THE STORY-TELLER. A DOG WITH A BAD NAME.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 3193, 10 December 1892, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE STORY-TELLER. A DOG WITH A BAD NAME.

n ueu hi iii n unv iininui " Of course, Mr Sitwell," said Captain Blake, " I don't wish to interfere with your private affairs, but I should certainly advise you not to display rare gems so carelessly." " But I only showed them to the first officer and Dick." " Dick !" said the Captain, curtly; " and who may Dick be ?" "Why, Dick Critchett, of course," answered Sitwell; " the chap who shares my cabin." " You know him intimately, then: he's a personal friend of yours 1" " Well," replied the young man, with hesitation, " he's not exactly that. In fact, I never saw him before I embarked at Melbourne. But, of course, we've become good pals during the voyage. He's a capital chap, is Dick." " No doubt, no doubt," said Captain Blake. " I've not a word to say against him. However, don't show your diamonds to anyone else, like a sensible young fellow; it might lead to trouble—we have on every voyage some passenger with shady antecedents. Now, I hope you don't mind my speaking like this 1" " Oh, no ! said the well-spoken young Australian ; and he shook the Captain's hand with warmth. The Kangaroo, homeward bound from Melbourne, had already passed through the Suez Canal, and had entered the Mediterranean. On the previous evening the conversation in the smoking-room had turned upon precious stones, and, when the little coterie had broken up, young Sitwell, a gentlemanly young fellow who had embarked at Melbourne, invited the first officer into his cabin, where, in the presence also of this man Critchett, who shared the cabin, he produced from a travelling bag two cut diamonds of singular size, and, as it appeared by the dim light of the cabin, considerable lustre. The first officer duly admired them and departed. But having learned from experience that robbery on board ocean-going steamers is possible, and that gems of the kind he had just seen might well arouse cupidity in any but the most honest men, he mentioned the matter to the Captain, who, from his position, might give the young fellow a word of advice without offence. The Captain's kindly warning was not without reason. A week had scarcely passed when one morning Sitwell came up to him and asked if he might have a word with him in his private cabin. So agitated was the young man, and so marked were his efforts to conceal his excitement, that the Captain intuitively guessed the cause of the interview. " Mr Sitwell," he said, " I know what has happened : your diamonds have been stolen !" It was true. Sitwell had seen them the previous evening when be locked the olrcssing-bag. That morning, when he opened it to extract his brushes, the diamonds were gone. Apart from the Captain and himself, no one knew where the diamonds were secreted except the first officer and Richard Critchett. '• Then," said the Captain, " we should not have much trouble in finding the culprit, for you can clear your mind of my first officer. This is the seventh voyage Harry Evans has sailed with me, and I will answer for his honesty. Now, what do you want me to do ?" " I want you to help me in two ways," replied Sitwell. " The jewels are probably either in Critchett's cabin baggage, or else he has them concealed on his person. We must search the baggage first without his knowledge ; otherwise, if he has them on him, and suspects our movements, lie will naturally drop them.overboard to avoid detection, and they will be irrevocably lost. So, if you grant me the requisite permission, I will get the ship's carpenter to open his boxes. Critchett is now on deck talking to Miss Talbot. His baggage is only labelled with paper labels, which I will remove, and tell the carpenter that the boxes are my own and that I have mislaid my keys. So, in case he is innocent, there will be no scandal. Still I should like you to assist me in the search, so that if the diamonds are found, his denial will be fruitless. Next, I want you to promise me on your word of honour, if Dick is guilty, that you will not prosecute him nor disclose his shame to a living soul." " But, good heavens, why ?" said the Captain, astounded. I " 1 will tell you. 1 know that Critchett, who was until lately a bank clerk in Sydney, is the sole support of a widowed mother in England. He has obtained a position in a London house, and this affair would, of course, utterly ruin his prospects—deprive his mother of the prop of her old age, and, perhaps, break her heart. And, after all, I am almost as much to blame for my folly in throwing temptation in the way of a man I knew to be poor. Now, you will grant me this prouiifo, won't you ?" " You're a kind-hearted fellow, Sitwell," said the Captain, '' and I don't think I am doing right ; but I will do as you ask. Now you go quietly to your cabin, and so soon as the carpenter has opened the boxes. I will come in and help you." In a few minutes the boxes were opened, and Captain Blake and Sit-

