died away. Out of sorts at
he hardly knew what, he leaned back in his chair, with his hands under
the back of his head. Here it was Christmas Eve, and he at the desk
instead of being out with the old woman buying things for the
children. He thought with a sudden pang of conscience of the sled he
had promised to get for Johnnie and had forgotten. That was hard luck.
And what would Katie say when--

He had got that far when his eye, roaming idly over the desk, rested
upon the little package taken from the thief's pocket. Something about
it seemed to move him with sudden interest. He sat up and reached for
it. He felt it carefully all over. Then he undid the package slowly
and drew forth a woolly sheep. It had a blue ribbon about its neck,
with a tiny bell hung on it.

The Sergeant set the sheep upon the desk and looked at it fixedly for
better than a minute. Having apparently studied out its mechanism, he
pulled its head and it baa-ed. He pulled it once more, and nodded.
Then he took up the crumpled letter and opened it.

This was what he read, scrawled in a child's uncertain hand:--

"Deer Sante Claas--Pease wont yer bring me a sjeep wat bas. Aggie had
won wonst. An Kate wants a dollie offul. In the reere 718 19th Street
by the gas house. Your friend Will."

The Sergeant read it over twice very carefully and glanced over the
page at the sheep, as if taking stock and wondering why Kate's dollie
was not there. Then he took the sheep and the letter and went over to
the Captain's door. A gruff "Come in!" answered his knock. The Captain
was pulling off his overcoat. He had just come in from his dinner.

"Captain," said the Sergeant, "we found this in the pocket of Black
Bill who is locked up for picking Mrs. ----'s pocket an hour ago. It
is a clear case. He didn't even try to give them the slip," and he set
the sheep upon the table and laid the letter beside it.

"Black Bill?" said the Captain, with something of a start; "the
dickens, you say!" And he took up the letter and read it. He was not a
very good penman, was little Will. The Captain had even a harder time
of it than the Sergeant had had making out his message.

Three times he went over it, spelling out the words, and each time
comparing it with the woolly exhibit that was part of the evidence,
before he seemed to understand. Then it was in a voice that would have
frightened little Will very much could he have heard it, and with a
black look under his bushy