How A Thief Robbed Himself

"One of the funniest things that happenecl during my experience was being sent for one day to cali upon a man who was confined in the jail upon the charge of burglary. The reputation of the man was bad; he was known to be an expert thief. and though burglary had been laid at his door several times, no convietion had been obtained. I responded to his message, and at once recognized him as a man whoni I had previously met. He told me his story, denying, of course, liis guilt of this particular crime; but I was convinced he knew more of the matter than he had told me. He desired that I should take his case in hand, and at any rate to get him out on bail. When I asked him if he had any money, he promptly ansvvered in the aftirmative, and told me to go to the out-house of a certain saloon, and upon the rafters in a corner ] would find a roll of money containing $600. "Take that and use it,"' said he. I followed h:s directions, found a package just where he said it was, and carried it to my office. Tlien I unrolled it, and to my utter amazement found that it contained $3,550. I studied over the ïnatter, but could not, for the life me, explain the difference in the amounts, $61)0 and $3.550. I called upon him the next day and told him I had secured the package. "Now," said he, "I want to get out of here as soon as possible." I at once looked into the testi ■ mony against him, found it was weak, procured bail, had his examlnation, and he was discharged through the want of evidence. He was present at the examination only through my assurance that conviction could not be had. He was profuse iu his thanks and liberal in his tieatment ofmyself and friends in the wav of drinks and cigars. He bade me good-by and said he would leave the city for good. Not a word was said about the $3,550. Six monthsafterwardthis man wasagain in jail, and wlieu brought up for hearing said he had no money to hire a lawyer. I volunteered to defend him and succeedecl in clearing him. He then told me that he would pay me some time for my services and proceeded to teil me that he [would have had plenty of means if-a pal of his had not gone back on him and raised a plant of $3,550, which he had put away months before, but which he was af raid to go alter himself. The fact of the matter was that when he told me where to get the $600 he forgot himself and gave the directions of the big pile, wtiich I rot, while his