Then something happened which once more dragged Flechter into the
limelight. Editors rushed to their files and dusted the cobwebs off the
issues containing the accounts of the trial. The sign of the gilded
fiddle became the daily centre of a throng of excited musicians, lawyers
and reporters. The lost Stradivarius--the great "Duke of Cambridge"--the
nemesis of Bott and of Flechter--was found--by Flechter himself, as he
claimed, on August 17, 1900. According to the dealer and his witnesses
the amazing discovery occurred in this wise. A violin maker named Joseph
Farr, who at one time had worked for Flechter and had testified in his
behalf at the trial (to the effect that the instrument produced in the
police court was _not_ Bott's Stradivarius) saw by chance a very fine
violin in the possession of a family named Springer in Brooklyn, and
notified Flechter of the fact. The latter, who was always ready to
purchase choice violins, after vainly trying for a long time to induce
the Springers to bring it to New York, called with Farr upon Mrs.
Springer and asked to examine it. To his utter astonishment she produced
for his inspection Bott's long-lost Stradivarius. Hardly able to control
his excitement Flechter immediately returned to New York and reported
the discovery to the police, who instantly began a thorough examination
of the circumstances surrounding its discovery.

The District Attorney's office and the Detective Bureau were at first
highly suspicious of this opportune discovery on the part of a convicted
felon of the precise evidence necessary to clear him, but it was soon
demonstrated to their pretty general satisfaction that the famous
Stradivarius had in fact been pawned in the shop of one Benjamin Fox on
the very day and within an hour of the theft, together with its case and
two bows, for the insignificant sum of four dollars. After the legal
period of redemption had expired it had been put up at auction and bid