Tilly Tracks a Thief by M. Louisa Locke

Author:M. Louisa Locke [Locke, M. Louisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: M. Louisa Locke

An hour later, Tilly was back at the boardinghouse, talking to her mistress. “You see, ma’am, I think I made a terrible mistake, and I don’t know how to fix it.” She wiped her tears with the handkerchief she had learned to keep in her pocket. “I thought I was so clever, tracking Gunther down, then I saw the room.”

“Now Tilly, I’m sure I can help, but I’m a little confused. You took off after the butcher boy and followed him all the way down Second Street to his home?”

“If you could call the room he led me to a home. Weren’t any bigger than a coal cellar, ma’am. Probably was one at some time in the past. He lives there with his old granny and his little sister, all crowded in that tiny, dirty space. The ceiling’s so low a full-grown man wouldn’t be able to stand upright or stretch full-out if’n they tried to lie down to sleep. And right smack dab in the middle of the room stands this sad little Christmas tree.”

“A Christmas tree?” Mrs. Dawson said.

“Yes, ma’am, well, near enough. Looked to me like Gunther had taken that branch Mr. Nate cut off the bottom of our tree and stood it up in a bucket. Don’t know how he got it to stand upright, and the needles are already turning brown and falling out. But he’d decorated it, best he could, with bits and pieces, some colored broken glass, some faded red yarn, and other stuff he probably got from bins.”

When Tilly had arrived back at the boardinghouse, Mrs. O’Rourke and Kathleen were in the midst of the last hectic preparations for dinner. As a result, beyond a puzzled look, the cook hadn’t questioned her when she said she needed to speak with the mistress.

She found Mrs. Dawson in her bedroom, rocking baby Abigail after her feeding. The mistress had taken one look at her and told her to sit down and tell her what was wrong. Tilly was afraid that she’d not told her story very well, what with her tears and all.

As she lifted Abigail to her shoulder, Mrs. Dawson said, “Let me get this straight. Kathleen told me about how she thought someone was stealing from the yards in our neighborhood, like Mrs. Foxton’s missing shawl and Mrs. Ashburton’s necklace.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And the reason you tracked the butcher boy to his home was because you thought he was the neighborhood thief?”

“Yes, ma’am. He came to deliver the meat this afternoon, and as he left, it came to me…all of a sudden…that he was the thief. You see, I saw he’d snuck a second roll, and then I saw the tinsel on the floor…and figured it must’a come out of his pocket.”

“Tinsel? The old tarnished bunch I had you throw away?”

“Yes, ma’am. Kathleen said Miss Laura was asking about the tinsel. That’s why I went out and checked the bins earlier this afternoon. The tinsel and the bent horn were gone.”

“And you believe Gunther,

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