The Florence daily tribune., 1898-05-23
"Hayo You anything to reportY'l

before begin, may l light cherootf |
see from the ash trays you smoke in
heroln
Smoke as much rs ven please, " |
replied. MAY also offer you some re-
freshment? Perhaps you haven't dinedg
Ii so, can tell them to bring you up
somethingr'
mo- thank you, he answered. Il
have dined, and excellently. Now let us
set TO business without any further
waste of time"
with all the good will in tho
world, " said, seating myself again.
"Go on. Tell me all, "
'ln the first place have ascertained
that the van leaves the prison at def.
mite hour every day. 1t drives down.
takes the prisoners up and drives back
again. This being so, it is certain that
IT must be stopped on its way from the
prison to tho court and in such n way
that 1t cannot 70 ON again for At least
half an hour, In the meantime another
van must drive down equipped in every
way like the real one. This one will
take up the prisoner and drive oil. Once
out Of sight of the station, it will drive
into the yard Of an empty house, a con
voyanoe will then be in waiting in the
other street. her ladyship passes through
the house, gets into that and drives off
to railway station. There Pullman
must be in readiness to take her to the
seaside, whence u yacht will convey her
to some place where we can have the
Lone Star to meet her. / shall cable to
Patterson to set off and be in readiness
TO pick us up directly we have decided
where that place shall be. f"
"But how will you cable to him with.
out exciting suspicion?"
"You need have no fear ON that score.
We have means of communicating of
our own which l would explain now
only it would be waste OF time. What
do you think of my schemeG"
at sounds all right, but is it work
able?'
II really think so. However, we will
discuss it item by item and try and ar
rive at a conclusion that way. To begin
with, money must he considered no OBJ
ject. If even .e10. 600 is necessary to its
success, $40, 600 will be spent. In the
first place. we must find a competent
coach builder at onoo. If he has van on
hand, which is hardly likely, we'll pur-
chase il, II not, well, then h1 must put
on all his hands and make one, oven il
he has sst to aS york day yn and Il nigh. 70 do it,
pose for which We want it?''
Il have thought of that and when |
left you l sent the following telegram" >"
Here he produced "a duplicate form
from his ,,prt-pt anl ,.aaI - aloud.
To the Lessee olympic Theatcr, Manchester:
What dates this month"; Reply terms, Stra-
vaus. West Strand telegraph office,
MANDiiLLIEN STRAcAUs.
"But who ON earth IS Maximillien
Stragaus, and what has the Royal
Olympic theater, Manchester, to do
with our scheme?"
Everything. In tho first place You
must realize the fact that am Maxi
millien Stragaus, the world renowned
theatrical entrepreneur, and that you
are his secretary, Fairlight Longsmun.
Having received reply from Manches-
ter, | decide TO open there with my
wonderful and intensely exciting prison
drama, Saved by Woman's Pluck,
on the third Saturday in June. Here is
the preliminary announcement. had it
struck off this afternoon.
He took from tho small bag he had
brought into the room with him a large
theatrical poster, covered with printing
of all colors of the rainbow. 1t read as
follows:
ROYAL OLYMPIC THEATER.
MANCHESTER.
Lessee. see..................Mr William Carrickford
FOR TEN NIGHTS ONLY,
Commencing Saturday, june Goth.
Ir. Maximillien Strngaus World Renowned
Standard Company in the Intensely
Exciting Prison Drama,
SAVED BY a wOMAN'S PLUCK"
Detectives-Police-Pl e-Ploodhounds-Rea Horses
and Real Prison Vans.
Sole Manager and Proprietor.
Mr.. Maximillien strngnus
Secretary ............, Mr.. Fairlight Longsman
"Therel What do you think of that
for posterr'
"Very startling" l answered. "But
l must reiterate my former remark, that
do not understand in the very least
degree what it has to do with us. 4"
why, look here, it means that to-
morrow morning we 60 to that coach
builder l was speaking of and give him
an order for a prison van. Incidentally
we will show him this poster and state
that owing to change of dates we must
have the van delivered this day week.
Don't you sec? If we hadn't something
to show, he might suspect. This poster,
however. will set his mind completely
at rest and at the same time be an ex-
cuse for haste. Now, you understand
81 do, and / must say admire your
wonderful resource. What next?"
"Well, the next thing will be to OBJ
tain two police uniforms and two trust
worthy men, one to drive the van, the
other to act as guard. That, however,
will be easily managed. The next item
will be rather more diffioultp'
"What is that?"
"Why, to find sure and certain
means of stopping the real van on its
way down to the court y
"We couldn't waylay the driver and