Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 September 1881 — AN OHIO ROMANCE. [ARTICLE]

AN OHIO ROMANCE.

“Never condemn a person on circumstantial evidence; it is unreliable, even when the circumstances seem to fit into each other likeacouple of cog-wheels,” said John T. Morris, who is an experienced detective of Springfield, Ohio. “Give us the story, Uncle John.” “Not long ago there resided in Franklin county an old maid, Miss Sabine Smith. By inheritance she was the possessor of a large farm, on which there was an old-fashioned, though comfortable dwelling house. She was reputed to have a good equate bank account” “How old is she?” “Well, on the shady side of seventy, but she bad a weakness like all old maids, notfor kittens, poodles or canaries, but for children. She had raised several orphan girls, who are now well settled in life. In 1865 she adopted a six-year-old black-eyed girl, bright as a button, named Mollie McCann, whose father had fallen in battle fighting for his 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 schoolgirl, 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 n pretty toss of the head and merry twinkle of her roguish eye, bade them be off and not bother her.” “Miss Smith was sensible; knew that Mollie would probably marry and have a home some day, so she neither discouraged her fondness for society nor harped upon lhe miseries of wedded life in the maiden’s ear, but when she came back from the State Fair at Columbus in 1878, and told her adopted mother about the young gentleman she had met, his attentions and good qualities, Miss Smith was not pleased, nor did she hesitate to frown her displeasure and advise her ward to turn a willing ear to the many suitors of the neighborhood instead of seeking in far-off fields that which was nearest home. “But Mollie was like many another struck on a traveling man, and she carried on a secret correspondence with him through a lady friend for a long time, until at last they were cngaged. 0 “Miss Smith and Mollie 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 confining two beds. Mollie occupying one/ Misk Smith the other. The fourth bedroom was called Mollie’s, but was only used by her when a lady friend was visiting her. In one of these spare rooms was an old-fashioned bureau and book-case combined, the top drawer of which could be converted into a writing-desk. The back part of this drawer was fitted up with small drawers. One of these small drawers had from time immemorial been used as a money-drawer. In the summer of 1870 the sum of $355 was missed from the drawer; in the summer of 1880 S2OO mysteriously disappeared, together with a quantity of gold coins which had been in-tbe family for over a century. On the 20th day of last Marh Miss Smith loaned to a neighbor SSOO givipg 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 ner to get it cashed. She did so, and returned with Mollie about dark on that dav, having the* money all in SIOO bills. “The house was all securely locked down stairs, and Miss Smith deposited the SSOO in the secretary drawer, closing the drawer, locking it and placing the key in the bureau drawer beneath. Sbe then locked the room containing the bureau, and placed the key under quilts that lay in the wardrobe in her liedroom. 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 1, the neighbor who had borrowed the money, having a long journev to perform, during which he expected to make a payment on some laud purchased, called as early as 5 o’clock, before Miss Smith and Mollie had arisen. “Awakening Miss Smith, sbe took her key from the wardrobe, unlocked the bedroom, then taking the bureau drawer key from the under drawer of the secretary, opened this to find the money gone. She went down stairs; everything was locked and bolted as she had left it the night before. “Who took that money?” •’That was the question that confronted me. There was no sign of a burglary; do locks forced, windows and doors all right. No one else in the house but Miss Smith and Mollie. She talked freely, said -she had 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 Mollie had a key which fitted the bedroom containing the bureau, hence my suspicions were strengthened that Mollie had arisen in the night, either unlocked 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 I should have to search her and make a thorough examination of the house.

“ ‘Well,’ she naively remarked, ‘if you do find any money about the house it won’t prove that I stole it, will it?’ “ ‘lt will be prima facia evidence,’ I said. “I locked her up in her bedroom and began a thorough search; band-boxes pried into, bureau-drawers pulled out. cupboards ransacked, and finally went through her own room. Under the carpet under her bed I found in a compact wad twelve SIOO bills. Now the total amount known to be mtesing was only $1,045. Where had the slsscome from? Where had the gold coins gone to? Was the bureau drawer paying interest on its deposit? “ ‘Now I’ve got you Mollie,’ I said as I confronted her. “Mollie fainted. “A bottle of camphor and a little cold water brought her speedily to, yet she sturdily proclaimed her innocence. *| didn’t tjdre Miss Smith’s mopey;

rno I did not,’Bbe convulsively exclaimed between her sobs. “Miss Smith would not allow me to hike her to jail, where I reasoned confinement would soon compel her'to confess. “My work, howeverer was but partially done, for the gold coins had not turned up. “I determined that those coins must be in the house and resolved upon a thorough search from cellar to garret. The cellar disclosed nothing, and at last I stumbled upon a small stairway, leading to the garret, the door of which was a small trap-door, securely fastened by a padlock, to which was attached three links of a chain. “ ‘Give me the key,’ I said to Miss Smith, ‘to that trap-door up in the

attic.’ ‘“Oh, no use looking there; the keys have been lost for over five years, and no one has ever been up there since.’ There were cobwebs on the door, but I noticed that over the crack of the door’s edge they appeared to have been broken away, caused bj the the door having been recently opened. With an ax I got the door open and saw large footprints in the dust. By the 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 the garret, where over an old cross-beam, hung a pair of old fashioned saddle-bags. The dust on the bags had been recently disturbed. In one of the pockets I ft und the five SIOO bills which (disappeared on the night of the 30th of May, the $855 that was missed in the summer of 1879, the $290 that was lost in 1880, and, better than all the rare old gold coins upon which Miss Smith set such store as an heirloom. I had found the money, but I found $1,200 too much. The mystery deepened. I resolved that MolUe must know something about the money that was hid under the carpet beneath her bed. I talked kindly to her, told her that Miss Smith’s money had been found, and urged her to tell me hew the $1,200 came under the carpet of her bed. “ ‘You will not believe me if I tell you, 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 his wages and given it to me to keep. I destroyed his 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 you prove it, Mr. Norris? Did the old lady let you occupy the bed room and catch her?” “Oh, no! I got the old lady to take of! her shoes andj stockings and place her No. 6 foot down on at beet of white paper. With a lead pencil I marked out her foot ou that sheet of paper. With a pair of scissors I carefully cut the exact-shape of the old lady’s foot, which fitted exactly in the tracks in dust ou the garret boards. Besides that Mollie’s foot was much smaller, she ouly wearing a No. 2J shoe, and would not fit the track. I also ou careful examination found traces of cobwebs in the trill of the old lady’s night-cap, while Mollie wore no nightcap. So you see I proved it by both ends—the old lady’s head and by her feet. I explained all to the satisfaction of the old lady, she paid me my money and I predict a wedding soou at the Hmith mansiou, with Mollie McCann as the bride.”