United States or Latvia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !


We ascertained on our return to town the next day that the bag, with all its contents intact, including the tools, had been taken by the police at their surprise visit to No. 8 Gold Street, as well as much other stolen property. Hollams and Wilks each got very wholesome doses of penal servitude, to the intense delight of Mick Leamy.

A tall, bony, powerful chap he was, quiet and dour, and with a strong vein of superstition in him. Anyhow, he was a good prospector and a reliable man, and when the rush for the northern fields took place about two years ago. He was one of a party of four of us who had been landed with a few kegs of water and bare necessities on the waterless coast opposite Hollams Bird Island.

Hollams' acquaintance, after all. As we approached the house a great uproar was heard from the lower part giving on to the area, and suddenly a man, hatless, and with a sleeve of his coat nearly torn away burst through the door and up the area steps, pursued by two others.

"One moment have you the paper with the address now?" "I have not, sor. I missed ut afther the blayguards overset me yesterday; but the solicitor's name was Hollams, an' a liberal jintleman wid his money he was, too, by that same token." "What was his address?" "'Twas in Chelsea, and 'twas Gold or Golden something, which I know by the good token av fwhat he gave me; but the number I misremember."

Leamy's recognition of Wilks' portrait made me feel pretty certain. Plainly, he had carried stolen property; the poor, innocent fellow's conversation with Hollams showed that, as, in fact, did the sum, five pounds, paid to him by way of 'regulars, or customary toll, from the plunder of services of carriage.

I guessed you'd want to clear out of town if Hollams was taken, and I knew this" Hewitt tapped his breast pocket "was what you'd take care to get hold of first. You hid it, of course, because you knew that Hollams would probably have you searched for it if he got suspicious?" "Yes, he did, too. Two blokes went over my pockets one night, and somebody got into my room.

"Now tell me exactly what instructions the man in the train gave you, and what happened?" "He sez: 'You ask for Misther Hollams, an' see nobody else. Tell him ye've brought the sparks from Misther W." I fancied I could see a sudden twinkle in Hewitt's eye, but he made no other sign, and the Irishman proceeded. "'Sparks? sez I. 'Yes, sparks, sez he.

The most daring of Hollams' attacks on Leamy was doubtless the attempted maiming or killing at the railway station, so as to be able, in the character of a medical man, to search his pockets. He was probably desperate at the time, having, I have no doubt, been following Leamy about all day at the Crystal Palace without finding an opportunity to get at his pockets.

There it is often quite impossible to follow a man unobserved. It is only because it is the only way that I am undertaking it now. As to what we're after, you know that as well as I the Quinton ruby. Wilks has hidden it, and without his help it would be impossible to find it. We are following him so that he will find it for us." "He must have hidden it, I suppose, to avoid sharing with Hollams?"

Perhaps I shall have something to tell you in a day or two; if I do, I'll send. Good-by." The cab rolled off, and Hewitt and I strolled back along Gold Street. "I think," Hewitt said, "we will drop in on Mr. Hollams for a few minutes while we can. In a few hours I expect the police will have him, and his house, too, if they attend promptly to my note." "Have you ever seen him?"