Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 54, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1910 — DETECTIVE WIRELESS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

DETECTIVE WIRELESS.

A Chase After a Man With a Big Diamond.

By F. A. MITCHEL.

(Copyright, 1910, by American Press Association.] It was a put up job on the part of Herford, who bated me like poison. We had both worked together in the Kimberley mines. 1 as foreman. Herford with the pick. It was at this time that I detected him in an effort to Carry out diamonds in his throat I Considered it my duty to report him. Then came my big find. 1 was walking one day far from any mine with no more thought of diamonds than of doughnuts. One of my kids wasn’t well, and I was out after fresh milk for him. 1 walked without findingwhat I wanted till I was tired, then eat down on a rock to rest. While sit-

ting there my eye became fixed on a stone beside me about the size of a walnut Now. 1 had been working in diamond mines for ten years Many’s the stone I have thrown but with my pick vyhose* value Would run from thousands to tens of thousands. As soon as 1 looked at this one 1 knew it for a prize. and yet I couldn’t believe my eyes. Was it an outcropping of diamond soil or had Some one dropped it there: 1 didn’t stop to answer my own question—in fact. 1 didn’t care 1 looked at it carefully to make sure 1 wasn’t deceived and put it in my pocket, certain that if I could get away with it 1 and my family would live, instead of working people, as swells all the rest of our lives.. • . .-And so we would had it not been for that most uncontrollable of all things—a woman's tongue. I confided my secret to my wife, enjoining her not to tell a single person, as her future depended on her secrecy. But when a woman is burning to fell a secret it’s like a drunkard thirsting for liquor. Meg was so full of the fine future before us that she must needs tell just her own dear loving sister, who would rather die than injure her. The sister had a bosom friend from whom she could not possibly, keep a secret And so it went from one to another till it got to Jim Herford's wife. I knew it by the devilish look in his eye the next time I met him. Going straight home, I told Meg to trace the secret as quickly as she could. * and within an hour, she confirmed my inference. Here Was a pretty condition of things. Merford would take one of two courses—he would either accuse me of having stolen my big' diamond from the mine in which I worked or he would move heaven and earth to get possession of it himself. With him ready to swear to anything against me I could never hold the stone in spite of the company’s efforts to get it I had no time to fool away in considering—that is. ff Merford decided to

accuse me to the company. He hadn’t the secret an hour before I had borrowed— I hadn’t the money to purchase— the best horse in the place and was galloping away. I knew that if I was wanted it would be supposed I had made for the coast in order to take ship and get out of the country. It was a month after I had left with my diamond that I made up my mind to take the risk of getting across the Atlantic ocean. 1 knew I could manage it all right if it were not for the wireless telegraph. But what can a man do when an enemy traces trim aboard a ship that requires from one to two weeks to get to her destination and can send word of her coming arid order his arrest? Procuring some ostrich eggs. I borrowed a calico dress and a sunbonnet and went into a town to sell the eggs. Posters stared me in the face that £5,000 was offered by the company for my arrest. That was all I wanted to know, and I didn’t stay in the town ten minutes. But I stuck to my woman’s disguise. There were risks in appearing either as a man or as a woman. I concluded that so long as I didn’t mingle much with people I was safer as a woman. Well, to do a little skipping in my story, when the ship Unicorn sailed

from a port in the Transvaal for Southampton, England, on the passenger list was the name of Barton Dexter and wife. Two days after the vessel sailed a man stepped into the office of the agent of the diamond company and said that he knew where the man they wanted was. After securing papers that would give him the £5,000 offered for my capture in case it came through his information, he told the agent that Barton Dexter was none other than Edward Michler—in other words, myself. ’ ' The case was at once put into the hands of a prominent detective agency, with instructions to see that the so called Dexter be arrested on arrival and held till an identifier arrived. The next morning an enterprising reporter sent a message to a New York paper giving the whole story. - And so the attention of the world was concentrated on a man and a woman in miducean on the British ship Unicom, who had robbed the Kimberley mines of an immense diamond, but whose game was to be spoiled on his arrival at Southampton by a gentleman from Scotland Yard. A hundred or more American newspapers wired passengers on board the Unicom to send them news of Michler. 1 can’t give all the items that were sent, but I will give a few from a single paper: < ■ \ “Michler is a small, delicate man. with a feminine voice: his wife is rather masculine It has got out on board that they are under suspicion, and they seem very much troubled.

At first they were on deck the same as other passengers. Now they keep to their stateroom nearly all day.” “It is now pretty well determined that Michler in addition to being a diamond thief is eloping with another man’s wife, or. rather, another man’s wife is eloping with Michler. for no one would accuse so gentle a man of leading such a woman.” “While Michler and his wife were sitting on deck last night in a secluded comer suddenly a passenger flashed a match to light a cigar. Mrs. Michler was seen to thrust something under the folds of her dress. The case is being discussed in the smoking room, and some say that the diamond thieves will throw the stone overboard if arrested on the ship. All are interested to know how the officials will manage to take the diamond as well as the thieves.” “The Michlers today had a terrible quarrel. Passengers in stateroom* near theirs heard Mrs. Michler say to her husband that if he did not settle a large sum of money on her after their arrival in New York she would inform on him to the police, whereupon he asked her if she wished the whole ship to know that they were diamond thieves." “As we near port Michler and bls wife are becoming more and more agitated- Mrs. Michler was yesterday found weeping by the room stewardess, who went into her stateroom for the purpose of making up the berths. It is not known whether the diamond thieves are aware that they are to be

arrested on their arrival at Southampton or not. Every passenger on board is in the secret, but since it is a delicate matter to speak of to the parties concerned they are doubtless uninformed." “The sea was very rough today, and Mrs. Michler. who is inclined to be seasick, kept her room all day. Mich-ler-was also affected, but he kept the deck. He was observed to go to the side of the ship for the purpose of relieying himself of his dinner. A passenger who was watching him says that a lump the size of a walnut was cast into the sea. In the smoking room they are now betting—odds 3 to I—that this lump is the diamond. It indicates that the thieves have given up all hope of saving it and barf with it to. avoid its incriminating them.” “By Cable Off the Lizards. “An inspector from Scotland Yard came aboard for the purpose of arresting the Michlers. To avoid being known as a detective he was dressed in the uniform of a British admiral. When the Michlers saw him Michler fainted. His wife ground her teeth and stood firm as a British tar on the deck of a battleship. The dramatic climax of an inspector dressed as an admiral putting his hand on a man’s shoulder and saying 'I want yous was spoiled by Michlers lying like a wet rag on the deck. The supposed admiral was obliged to lift his prisoner up by the collar.” “By Cable From Southampton. <'j: “The Michler affair has collapsed. When taken ashore and examined Mrs,

Mlchler was found to be the husband and Mr. Michler the wife. They proved their identity as a respectable married couple from Capetown. Scotland Yard is furious, it being supposed that the real diamond thief hired them to let it be supposed that they were carrying it to Southampton, while he took another ship for New York. But there is no proof of this.” This last item is true so far as it goes, but it doesn’t tell all. I was the person who informed upon Michler and his wife. I found in Michler an old friend who was going home to England. confided in him and offered him a quarter interest in my diamond to fool the detectives. As soon as the world was agog over the diamond thieves on the Unicorn I slipped out of port with the diamond. I was disguised as a superannuated Jew. The diamond was so shaped that In being cut it required to be made into two gems. It is not. therefore, one of the large gems of the world. But the smaller stone made Michler rich and the larger one made me richer. After it was sold I sent for my family and am now an American capitalist.

"POSTERS STARED ME IN THE FACE”