Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 120, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 June 1917 — THE CLOSED DOOR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE CLOSED DOOR

By GEORGE ELMER COBB.

I had not a friend in the city. I had not a dollar in my -pocket. Everything in the way of honest employment had failed me. That is how I came to be a burglar, or rather came near to being one. Let not the superman despise me for this confession. My theme will show how erratic is the whirligig of fate, how at the brink of temptation and sordid crime an instinct of innate sympathy came to a wayward, erring one and redeemed him at the crisis of destiny. It was by haphazard that I became a visitor to a den where thieves and cracksmen congregated in their idle moments. It was through curiosity, watchfulness and keeping my ears open that I gathered up acknowledge of the clever ways of the crook, that I realized how’ easy it was to make enough at one big haul to start life anew in some remote community, forget the incident and acquire a new plane for honest existence. All this was a Tallacy, formy deviation fronr the path of rectitude would have surely held me in the tolls that never iet free a criminal once started on the downward path. In my case peculiar circumstances operated to lead me back to the path calk'd Straight. To my story r I had found in the den one night a small, neat-looking case someone had negligently left there, and when I got with it to my own room I found it to contain a superb kit of burglar’s tools'. The modern cracksman no longer carries a clumsy bag. As I inspected the choice collection of jimmies, picklocks and skeleton keys, I comprehended their utility. I gratified my vain thought of expertness by prying my room window, by locking and unlocking my room door without a key. My attire was as yet respectable. My face was not unprepossessing. The police would scarcely suspect that I was other than a respectable clerk or professional man. I started forth on my mission. I had selected a superior-looking apartment house as my point of assault. It was three stories in height, and the top floor was dark, so far as I could make out, and the presumption was that Its usual tenant—was away from home. I had no difficulty whatever in turning the spring lock of the street door. A very simple skeleton key did the business. It requi red= a little more ingenuity to use the nippers In turning the key in the door of the top suite of rooms, but I made it. I entered the darkened apartment warily. I closed the door after me and oH-ll Paco in TTIV hlinfl SLOOvI 8 tri I * tiiV vWi XU&v *U. listening intently. I Was about to advance, when I distinctly traced footsteps behind the draperied doorway of _thr inrllnfnfrrt Tbir T —**” zled by a blinding flash ,of brilliancyThe electric lights had been switched on from the next room, the draperies parted, a man stepped into view. “Aiy” he spoke, with quite a welcomingnod, as though expecting me, “the doctor? The door was unlocked? I did not know it. Be seated, please.!* I was quite taken unawares, but I managed to preserve my nerve and composure. I sank to a chair, comprehending that this man had sent for a physician and mistook me for one. My host had the most villainous face I

had ever seen. The moment iny eyes rested upon him I read him through and through as a scoundrel. My analysis later proved entirely correct. I noted his crafty eye studying me keenly, Its sinister glow repelled me, but likewise put me on my guard. “Doctor," he said in a low tone, “I have sent for you at the w’him of my wife, who, while an invalid, is not in any dangerous condition. Confidentially, she is a hypochrondiac, has peculiar fancies, and one is that she is about to die. You will cater to her fancies, give her a sleeping potion that will quiet her and your mission is done. As I have some important writinglto do, kindly make the visit brief. Here is your fee in advance. You understand ?” “Entirely so,” I nodded, with a truly professional smile. “These cases are quite common,” and I determined, indeed, to curtail my services as much as possible, to get out of the way before the real physician summoned should arrive. The man led me through the adjoining apartment, tapped at the door of a third room and said, curtly: “Here 4s-the doctor-,’-’ opened the-dooF,- ushered me across the threshold and closed the door after me. Upon a couch lay a woman prematurely old. W’hat I first noticed was her eyes, glowing, gleaming, bright, haunted. The face was white and wrinkled. Her hands trembled, her

whole appearance was that of a person laboring under some intense spell nt terror or excitement. She looked me over with a fairly devouring glance. She beckoned to me urgently. As I approached the couch ‘■hr poMI my idj nijn L’ ith feveriiih haste and -whispered hoarsely: “Don’t let him hear—pretend!” I was thrilled and startled. I followed the mystery of the moment only so far as to surmise that my patient was in deadly fear of the sinister man who had ushered me into the room, and whom she apparently suspected of being an eavesdropper on the other side of that closed door. “Pretend what?” I stumbled. “I need no doctor,” she whispered. Then in a perfectly audible voice she added: “Doctor, I cannot sleep. lam

in pain. Please try and relieve me. Rend closer,” came the hushed tones ensuing. “I am in deadly peril. I implore you to do me a service. Keep talking about my sickness so he can hear you outside there?-till I hand you something.” _ u _ZEE3 I understood the situation as my patient groped under the bed coverings and produced a jewel case and long, flat wallet. “Take them!” she whispered hurriedly. “Keep up the farce until you get safely out of the house. Then hurry to the address written on a card inside the wallet. Deliver these things to my niece. Tell her I shall be robbed, or murdered, if she does not hurry the police to my rescue. You shall be richly rewarded.” I made a great clatter at my supposed medicine case. T voiced a lot of medical gibberish. I bade my patient a truly professional adieu. I left the room, to be shown to the door by my host, who looked elfish and satisfied as I Indicated that his wife would sleep soundly through the night, and I read his mind meditated robbery, perhaps w’orse. of the house as I reached the street. A professional-looking man stepped out, . The real doctor had arrived. I gave my case a fling Into an empty lot and Inspected the wallet. -IL- Was filled with bank notes of large denomination. I opened the little box. A galaxy of precious, flashing gems came into view-. “Alice Derby, 22 Waltham street,” the card within the wallet read. I hailed a taxicab. Half an hour later I stood within the parlor of a neat, pretty cottage, explaining my mission to the fairest young cerature I had ever met, and her father. The latter became instantly excited. He hurried from the house with the words f ‘ “Sir, I fear to leave my daughter alone, while the man you have seen tonight Is at large,” and so I had that first blissful interview with Alice Derby. As I learned later the man I had met was the disowned husband of my patient and an escaped convict. He was returned to prison that night. I never told the true story of my acceptance as a doctor. My patient, indeed, rewarded me —she helped me into business, and she helped me to win’the peerless Alice for my bride. - (Copyright,l9l7, by W. G. Chapman.)--“Wallflower” Fight inflTerm. If one man refers to a fellow worker as a “wallflower” is it sufficient prove cation to strike him? This is the question that Justice Packard in central police court at Baltimore was called upon to settle when Henry Katz, an official of the Midcity garage? faced the magistrate on a charge of assault. The complainant was Samuel C. Fernhelmer, manager xd4h*-mHndy*depart™ent7“’' m ’“ — Fernhelmer was walking through the garage when be* saw Katz standing a short distance away. “If there were not sq many wallflowers here, theie wonld be more work done,” remarked Fernhelmer to no one in particular. fl “Do you mean me?’’ shouted Katz. “If the shoe fits- you, wear it," retorted the supply man. Then the blow came. Magistrate Packard thought the ra mark was sufficient to justify the blow and dismissed Katz. \

A Man Stepped Into View.