DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22217#0038
26 THE MURDERED TAILOR'S WATCH.
men indeed when I found two known as " The Crab Apple "
and " Coskey " flush of money and muddled with drink, but a
day's investigation proved that they owed their good fortune
to a stupid swell who had got into their clutches over in the
New Town. Coskey, indeed, strongly declared that he did not
believe the Anderson affair had been managed by a professional
criminal at all.
" If it had been done by any of us I'd have heard on it,"
was his frank remark to me.
I was pretty sure that Coskey spoke the truth, for in his
nervous anxiety to escape Calcraft's toilet he had actually con-
fessed to me all the particulars of the New Town robbery by
which his own pockets had been filled, and which afterwards
led to a seven years' retirement from the scene of his
labours.
The hint thus received prepared me for making the worst
slip of all I had made in the case. I went. to Anderson's
widow to get the number of the watch, and some description
by which it might be identified. She could not tell me the
number or the maker's name ; she could only say that it had a
white dial and black figures, but declared that she would know
it out of a thousand by a deep "clour" or indentation on the
back of the case.
"I was there when it got the mark," she said, "and I could
never be mistaken if the watch was put before me. A thief
might alter the number, but nobody could take out that mark,
for we tried if, and the watchmaker could do nothing for it.
My man was working hard one day with the watch on, when a
customer called to be measured. The waistcoat he wore
wasn't a very bonny one, and he whipped it off in a hurry, for-
getting about the watch, which was tugged out, and came bang
against the handle of one of his irons. The watch was never
a bit th£ worse, but the case had aye the mark on it—just
there," and the widow, to illustrate her statement, showed me
a spot on the back of my own watch, and then so minutely ex-
plained the line of the indentation, its length and its depth,
that I felt sure that if it came in my way I should be able to
identify it as readily as by a number.
This would have been all very well if her information had
there ended, but it didn't.
"You are hunting away among thieves and jail birds for the
man that did it," she bitterly remarked, " but I think I could
put my hand on him without any detective to help me,"
men indeed when I found two known as " The Crab Apple "
and " Coskey " flush of money and muddled with drink, but a
day's investigation proved that they owed their good fortune
to a stupid swell who had got into their clutches over in the
New Town. Coskey, indeed, strongly declared that he did not
believe the Anderson affair had been managed by a professional
criminal at all.
" If it had been done by any of us I'd have heard on it,"
was his frank remark to me.
I was pretty sure that Coskey spoke the truth, for in his
nervous anxiety to escape Calcraft's toilet he had actually con-
fessed to me all the particulars of the New Town robbery by
which his own pockets had been filled, and which afterwards
led to a seven years' retirement from the scene of his
labours.
The hint thus received prepared me for making the worst
slip of all I had made in the case. I went. to Anderson's
widow to get the number of the watch, and some description
by which it might be identified. She could not tell me the
number or the maker's name ; she could only say that it had a
white dial and black figures, but declared that she would know
it out of a thousand by a deep "clour" or indentation on the
back of the case.
"I was there when it got the mark," she said, "and I could
never be mistaken if the watch was put before me. A thief
might alter the number, but nobody could take out that mark,
for we tried if, and the watchmaker could do nothing for it.
My man was working hard one day with the watch on, when a
customer called to be measured. The waistcoat he wore
wasn't a very bonny one, and he whipped it off in a hurry, for-
getting about the watch, which was tugged out, and came bang
against the handle of one of his irons. The watch was never
a bit th£ worse, but the case had aye the mark on it—just
there," and the widow, to illustrate her statement, showed me
a spot on the back of my own watch, and then so minutely ex-
plained the line of the indentation, its length and its depth,
that I felt sure that if it came in my way I should be able to
identify it as readily as by a number.
This would have been all very well if her information had
there ended, but it didn't.
"You are hunting away among thieves and jail birds for the
man that did it," she bitterly remarked, " but I think I could
put my hand on him without any detective to help me,"