The smith chewed in silence for a moment.

"Don't know him myself, but I tell you what, his help says
he's the best employer they ever had--and they stay there
forever!"

The boss drove on to the house, which he observed was
situated at about an equal distance from three different
railway stations and surrounded by a piazza with pillars. He
walked around it, examining the vines until his eye caught a
torn creeper and a white scratch on the paint. It had been
an outside job after all, and two weeks had already been
lost. Deduction was responsible for a mistake which would
not have occurred had a little knowledge been acquired first.
That is the lesson of this story.

The denouement, which has no lesson at all, is interesting.
The superintendent saw no prospect of getting back the
necklace, but before so informing the client, decided to
cogitate on the matter for a day or two. During that time he
met by accident a friend who made a hobby of studying yeggmen
and criminals and occasionally doing a bit of the amateur
tramp act himself.

"By the way," said the friend, "do you ever hear of any
`touches' up the river or along the Sound?"

"Sometimes," answered the boss, pricking up his ears. "Why
do you ask?"