Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1899-09-07

struggle between the police and the l.
D. B.. or diamond smuggling fraternity
went on as before, but with an added
terror for the eviidocr. who, if he elud-
ed the clutches Of the law. might the
next hour fall into the no more merci-
full grasp of the gang The honest and
lawful trader still hated the l. II. b. a.
his worst enemy, but the gang robbed
both with AN impartiality worthy Of a
more honorable calling
The police, naturally, had anything
but happy time of il. If they devoted
an adequate amount of time and force
to hunting for the gang which was
never where it was expected or wanted
the occupation Of the J. ID. b became
comparatively pleasant and easy wEile
if they did their proper work thorough
II the gang promptly went on the
warpath with renewed vigor and ex-
tended its scope and raked in the plum
der with both hands from the honest
and dishonest alike.
1t viii be readily understood that no
state of affairs couh possibly be more
distasretul to Mr.. Inspector Lipinski
than this Not only was his professional
credit at stake, but men like Mickey
Muratti, key Cohen, Sandy Fraser and
Alexander Macadam, who he absolutely
knew either to be or to have been in
volyed in extensive l. d. b. transac-
tions but who were now getting rich,
and therefore men Of influence in a
town where the faculty Of making mon
ey anyhow was the only one that got
a man on, were making sarcastic com
parisuns between Houuslow Heath 100
years ago and the diamond fields of to
day, and were asking ugly questions
ABOUT the efficiency, nay, even the in
corruptibility, Of the police force in
general and the detective department in
particular
1t was this last suspicion that touch
ed the puzzled and harassed inspector
most keenly. As a practical man he
had no belief i'll miraculous escapes or
the possibility of people being in two
different places at once, and gradually
the conviction forced itself upon him
that the immunity Of the gang from
capture and its invasion of trap after
trap that be had laid for it with all the
skill and cunning at his command could
only be due to the cunnivance of some of
his own men and the Free State police,
which he knew TO be anything but inn
maculate
This conviction led him at last to the
resolve to risk not only reputation and
position, but life itself, in tire attempt
to personally break up the gang, or at
least to penetrate the mystery which
shrouded its doings and shielded it from
Justice. This resolve once made, it did
not take man Of his character very
long to translate it into action.
He caused certain information to leak
out, us it were, through underground
channels which were always at his
service. to the effect that in consequence
of strong suspicious that the Diamond
mail to Vryburg was going to be held
up by the border gang ON certain
night when it would be carrying an ex-
ceptionally valuable consignment of
gems the stones would be run the night
before as though they We're an Illicit
parcel, over the border to FrectOwn and
thence conveyed in the usual way TO
Port Elizabeth instead Of Cape Town.
The Diamond mail Of the following day
was to take no consignment at all, but
was 10 be accompanied by double
guard.
On the appointed night the inspector
had score of his best and most trusted
,nen, armed to the teeth, posted along
the border within hail of the point
where the road TO Frectown crosses it.
On the other side n detachment of the
Free State police was by arrangement
with the district chief to be lying in
wait ready to act in concert with them
and to catch the gang between the two
forces at the moment of attack.
when Inspector Lipinsi:i set ont that
night 90 take his part in the working
out of his scheme, he took an even more
than usually affectionate leave of his
daughter--a pretty, graceful girl of be
tween 16 and II, who was the incarna-
ton Of the one romance OF his life, the
daughter Of the only woman he had
ever looked upon 10 love and long for
and the one rose that no had saved ont
of the paradise that he had once dwelt
in.
He went to his office and changed his
uniform for suit Of clothes that he
had never been seen in, a sort Of semi
sporting rig, that he had had up spe-
cially from Cape Town, put his favorite
Smith Wesson in his right hand coat
pocket, and then started out 10 walk to
Beaconsfield. On the way he overlook
his Kaflir groom. leading his best horse.
He mounted, saw that the pair Of heavy