The Argosy, Christmas 1912 — page 185: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“ HEW! A hundred thousand this? Rothwell, the Chicago pounds! Say, have you seen millionaire, traveling down to Tor- quay from London with Mrs. Roth- well, makes up with a gentlemanly stranger—invites him to their reserved compartment for a_ talk — stranger holds ’em up at the point of a revolver, collars the lady’s jewel-case containing the famous pearl necklace and other jewelry worth half a million dollars, and jumps the train. And this is England—well! ” Colonel Tomlinson, an American of distinguished appearance, hadn’t been half an hour in the smoking-lounge of the Wellington Hotel at Plymouth, but already he had made himself agreeable to a group of the hotel guests, and im- deed had more or less occupied the at- tention of the entire room. He was talkative and typically American. Extra editions of the evening papers had just been brought in, and there had been a pause in the conversation in consequence. An extra edition is not an every-day occurrence in Ply- mouth, and every one was curious to see the news that had justified this one. -‘man’s face. Colonel Tomlinson's exclamation started a discussion of the affair. “Must put you in mind of home,” suggested an alert individual in a characteristic English drawl. The colonel laughed easily. “ Why, now, that’s knocking us sort of hard; but the remark isn’t alto- gether unjustified. We certainly do have some daring hold-ups over on the other side; but not often a one-man job like this. You see, we haven’t the apartment-cars in America. The cars are open all the way through, and it takes a gang to do a job like this; they've got to hold up the entire train, you see.” | While Tomlinson was talking a plump little man of ruddy complexion entered the smoking-room. Just in- -sside the door he paused uncertainly and eyed the back of the speaker, which was toward him. Then, unobtrusively, he walked toward the group, edging around so as to obtain a view of the From this position he regarded the speaker fixedly. The colonel caught his eye and ad- dressed him directly: “We're just discussing the Roth- well hold-up. Have you seen the news? 17 CO MICLOOKS CO