The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-12-10

very well, being detective, but the ol
 man overlooked that and was the best
 perhaps the only friend I had amongs the sWells.
 He had a big family, about sever
 chlldren-all grown young women of tn
 'high-society' kind-and they didn't dt thing to the old mans finances
 What with summer tours and winter gayeties, pink teas, soirees, theater par
 ties and all that sort of doings, they
 kept the old fellows nose to the grind
 stone for true. He didn't have a thing
 in the world but his home and his sala.
 ry, and I don't think that was over
 three or four thousand. l used to sit
 with him in the train pretty often, and
 as he was stuck on talking and
 wasn't, l came to know a good deal
 about his affairs. I don't think he was
 very strong at the society game him
 self, but he was all wrapped up in his
 family and let them work him to the
 limit.
 l 'The black sheep of Cedar Grove
 owned the house next door to Kauf-
 mans, and the chief ambition of the
 cashier was to buy out his objectiona- ble neighbor. His name was Heck.
 burg; he was professional gambler,
 and his wife was what the suburban
 ties call vulgar Once about every
 month the Heckburgs would have what
 they called house party but nobody
 ever came to it except lot of fash looking guys from town They used to l raise merry h. at them parties, and
 you could hear the poker chips rattle
 all night long. That made the Kauf-
 man ladies wild, and as Heckburgs was
 dinky sort of cottage, built right
 up against Kaufman's lot, the old fel-
 low, his wife and his hightoned daugh-
 ters had their hearts set on buying it. | "'It ain't worth more than three | thousand dollars, Kaufman explained to me one night, and could have had it for twenty-five hundred dollars last
 summer when Heckburg went broke on the races. I'll get him in the saame fix again, I hope. He won't sell now, Never will sell so long as he's flush, but
 the first time he goes broke I'll get the
 place. Last time I didn't have the cash, and, gambler-like, he wanted 1t right off-wouldn't wait a day. I'm ready for him now, though"
 And Kaufman tapped his breast and whispered, I got three thousand dollars in my inside pocket. Carry it there all the time, ready for Heckburg to go broke told the old man that he was foolish to carry so much cash around with him, but he said Heckburg was one of those men that couldn't be in- duced to let go for anything but ready money. I carry it In my inside vest pocket, and nobody knows it but you and me- he said. was a little sur prised to know that he had so much cash of his own, but I didn't think much about 1t till a few days later, when, as I said, got my first big case. |
 of course I didn't live in the wesll | part of Cedar Grove, but at that my l room wasn't more than six or seven | blocks from Kaufmans It was about | three o'clock one winter morning, just | before Christmas, when I was routed ! out of bed by Kaufman's coachman. I l lit the gas and let him in, and while l was dressing he told me that the old man had just been murdered. 'Taint more'n three days ago he told me If anything ever. happened to call you, and so I came; here first l thanked my stars that was to have the first and in five minutes we were -rudging through the snow to the Kauf- man house. From the coachman's talk [ learned that the first indication of trouble had come about half-hour be- fore, when he and the family were awakened by the report of shotgun, followed almost immediately by pis- -ol shot.
 He slept in a room over the barn, put had run over to the house and cached the side porch before any one n the house had appeared He found ,ld Kaufman lying face down, dying, ,n the porch floor. His shotgun lay be- tide him, and, further away, pistol, which he supposed nut have been lropped by the burglar. When got to :, he houe it was all lighted up, the wo- nen were up stairs screaming and go- ng on, and two or three neighbors att racted by the shots, were just arriv- ng. The poor old banker was yet ,here he had fallen, and nobody seemed o have the nerve to take even a second !, ook at him. I made everybody stay in :, he house, got lantern and stationed n he coachman at the front gate to keep ew corners from tracking up the snow. "One of the first things l did after / making sure that Kaufman was dead il ,as to examine his pockets. His o yatch, good gold one, was in his vets, t yhich was unbuttoned as if he might t. ave hurriedly thrown it and his coat t n. He was fully dresed even to the icing of his shoes. l remember about ne three thousand dollars which he ,as in the habit of carrying in his in 4 de vest pocket and looked for it. It as gone. The pistol ball had entered is forehead, which was powder burned.
 looked for tracks in the nows and ,und only the insgle trail of the coach- an as he came from the stable and ose of fox terrier, Kaufman's, which as now following me about in the ard. As most of the snowfall had me since midnight I began to be mys- fled about the burglar-how he had me and how he had gone. Then I oked about for signs of the ingsle dis
 arge of the shotgun, and found the ot had imbedded itself in the side of Y eckburg's house, just across the lawn om Kaufman's porch. Well, the town authorities soon ar =