The herald., 1896-05-31
Copyright 1906 by Bacbeller. johnson Bacheller.)

SYNOPSIS.
Lewis McKeever, the cashier or the Je1-
ferson bank of New York, on the afternoon
Of Wednesday. November 2S, 1894, the day
before Thanksgiving, sets the time lock OF
the bank safe, closes the safe and the
vault, and goes away with stranger who
has come in with him from luncheon. On
the following Friday morning Curtis, the
bookkeeper, opens the safe and hnds tnat
forty thousand dollars has been stolen NC
Keever fails to appear, and 1t Is learned
that he has disappeared. Mr.. Dennlsson,
director of the bank, the narrator OF the
story, believes that McKeever Is innocent.
He mentions the matter to his friend VOL
cot who advises him to employ an odd ola
character, Benjamin, skilled In unravelling
criminal mysteries Benjamin takes cnarge
and learns from the bookkeeper that Nc
Keever talked strangely ON Tuesday after
noon about an earthquake, and the liber-
alton of John Y. McKane. then In jail. he
also spoke of Distillers' stock being at ~
b-S, when its market price was 3-4. Ben
tamin goes to see Miss Agnes Warren, Nc
Keever's niece, who keeps house for MIN.
He questions her, but learns nothing. She
goes to visit Brooklyn relative, and he
goes back and questions her servant, Maria
Flanagan. He finds out from her that she
thinks McKeever disappeared on Tuesday,
instead of Wednesday, because devilled
lobster had been ordered by Miss warren Tor
that day at lunch, a dish always served IN
the family on Tuesday. Benjamin also
learns that McKeever always read The
Post after lunch, and tnat Miss Warren
had burned the paper he read on that We'd
nesday. Maria Flanagan had managed to
save a scrap of the paper. however, which
contained an advertisement OF freckie
exterminator, she being much troubled
with freckles. Benjamin examines the
paper and declares to Dennisson that ne
has solved the mystery with the aid OF the
earthquake, the freckle exterminator and
the devilled lobster.
PART III.
Wolcot and l looked at each other IN
amazement. His thoughts were mine and
mine his This man whom we had brought
with us into the case. was either drivel-
ling idiot. or he thought that we were.
"Mr. Benjamin." l said. EITHER you
are a fool, or you think that we are. This
Is the worst kind of nonsense ever heard.
We are not children and this weak effort
at mystification, this objectless attempt to
impose on us by string Of ridiculous
nothngs won't go down eny longer"
II didn't take you for children he en-
swered. you are men, as | think, OF in
telect above the ordinary; but, allowing
this, 1t is not surprising that you do not
understand this business. l will say now,
that this is an extraordinarily singular case.
There probably has never been anything
like ii in the annals of crime. In fact, it
Is tho most ingenious example of chcanery
that it has ever been my luck to run across.
Do you mean to say that, at the present
moment, you haven't an inkling. just
slight inkling of the means which were
used to rob the jefferson bank:'
Wolcot and looked at each other, and
acknowledged in terms Of mockery, that
we had net.
wish to say before going further, that
suhse1uent events showed that Benjamin
was right; that every word he had spoken
was true. And yet, Wolcot and |. who had
witnessed the whole of the investigation
up to that time, could not, for the life of
US, perceive any clue, any shadow OF
clue to the mystery; withstanding, that