Hemlock Jones as a Detective Discovers the Culprit
Anonymous
This groaner of a story, pulled from the New York Journal, appeared in the April 30, edition of the Utica Daily Union.
“Go ahead; tell me all about it,” said Hemlock Jones, leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes, as if about to go to sleep.
“It was this way,” began our visitor, Jonathan Beagle, the head of a large department store, “When I reached my office, on the fourth floor of the store this morning I took from the safe a package of bank notes amounting to $10,000, intending to deposit it in the bank as soon as I had looked over my mail. I laid the packet on top of the desk, in front of a small clock, and began to open my letters. It was just 11 o’clock when a floorwalker knocked at the door and shouted that there was a disturbance at the bargain counter. Having had experience of the serious consequences of bargain rushes, I at once jumped up and ran to the scene of the trouble expecting to be back in a few minutes. I was detained much longer, however, and I when I returned to my room the $10,000 had disappeared. My door has a spring lock, and I closed it when I ran out, and it seems that the thief must have entered my room from the adjoining room, which is occupied by nine young women bookkeepers. I do not suspect any of them but—”
“Never mind that,” interrupted Hemlock Jones. “Did you notice anything unusual about the room when you returned?”
“No—Oh, yes! I almost forgot to tell about the clock,” replied Mr. Beagle. “When I came back I noticed that it had stopped at five minutes past 11. I thought it queer because I had wound the clock an hour before. But of course that had nothing to do with the robbery. I gave the clock a shake and it is going all right now.”
Hemlock Jones at once went to the store. After taking a look at the office, he told Mr. Beagle to go outside and send in the bookkeepers one by one. The first girl stayed less than five seconds in the office and came out smiling. So did the next five. But the seventh girl did not reappear for nearly ten minutes and when she did come out she was accompanied by Hemlock Jones and was crying bitterly.
“This is the culprit,” said Hemlock Jones. “She has confessed. She couldn’t help it in the face of the evidence I have against her.”
The girl was taken away by a floorwalker, and we asked Hemlock Jones how he had discovered the guilty one.
“It was as easy as getting run over by a cable car,” he answered, suppressing a yawn. “I knew beforehand the certainty that if one of those girls took the money I could detect the thief the minute she entered the room.”
“But how? how?” we asked.
“You will understand when I tell you how I worked it,” was the reply. “As each girl entered I asked, ‘What time is it?’ Of course she looked at the clock and answered. The first six were all right, but the moment the seventh girl turned her face to the clock the ticking ceased—the clock stopped. I had the thief in hand; there was no doubt about it. The person who was responsible for the stopping of the clock when the money disappeared this morning and the girl who stood before me were one and the same. I charged her with the theft, and she broke down and confessed.”
“But how did she stop the clock?” asked Mr. Beagle in amazement.
“Just look at her face,” replied Hemlock Jones. “Wouldn’t it stop any clock that was ever put together?”