Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-02-23
FOOLED THE DETECTIVE

Bob Pinkerton. the famous detective,
has never objected to telling a story on him
| self, even when the point of 1t consists in
| his having been made to "hold the bag"
| When he in Washington to keep an
| eye out for shady characters at the last
| Benning race meeting he told of how a
gang of alleged handlers of Knockout
| drops" had fooled him about a year before.
II was travelling from Chicago to New
York." said Mr.. Pinkerton. wed only
been out from Chicago for about half
dozen hours when my attention was attract
ed by the peculiar conduct of a party of
| four well-dressed and somewhat larky
| young men in the smoking compartment Of
| the car on which l was riding. From the
beginning Of the journey had noticed that
these young chaps had been observing me
pretty strongly, and / caught couple of
! them pointing to me and nudging each
| other-I saw the thing out of the tail of my
| eye-when the conductor approached my
| seat and addressed me by name.
Therefore, when I happened to catch
| sight Of little game that was going on
among the four in the smoking compart-
| ment kept them in good view, although
L didn't suppose they knew | was watching
| them. 1 saw that quart bottle was being
passed around among them pretty freely.
Now, there was nothing unusual about
| that, Of course but l Immediately formed
strong suspicious when l observed that
! three of them were only pretending to take
their drinks of liquor out of the glass the
porter provided, while the fourth a young
fellow who had a lot of exceedingly valu-
| able jewelry scattered about his person, was
| actually gulping the liquor down at a great
rate. and was obviously becoming foolishly
| intoxicated. Now, it naturally struck me
| as queer thing, the cautious and furtive
way the three young chaps emptied their
glasses into the spittoon when the fourth
young Fellow wasn't looking, and, in view
nf
Jewelry, 1t looked like a fair calculation
that they didn't mean any good to him.
| FINALLY, when the fourth man was very
| much intoxicated, to judge by his boisterous
| manner, 1 saw the three who had been
dumping their drinks tip each other the
| wink and then one of them, after looking
around with great furtiveness. pulled a
| small vial out of his vest pocket.
| mo, L didn't mutter Eureka! like the
much-disguised Old Sleuth gentleman does
| in the weekly thrillers. but l am free to
| say that l possessed quite degree of in
| ward excitement over the prospect of nip
| ping such brazen piece OF Knockout
| work right during the accomplishment
| thereof The young man with the vial sig
| nailed to one of his pals, and the pal poured
out stiff drink from the fresh bottle
which the porter had just brought in. Then
| the young fellow with the vial dropped
| about ten drops therefrom into the glass
| OF liquor. Now, you might suppose that
1t was up to me right then to cut in but
| 1t wasn't. man can't get the full pun
| tshment prescribed for handlers of knock
out drops until he has actually served the
| stuff to his victim, and l was sore upon
| this party of three robbers that l wanted
| to have the best case possible against
them. So kept my hand out of the bust
| ness until l could see the end of the play
The youth who had used the knock out
drops handed the doped glass of liquor to
| the intoxicated chap who was manifestly
to be the victim of the three, and he took
| 1t greedily and gulped it down. Then he
gradually ceased his boisterous talking
rested his head back on the cushion of
his chair. and, with his mouth wide open
| apparently yielded to the effects of the
| Knockout fluid.
| LAS soon as he had succumbed-I saw 1t
| all through a glass pane in the partition
| between the smoking compartment and the
body of the car-the three exchanged sig
nificant glances, and then they leaned over
| their apparently unconscious companion
and began to strip MIN of his jewelry.
Il reached the door of the smoking COM
| partment in two jumps.
" Pretty coarse work, sons 1 said, just
| showing them the gun / had in my hand
but not leveling it at them, and l
| prised that you should be so foolish as to
| think that you could get away with the
| goods in such a raw way. Now, I've seen
the whole game from the beginning, and
the three Of you are to consider your
| selves corralled. AS perhaps you know,
my name is Pinkerton, and have the au-
| thority to put you under arrest
THE young fellow who was being robbed
when l broke in sumbered on with his
mouth wide open. and the other three
looked terribly alarmed Their faces got
red. and they began to reproach each
other
L told you he was Pinkerton,' one of
them said, bitterly.
| didn't want to get mixed up in this
| job, anyhow, said another.
Even If Pinkerton wasn't on the train,
you idiots ought to've known how this
train is watched said the third.
Say, what are you going to do with
US? all three inquired of me at once
Sc T. going to take the bunch of you off
the train at the next stop and make COM
plant against you, replied, and 1 can
give 1t to you pretty straight that you re
all in trouble, and a whole lot of it.
Then the Unconscious victim couldn t
hold in any longer. He jumped up and let
out roar that drowned the screeching of
the engines whistle. and then he fell back
into his chair and held his sides and
shrieked. The other three likewise topplsd
into their chairs and just moaned with joy.
'Oh, well, 1t didn't need any end-on col
lision to make me see how those four young
all right, while they fell back in their
chairs and rocked themselves in their
glee. They offered me a drink out of the
quart bottle. 1t contained tea, secured by
the porter from the dining car. The user
of the Knockout drops pulled the vial from
his pocket and drank off the contents right
before me and smacked his lips, and re-
marked that he hadn't tasted such rafting
good cistern water for several months.
THE four young scamps were university
lads on their way east for a bit of a trip.
They had recognized me, from pictures of
me published in the Chicago papers, as soon
as they got on the car, and they had fixed
the scheme up me- l bit, and bit hard
and that's all there Is about 1T. I didn' t
say a word, but silently conducted the
four of them to the buffet car, and told
them that 1t was all on me-
A Silent SisterhOod
From the Cleveland Plain Dealer.