"STOP THIEF!" 



chain dangling, and a man making off. He at 

 once raised a cry of " Stop thief ! " which was 

 taken up, and soon the crowd were in hot pursuit 

 of the suspected party, who was decidedly fleet 

 of foot. However, he was pulled up at last, 

 and the watch demanded of him. He indig- 

 nantly disclaimed any knowledge of it, and told 

 his pursuers to search him if they doubted his 

 word. Searched he was, and no watch was 

 found on him, which puzzled my father amazingly, 

 because he had spotted the thief directly he had 

 felt the tug. However, there was nothing for 

 which the man could be detained, so he had to 

 be set free. An hour or so- afterwards an old 

 farmer, in a state of much perplexity, having 

 heard of the lost watch, sought an interview with 

 my father, and, to the latter 's astonishment, 

 produced the missing timepiece from his pocket. 

 On my father identifying it, the farmer said : 

 " I hope you don't think I stole it, though I don't 

 know how in the world I got it. All I can say is, 

 I found it in my pocket." The explanation was 

 not far to seek. The thief, folding himself hotly 

 pursued, thought the best thing he could do was 

 to disencumber himself of such a damning piece 

 of evidence as the filched article. The pocket 

 invitingly gaped for it, so, as he ran past the 

 farmer, he took advantage of this fortuitous 

 circumstance, and dropped the watch into this 

 convenient receptacle. My father was only too 

 pleased to get back his property and to assure 

 the restorer of it that no one could possibly 

 suspect him of any complicity in its abduction. 

 The after-fate of this watch seemed to indicate 



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