sancy tolen ulen papers fa ers found at ball recovery of diplomats wallet waite t just as thrilling as best of nick carter tales pingue Pr oglie during tup the jolious days of the recent carnival in prague there was performed quite unknown to the revellers resellers rev ellers a clever piece of detective work on the part of the local police which resulted in the restoring to a distracted diplomat of certain papers which ch to him were of the greatest importance the police worked quietly into the night inight life of the city and such was their success that before the night was over the city jail bad two new tenants and a young man was speeding out of prague to the foreign UI office M of his big government expressing heartfelt bear thanks to the local inspector of police who in this athla narrative can be referred to only as mr D valuable papers stolen sir mr D seated one afternoon in his big office behind a pile of papers was interrupted suddenly by a young diplomat representing one of the great powers of europe who declared his big business to be most urgent lie he related that a wallet containing documents of great value had been stolen lie ile had left it for a few moments on his writing table to go to another room in the legation and when he returned it was gone furthermore there were jewels in the wallet his big personal property but their abstraction did not disturb the young foreigner halt half as much as the loss of the papers 1 I must leave prague by the night train he explained to the inspector and I 1 will N III be ruined for life it if these documents cannot be recovered mr D drove to the legation and looked over the wallet substituted for that of the diplomat it contained a prague newspaper from which a clipping had been made the inspector secured an intact copy of this paper and was thus able to read the clipping cut out by the thief also mr D found traces of face powder between the leaves of the wallet the clipping announced that there was to be a masked ball that evening at a well known hall ball in the city with this as his big main clue the inspector assured the diplomat that ile he would restore the papers and after assigning a detective to watch the palace he hurried away to don a fancy costume ile he was going to the ball dressed as officer the only costume he could find was his old full dress austrian uniform a u souvenir of the days when prague was a part of the austrian empire As lie he was leaving ills his house the lie detective at the legation telephoned him the daughter of the janitor of the legation had just left her apartments in the costume of carmen it did not take the inspector too long to locate carmen at the ball she was seeking a man mail who eventually appeared in the uniform of a hungarian mag magnate nate and wearing the customary black mask the pair withdrew discreetly into a quiet room and the inspector waited at the only exit soon they came out the girt girl wearing an expensive necklace she had not had on before the inspector approached pro ached carmen and tile the hungarian magnate agnate lu and spoke a few quiet but well chosen words there was no protest and no scene they preceded him to a taxicab and on the way to the railroad station the inspector stopped at police headquarters expert hands searched the pair and the inspector quietly took possession of the diplomats portfolio the necklace and other pieces of jewelry sir mr D drove on alone and arrived at the railroad station after the gates for the night train had been closed on the platform he found the young diplomat with anith watch la in hand trying to persuade the train crew to delay departure for just a few moments mr D made good his promise lie ile handed the diplomat his big portfolio and in it were intact the missing documents and the je jewels vels