The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-08

I
He leaned back in his chair, folded his
arms and closed his eyes. A person enter
ing the room might have imagined the In
spector to be asleep. But he was very far
| from that.
His thoughts ran as follows: 'If the fel.
low Is, as he appears to be, a resident of the
city, and accustomed to observe a certain
routine in his life, then it is probable that
he would not go out of a certain definite re-
gion; say, region bounded by Sixth av-
enue on the west, Third avenue on the east,
north by Forty second street, and south by
Wall street. That is giving him a large
range; there are thousands of business and
club men who are hardly ever met with off
Fifth avenue or Broadway. Thus all the
space between, say Fourteenth street and
| City Hall may be stricken out, for he will
pass over that in the cars. During business
hours he would be below City Hall, and at
other times above Fourteenth street. But
he would not be likely to write his black
| mailing letters at his club, or at his place of
! business. No; he would do that at home
| Well, his house may be anywhere. But take
| it that he is an unmarried man, and there
fore would live in lodgings or in a boarding
house in good quarter of the town; some
! where above Thirtieth and below Forty
| second; not further west than Sixth or
Seventh avenue, and-well-probably not
east at all. Somewhere in that region the
letters are written-and somewhere in that
region they are posted, for he would not
carry them about with him any longer than
was necessary. In fact, it is quite likely
that he may have posted every one of the
letters in the same box? But the stamp
shows only the district, not the box. Still,
1t would be something to know that they
werea II posted in the same district, and
that | can find out right herel Why didn't
| | think of it beforegr
AT this point the Inspector opened his
eyes, which had new sparkle of expec-
| fancy in them, and pulled out a small pri-
| vate drawer in the recesses of the desk
| which contained a score or more of letters
in their envelopes. They were the entire
correspondence of the anonymous black
| mailer, up to date They were all ad-
dressed to Maxwell Golding, in a scrawling,
irregular hand, evidently disguised but as
| evidently by the same writer in every case.
Each envelope bore the stamp of the dis
| trict office at which it was received. The
| Inspector examined these stamps one after
| another. The first was ''E,n so was the
| second. So likewise was the third. The
fourth was sc" again, and the fifth and the
sixth.
"Why, upon my word" explained the In
spectOr, after moment, "they are nearly
all 'En" So far at any rate, l don't seem
to be much astray. Now let us see where
abouts E. isl"
From another drawer in the table he got
out a large map of New York city, with
the districts marked upon it. A brief in
spection revealed the fact that district "En
comprises that portion of the city's area
which is bounded on the north by Forty
third street, on the south by Twenty-tirst,
east by Fifth avenue and west by the
North river
That is a tolerably large territory" said
the Inspector to himself, but at any rate it
comprises the place where | supposed my
man to be living. Now, how am l to find
out which particular letter-box he usesl 1t
cannot be done. However, he evidently
uses some one of the boxes in that district.
How many are therep
A postal directory was lying on the table,
and consultation of it showed that dis
trict ''E" contained just 118 letter boxes
"One hundred and eighteen is a good
many" the Inspector unused, "but it is
much more easily managed than two or
three thousand If / could set watch on
every one of those boxes something might
come of it. But there are not so many de-
tectives in the office. No; but perhaps the
post office authorities could be induced to
send me 80 or 60 men to help me out Well.
but they could be spared for only one day
at most; and how do | know that the black
mailer would post letter on that days
Pshawl that is easy enough Insert an ur-
gent personal in the paper that would re-
quire an immediate reply from him; set the
watch on that day and catch himl Yes:
but suppose have a man at every box
near enough to see the address of the letter
as it goes in, is it not as good as certain that
the fellow will notice it and take the alarms
On the other hand, if they are stationed at
distance, how are they to know what tho
address is9 That is an obstacle Let us see
if there is no way around it."
He leaned his head on his hand and pom
dered earnestly for over minute
Il have i'll" he suddenly exclaimed; 'Hhe
thing is as simple as possible! let earn of
the men have key, and take up his posi-
ton half dozen yards away from the box
to which he is assigned. AS soon as anyone
posts letter, and starts to go away, the
watcher comes forward aud opens tie box.
If the letter just dropped in is to Gblding.
arrest the man! Is there anything wrong
with that?'
Again he meditated intently; and an ex-
preston of chagrin overspread his fea-
lures.
thine is difficulty, " he muttered, land
though it seems a trihing one, At is enough
to upset the whole scheme Iffthe first, or
second, or third letter posted in the box
should be TO Golding it wouldjbe all right.
But it is more likely to be TIE fiftieth or
sixtieth, In that case, when the box is
opened two watchers will have to look
through the whole pile of etters TO discover
whether the one ne wantslis among them;
and by the time he has done that the black
mailer will be half dozen blocks away
That must be remedied-but howe If onIv
the letters already posted could in some way
be separated from the one posted last; to be
sure, each ietter might be taken out as it
was posted, and kept out. But that would
hardly do it would involve letting all the
carriers mi the scheme Move must
think of something else. How to distinguish
at glance the last letter posted from the
othersi There must be a method, If could
but hit upon it. The other letters must be
in heap by themselves, and the last one
All | see it now and that concludes the
whole matter. Here is the solution" and
the 1ns pector took up an ordinary india
rubber band, such as every one uses in max
ing up packets Of papers. LET ons of then
be slipped round the letters as fast as they
are examined. Thus, every time the box
is opened, there will always be a bundle of
letters and a loose letter. The loose letter will
be the one last put in, and the watchers can
see kat glance whether it is addressed to
Ma kwell Goldlng. Yes, that settles 1t. The
th ng can be done, and it shall be done
without the loss of a day. will make my
application to the post Office at once, and
oh Sunday, which is somewhat of an off
|day for the men, we will put the scheme to
the test SO now to workP'
Summoning au assistant, Inspector
Byrnes first act was to cause a dirgram or