to be off. I got into my coat and took
down my opera hat. Outside the storm was still active; but the snow
had a promising softness, and there were patches of stars to be seen
here and there in the sky. By midnight there would be a full moon. I
got to Jersey City without mishap; and when I took my seat in the
smoker, I found I had ten minutes to spare. I bought a newspaper and
settled down to read the day's news. It was fully half an hour between
Jersey City and Blankshire; in that time I could begin and finish the
paper.

There never was a newspaper those days that hadn't a war-map in some
one of its columns; and when I had digested the latest phases of the
war in the far East, I quite naturally turned to the sporting-page to
learn what was going on among the other professional fighters. (Have I
mentioned to you the fact that I was all through the Spanish War, the
mix-up in China, and that I had resigned my commission to accept the
post of traveling salesman for a famous motor-car company? If I have
not, pardon me. You will now readily accept my recklessness of spirit
as a matter of course.) I turned over another page; from this I
learned that the fair sex was going back to puff-sleeves again. Many
an old sleeve was going to be turned upside down.

Fudge! The train was rattling through the yards. Another page
crackled. Ha! Here was that unknown gentleman-thief again, up to his
old tricks. It is remarkable how difficult it is to catch a thief who
has good looks and shrewd brains. I had already written him down as a
quasi-swell. For months the police had been finding clues, but they
had never laid eyes on the rascal. The famous Haggerty of the New York
detective force,--a man whom not a dozen New York policemen knew by
sight and no criminals save those behind bars, earthly and
eternal,--was now giving his whole attention to the affair. Some
gaily-dressed lady at a ball would suddenly find she had lost some
valuable gems; and that would be the end of the affair, for none ever
recovered her gems.

The gentleman-thief was still at large, and had gathered to his account
a comfortable fortune; that is, if he were not already rich and simply
a kleptomaniac. No doubt he owned one of my racing-cars, and was clear
of the delinquent lists at his clubs. I dismissed all thought of him,
threw aside the paper, and mentally figured out my commissions on sales
during the past month. It was a handsome figure, la