THREATENED WITH THE POLICE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 23 November 1907, Page 3

THREATENED WITH THE POLICE.

When the father and husband died, leavin"- Mrs Graves and Hilda alone, the latter 18 years old, the two women saw a gloomy future before them. There was not only a living to earn, but a mortgage of £IOO on the cottage in the suburban town to pay off. Being an invalid, the mother could earn little or nothing, though she talked bravelv of dressmaking. It was for Hilda to furnish the income—to plan and save and scheme and keep things going. After many failures and disappointments she found a place in the citv with an old-fashioned lawyer who preferred her neat chirograph)- to typewriting, and for two long years she scarcely missed a day. From her earnings she could now and then aside a dollar to pay the interest on the mortgage, but every penny had to count. • One day a piece of good luck happened to Hilda Graves. In returning from lunch she found a roll of bills on the street. She snatched it up from under her feet and almost ran the rest of the way to the office. Her employer was out, and she counted over the bills and found that she was the richer by £IOO. Now the mortgage could be paid off, and there would be money left for clothes and other things. The thought that the money belonged to some one else, and that it was her duty to advertise for the loser, never occured to her. In her own village, it would have been different, but in the great city, findings were keepings Money was so plentiful that it wasn't likely that the loser of this sum would

trouble himself about it. She was so exultant over her find, ' and so impatient to get home and tell the good news, that she asked to be excused at :i o'clock in the afternoon. When Hilda took the trolley car. a well-dressed young man took a seat next to her. A moment later Walter Gifford climbed aboard the same car and took a seat back to her. The well-dressed young man was out fur business as a pick-pocket and young Mr Gifford, of an insurance company, an Irish attorney, who eloped from Cork Any ordinary observer would have de-

cided that Hilda was of the army of working women. She might have been superior in looks, but not in dress. Her shoulders were beginning to round a bit, too, and Sherlock Holmes would have detected the inkstain on her finger that could not be entirely scrubbed off with soap and water. If she had not persistently kept her

hand in her dress pocket the well-dress-ed voung man would not have given hcr'a second thought. His game was the fat brewer on the other side of him. The car had hardly made half a mile when the girl's hat blew off. It was raught by Mr. Gifford and restored to her. She had to turn and thank him, and. of course, she got a good look at

Then the woman on her right cried hi that she had lost her reticule, and '"ring the momentary excitement Miss (Waves and Mr Gifford passed a few more words. Then came a climax. In rounding a curve the car left the track and brought tip again-t the feme. Fvervbodv was astonished, but no one seriouslv hurt, although badly mixed up with the seats and each othe-.

In the ronft sion Mr Gifford found a roll of bills on the. floor of the car. He held on to the money until someone should make an outcry. N'one came.

Ar.orhei iar came along after a few "'•mites and ciek-efl up the p-tssenpers. and not one of them had said a word about a loss. Mr Gifford was just as honest as you

or I. He shoved the roll down into his Docket and decided to wait until -ht 'oscr advertised. The victim of a Ailuo loss would be sure to do that.

The next day and the next and the next, and in fact, for a whole week, Mr Clifford looked at the "Losts and Founds" in three different dailies, but no advertisement appeared. He then came to the conclusion that the roll must have drooped from his own I vest pocket as the car was trying to climb the fence, or that the motorman, who had. fled the scene, had thrown it at him as a solace for barking his shins and skinning his knee. It was therefore added to the young man's bank account.

Miss Graves had suffered a few bruises and a great scare, and it was not until she was seated in the other car that she missed the money. Then she uttered one single groan of' despair and almost fainted away. The pickpocket echoed her groan. He had come to pick and got a wrench of the back that would make him walk like a man of 80 for days to come. When the other car had left the track Hilda must have instinctively withdrawn her hand from her pocket to clutch the scat ahead, and the money had come with the hand. Someone must have found it. Who? This question puzzled her for days, and she finally decided that it had fallen into the hands of the nice young man who had rescued her hat. His nice ways were all put on. lie was a bad young man—probably a thief by choice and profession. She would know him again if she met him in China. She wasn't going to China to experiment, but she would

keep her eyes open whim on the street, and if she ran across him he must give up that money or take the consequences. The fact that she worked in a lawyer's office gave her a certain amount of nerve, too.

Mr Gilford had been under suspicion a week or so when one day he walked into the lion's mouth. He had business with the old-fashioned lawyer, and he entered the office at 10 o'clock one forenoon to be told that the old-fashioned

lawyer had gone over to Philadelphia. There was a good-looking young ladv there who did the telling. 1.1 seemed to him that he had seen her somewhere before, lie was puzzling his brains and killing time, when she rose up and exclaimed : "Ah! it is you! I thought I would find you sooner or later." "Then—-'.hen you have been wishing to find m: ." he queried. "I have :iir. You were on the trolley car thii' ran off the track into the fence a wee!-, or so ago." "Yes, I n. ember." "I lost £i i from my pocket. 1 am sure you foie.d it. 1 have hoped to meet you every day since. I haven't

seen in any of the papers that you have advertised it "And I haven't seen in any of the papers that you advertised your loss," was the reply. It was a good answer and Miss Graves blushed. Mr Gilford couldn't know that it was money she had found, but she knew, and she had not dared adver-

tise her loss. He looked at her as if he rather enjoyed the affair, and there was the light of admiration in his eyes as he waited for her next question. He had neither affirmed nor denied that he had found the money on the wretched car. "You have drawn the money from the bank and were taking it home in that careless way?"

"I—l had £IOO in my pocket, and I am sure I pulled it out when the accident came, I am also positive you found it. I remember you sat right back of me, and vou left the-car after I did." "And if I do not give it up?" he quietly asked as he sat down. "I shall call in the police." It was a timid girl's bluff. Any man who has ever walked around the block could have spotted it, but Hilda never looked handsomer than when she stood

there with snapping eyes and flaming cheeks and faced the young, man she was really afraid of. He laughed heartily but not vulgarly and calmly said: "And what if I also call the police? You claim the money, but can you satisfy the police that it was really yours?" There was no bluffing. Tears came to Hilda's eyes, and she sat down with her head on the typewriter table. "But we can settle it without the police," observed Mr Gifford. "It is a case that can be settled out of court. Yes, you did lose your money on the car and I found it. I shall take your address and send you my check. Excuse me if I have said anything to cause those tears. You rather jumped on me, if you will remember. I am only too glad to have been the means—" "It—it was money I found in the street," said the girl as she looked up through her tears. "Yes, I found it, and 1 wanted to ask somebody if I was the same as a thief, and if 1 could be arrested for it. and if—if—"

And Mr Gifford quoted the law and made explanations that kept him there an hour longer, and when Hilda took the car home that evening he was there with the lost money, and ho had to ride to Golden Heights to cx»lain it all to her mother and to keep the pick-pockets awav.

He got into the habit of taking that ride very often after that, and passengers who kept their ears open heard talk of mortgages—lost money—wrecked cars—police—love and bridal tours. All things will come about if vou give them time.