed. She did so, and returned with Mollie about dark on that day, having the money all in one hundred dollar hills.

* The house was all securely looked down stairs and Miss Smith deposited the 500dols In the secretary-drawer, closed the drawer, looking it and placing the key in the bureaudrawer beneath. She then looked the room containing the bureau and plactd"',he bey under some quilts that lay In a wardrobe in her bed room. Before retiring she locked her bedroom door and she and Mollie retired for the night in separate beds in the same room. The next morning, April let, the neighbor who had borrowed the money, having a long journey to perform, during which he expected to make a payment on some land purchased, called as early as five o’clock, before Miss Smith and Mollie had arisen. • Awakening Miss Smith, she took her key from the wardrobe, unlocked the bedroom, then taking the bureau-drawer key from under the drawer sf the secretary, opened this to find tbe money gone. She went down stairs ; everything was looked and bolted as she had left it the night before. ‘ That was the question that confronted me. There were no signs of a burglary ; no look forced, windows and doors nil right. No one else in the house but Miss Smith and Mollie. Of course, I at once examined the girl. She talked freely, said she always had a presentiment that the money would be stolen—in fact, had a presentiment that night, but feared to tell the old lady for fear of alarming her. I soon learned that MolHe had a key which fitted the bedroom containing the bureau, hence my suspicions were strengthened that Mollie had arisen In the night, either unlooked the door with her own key or taken the one in the wardrobe and, securing the money, hid it either in or’ out of the house without awakening the old lady. I finally told Mollie that 1 should have to search her, and make a thorough examination of the boose.

•Well,’ she naively remarked, ‘if you do find any money about the house, it won’t prove that I stole it, will it ?’ * It will be prima faoie evidence,’ I said. ' I locked her up in her bedroom and began a thorough search ; bandboxes pried into, bureau drawers pulled out, cupboards ransacked, and finally went through her own room. Under tho carpet under her bed I found, in a compact wad, twelve one hundred dollar bills. Now, the total amount known to be missing was only 10-lSdol. Where had the loodol some from? Where had the gold coins gone to ? Was the bureau paying iaterest on its deposit ? ‘Now I’ve got yon, Mollie,’ as I confronted her. Mollio fainted,

A bottle of camphor and a little cold water brought her speedily to, yet she sturdily proclaimed her innocence, ‘ I didn’t take Miss Smith’s money ; no I did not,’ ehe convulsively exclaimed between her sobs. Miss Smith would not allow me to take her to gaol, where 1 reasoned confinement would soon make her confess.

My work, however, was but partially done, for the gold coins had not turned up. I determined that those coins mast be in the house and resolved upon a thorough search from cellar to garret. The oallar disclosed nothing, and at last I stumbled upon a small stairway leading to the garret, the door, securely fastened by a padlock, to which was attached three links of a chain.

‘ Give me the key,’ I said to Mias Smith, ‘to that trap door In the attic,’ ‘ Oh, no use of looking there, the keys have been lost for five years, and no one has ever been up there since,’ There was cobwebs on the door, but I noticed that over the crack in tho door, they appeared to have been broken away, caused by tho door having been recently opened. With an axe 1 speedily got the door open and saw large footprints in the dust. By tho aid of a lamp I followed the course of the tracks over the boards which lay across the shaky rafters to the furthest part of tho garret, whore, over an old cross beam, hung a pair of old-fashioned saddle bags. The dust on the bag* had been recently disturbed. In one of the pockets I found the five one hundred dollar bills which disappeared on the night of the 30th May, the SSodols. that was missed in the summer of 1879, the 290d015. that was lost in 1680 and, better still, the rare old gold coins upon which Miss Smith set snob store cn as an heirloom. I had found the money, but I had found 1200iols. too much. The mystery deepened. I resolved upon one thing, and that was that Mollie must know something about the money that was hid under the carpet beneath her bad. I talked kindly to her, told her that Mrs Smith money had all been found, and urged her to tell me how the 1200iols came under the carpet of her bed. ‘ You will not believe me If I tell yon, but if Miss Smith will go out I will explain. I put that money there ; it was my lover’s. He had saved it out of tho wages, and had given it to me to keep. I destroyed hia letters, for fear my aunt would find it out, There’s the story.’ ‘ But how did the old lady’s money get into the garret ?’ ‘ She carried it there herself. She was a somnambulist, and walked in her sleep.’ ‘ How did yon prove it, Mr Norris ? Did the old lady let yon oconpy the bedroom and catch her ? ’

* Oh, no. I got the old lady to take off her shoe and stocking and place her No, 6 foot down on a sheet of white paper. With a lead pencil 1 marked out her foot on that sheet of paper. With a pair of scissors I carefully cut out the exact shape of the old lady’s foot which fitted exactly the tracks in the dust on the garret boards. Besides that, Mollie’s foot was much smaller, she only wearing a No. two-and-a-half shoe, and would not fit the the track. I also, on oireful examination, found traces of cobwebs in the frill of the old lady’s nightcap. So you see I proved it by both ends—the old lady’s head and her feet. I explained all to the satisfaction of the old lady. She paid me my money, and I predict a wedding soon at tho Smi h mansion, with Mollie McCann as the bride.’