e attention of the police has been drawn to this
house by some mysterious occurrence. You remember the Stevens case?
There must have been notes to the amount of seven thousand dollars in
the pile he declared had been taken from him some time during the day
and night he lodged here."

"Stevens! I remember something about it. But they couldn't locate the
theft here. The fellow had been to the fair in Chester all day and
couldn't swear that he had seen his notes after leaving the grounds."

"I know. But he always looked on Quimby as the man. Then there is the
adventure of little Miss Thistlewaite."

"I don't remember that."

"It didn't get into the papers; but it was talked about in the
neighbourhood. She is a quaint one, full of her crotchets, but
clear--clear as a bell where her interests are involved. She took a
notion to spend a summer here--in this house, I mean. She had a room in
one of the corners overlooking the woods, and professing to prefer
Nature to everything else, was happy enough till she began to miss
things--rings, pins, a bracelet and, finally, a really valuable chain.
She didn't complain at first--the objects were trivial, and she herself
somewhat to blame for leaving them lying around in her room, often
without locking the door. But when the chain went, the matter became
serious, and she called Mr. Quimby's attention to her losses. He advised
her to lock her door, which she was careful to do after that, but not
with the expected result. She continued to miss things, mostly jewelry
of which she had a ridiculous store. Various domestics were dismissed,
and finally one of the permanent boarders was requested to leave, but
still the thefts went on till, her patience being exhausted, she
notified the police and a detective was sent: I have always wished I had
been that detective. The case ended in what was always considered a
joke. Another object disappeared while he was there, and it having been
conclusively proved to him that it could not have been taken by way of
the door, he turned his attention to the window which it was one of her
freaks always to keep wide open. The result was curious. One day he
spied from a hiding-place he had made in the bushes a bird flying out
from that window, and following the creature till she alighted in her
nest he climbed the tree and searched that nest. It was encrusted with
jewels. The bird was a magpie and had followed its usual habits,
but--the chain was not there,