well were carefully going through every article belonging to the cabin passenger. They each searched separately ; and when one had finished, the other tried his hand. It was, however, without result, and it was clear, if the bank clerk had the jewels at all, they were now upon his person. Walking quickly up to the young man, who was still talking to a lady, the Captain tapped him on the shoulder and told him that he desired to speak to him in private; then leading the lad with apparent friendliness, but really with an iron grasp, into his own cabin, he locked the door and taxed him with tht robbery in the presence of Sitwcll. Critchett turned very pale, but indignantly denied the crime, and accused his fellow-passenger of the basest perfidy. But the Captain was inflexible, and the young man was searched with the utmost care, and, sure enough skilfully concealed within the folds of a cholera-belt were the missing diamonds. The moment they were found the wretched culprit fell upon his knees and implored forgiveness. He was penniless, and the sight of the jewels had proved too much for his honesty. Captain Blake gave the young man a severe lecture, told him he owed his immunity from prosecution to the clemency of the man he had wronged, returned the jewels to their rightful owner, and then regarded the painful incident as ended. In a certain sense, Captain Blake's prophetic instinct was for once at fault. As the tug came out to the bar at Liverpool there stepped therefrom two trim-looking gentlemen, who, having sought Captain Blake, explained that they were detectives, and had a warrant for the apprehension of the bank clerk from Sydney, who had fled thenco with £750 in notes on the Koyal Bank of Melbourne. Could Captain Blake assist them in the identification of the criminal ? For, apart from the numbers of the note 3, they had as yet no description of the culprit, except that he was fair, young, and of middle stature. Was there any passenger upon whom, from his appearance or conduct on the voyage, suspicion might attach? It is scarcely surprising, after the incident of the diamonds, that there was a passenger upon whom Captain Blake at one attached suspicion. He had pledged his word to Sitwell that on no account would he ever mention what had already occurred but that, of course, did not prevent him acting upon the impression that that incident must necessarily have created. Moreover, as captain of the ship, it was his duty to assist the officers in their duty. In a few minutes therefore, the effects of the unfortunate Mr. Critchett (which were uctually on deck) were once again being searched, this time with better success, for, within the pocket of an overcoat, were £250 worth of notes on the Melbourne Bank, bearing the incriminating numbers. Despite his repeated assurance thab he had no conception how those notes had got in that pocket; that if he were young, fair, and of middle height, so were thirty-five per cent of the male passengers, and that he had never been to Sydney in his life, but he had embarked at Melbourne, Mr Richard Critchett spent that evening and several more in durance vile. After the momentary worry caused by the arrest, Captain Blake bethought himself of the value of Mr Sitwell's evidence in the matter. But whether from a disinclination to be mixed up in the painful affair, or from a desire to get southwards by an immediate train, that gentleman had already left the ship's side in the first tug, and by the time the Captain had come ashore, his ten-der-hearted passenger had got his luggage cleared, and had disappeared into the ewigkeit. This circumstance made the task the more unpleasant, for, until he had obtained the young man's permission, he scarcely liked to break his promise regarding the previous robbery; though now, of course, those motives of consideration which originally had extracted that promise no longer carried weight. The prisoner was brought up before a magistrate, and remanded until the arrival of the next steamer which was bringing an official from the Melbourne Bank to identify the fugitive. Captain Blake was not a vindictive man, but he certainly felt anxious to see due punishment meted out to the young rascal who had caused him so much annoyance and had kept him out of the bosom of his family seven whole days. Ic is not therefore difficult to I imagine his utter consternation when, on Mr Critchett reappearing in the dock, an eminently respectable official from the Melbourne Bank entered the witness-box, and swore with the greatest emphasis that the prisoner was not the fugitive thief, and that to his knowledge he had never seen him before in his life. The man they " wanted" was, in fact, quite a different sort of person, as the Court would see by the photograph he produced. In due course the photograph in question was handed to Captain Blake, who, when he saw it, was heard to Mwear, if softly, at least with hearty vigour, and sustained imaginative force. This breach of decorum was perhaps pardonable, in that the likenesss was none other than that of the magnanimous Sitwell. It subsequently transpired that | on the very day the Kangaroo sailed

into port, £504, the remainder of the stolen notes, were cashed at a London money-changer's. Though some years have elapsed since that particular vovage, Captain Blake has never been able to make up his mind as to the mutual relations of those two men. Did Sit well, having as an astute man discovered the moral weakness of his companion, purposely tempt him with the diamonds (which, after all' might have been paste), so that at the end of the voyage suspicion as to the Sydney Bank robbery would naturally attach to an already convicted thief ? Were the notes also stolen by Critchett from the original thief, or were they secretly placed there by Sitwell when he and the Captain were searching Critchett's baggage? Or was the whole thing a collusive arrangement between two clever scoundrels to divert suspicion from the true culprit, to stay the hand of justice for a week, and thereby to realise the greater part of their illgotten plunder ? These are problems which Captain Blake has not vet been able to solve.—Vanity Fair.