Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 February 1909 — CHEESY MR. SINCLAIR. [ARTICLE]

CHEESY MR. SINCLAIR.

“Now, ,1 want to know*," simpered Miss Clementina Gibson, "what yon come courting me for. You’re nothing but a boy. and I'm forty." "Rats! Forty! You may be a few years older than I am, but you're ten -dr tWelve years this side of forty, and It wouldn’t make any difference to me If you were fifty. As soon as I sdw you I knew you were Just the, woman for me.” The man was Algernon Sinclair, a youngster of twenty-two. He had known Miss Gibson only a fortnight, but had been very persistent Id his attentions during that time. He had appeared one morning at the door of her flat and asked for Miss Gibson. “I am Miss Gibson." “You’re not the Miss Gibson i’m looking for. She’s a red-headed, freckled faced person, while you—well, you’re simply beautiful.” Miss Gibson snickered and asked the good-natured, cheery young fellow to step in—perhaps she could help him in his search. He did step in and was in no hurry to step out. From that time forward he was de-, voted to Miss Clementina Gibson. “Tickets to the theater tonight,” be said one afternoon. “Got a box. We’ll be right In among the swells, and you’ll have to wear your best clothes. Put on what jewelry you have. Any diamonds? No? Well, I think I see my way clear to get you some before long if a deal I have on hand goes through. Pearls? Oh, a brooch set with pearls! Wear It without i fall.’* The young man rattled on in his funny way, quite delighting the elderly lady, who had caught his fancy. When he called for her In the evening and saw her attired in a pearl silk dress he held up his hands in admiration. The brooch he pronounced “a daisy." “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven—seven pearls, and that big one in the center is a hummer. I’m not goin g to be ashamed of my girl tonight, you bet. Come on.” Whenever Mr. Sinclaif*i took Miss Gibson out he manifested this same desire that she should be well dressed, and on occasions appropriate for jewelry he begged her to produce some new ornament that she had not worn before. But Miss Gibson was not inclined to wear her best gowns in public, though she was not disposed to have Mr. Sinclair think she hadn’t fine gowns, and finally when he bet her a dozen pair of gloves that she couldn’t show half a dozen really first class dresses she brought out the half dozen and said she could “go lost in admiration, and the next day two better.” Sinclair looked at them, paid the bet. One day he wrote her a note tc say that he would call in the afternoon co take her to ride in an automobile, and wouldn’t she wear that dress with the green figure—“snakes and turtles on a jamboree?” Miss Gibson laughed at his description and put on the dress indicated. Mr. Sinclair called at the hour appointed with & beautiful machine, which he drove himself, and they sailed out into the country. During the ride p man ahet:d with a camera waved his hat. Sinclair slowed up. ’ —“He- wants to take iotrr picture,” he said. “Let’s have one.” “No, no; we don’t want a picture." “Yes, we do. Fire away, Mr. Photographer.’’ There was a click and the picture was taken. T{ie next day there was a ring at Miss Gibson’s door. She opened it and there stood Mr. Sinclair and another man with a warrant for her arrest. She cast an astonished look at Sinclair and turned pale. “Who and what are you anyway?” “Robert Williams, detective." Mr. Williams, recently pretended lover, now only a paid hireling of a wealthy lady who had been robbed by her housekeeper, proceeded to ransack his lady-love’s premises with no more evidence of feeling than If he had been a savage burying a tomahawk in her brain. The photograph of the dress with the figure of “snakes and turtles on a jamboree” had teen Bent to her employer who had identified the dress as one of her own. Mr. Williams found the flat filled with stolen property, all of which belonged to the rich lady In question. The brooch with seven pearls was In a list of jewels he possessed lost by his client, and every one of the half dozen dresses that had won the bet was on a list of missing articles. The detective had been given the preface to this little story book, which was thus: Miss Gibton, housekeeper for Mrs. Bickford, h?d quarreled with her employer and had left her service vowing vengeance. Some time after her departure the bouse was entered when the owner was away and a large quantity of property taken. Considering Miss Gibson’s threat, Mrs. Bickforl suspected that she bad given the information that led to the robbery. Mr. Williams was put on the case and by his skillful handling of it secured the return of thousands of dollars of property and a handsome fee for himßelf. Miss Gibson now doing a term in the penitentiary, bas rowed vengeance on the "little whipperanapper" as she calls him who "talked soft” to her for a brief season only to trap her. When she gets out ofjall she is going to do something very terrible to him. but what It Is to toe she keeps to herself. Mteanwhile the detectlrs Is employed hi what hla fellows hare dubbed the “blandishment department for trapping old malda."—Elinor T. Boyd.