The Winslow mail., 1901-01-24

Exchange place entrance to the bank.
| On the right OF the vestibule was large
room in which the bank employees kept
their street clothing, and to which they
could retire when they were off duty.
| A door from the clerks room led into
| the cashiers department, while anoth-
er one opened into the private secre-
tary's room.
After he had finished his inspection
of the space open to the public, Stur-
gis, followed by Dunlap, passed into
| the presidents reception room, and
| thence in turn into the other rooms,
and finally into the cashiers and book
keepers departments.
Several times he stopped, retraced
his footsteps to some particular point
and then began his search anew. At
times he crawled about on his hands
and knees; at others he climbed upon
the furniture, the better to examine
some spot upon the wall. In the presi-
dents office he stopped to pick up
great number of tiny scraps of paper
which lay in and around the waste
basket. These he carefully placed in
an envelope, which he laid upon the
presidents table.
On one side of the room there stood
magnificent old-fashioned carved
mantelpiece. The artistic beauty of
the structure did not seem to strike
Sturgis, but he appeared to derive a
great deal of satisfaction from an in
spection of the large tiled hearth. Pres
emily, removing his coat and his cuffs,
he plunged his hand into the grimy
chimney and removed handful of
SCOT, which he examined carefully and
then threw away. He repeated the op-
Grafton again and agailA until at last,
with evident satisfaction, he picked out
small object, which he deposited in
an envelope. Then, after washing his
hands in the clerks room, he passed in
to the cashiers department. In cor
ner stood the telephone closet, the door
of which was open. The receiver of the
instrument was down. The reporter
took it up and gazed at it long and ear
nestly.
Sturgis' examination of the bank
must have lasted over two hours. At
first Richard Dunlap looked on with
mild curiosity, in which amusement
struggled with good-natured skepti
cism. But as time wore on the banker
began to show signs of impa atience,
and when at last Sturgis returned to
the private Office and carefully depos-
tied upon a sheet of white paper mis-
cellaneous assortment of tiny scraps
and shreds, the banker could scarcely
conceal his dissatisfaction.
''Well, Mr.. Sturgis," he said, 81 hope
you have nearly completed your inves-
tigation; for my leisure is not so abun-
dant that l can afford to waste it like
this"
Il need one more witness at least"
replied the reporter, "and l am afraid
l shall have to ask you to help me OBJ
tain it.
'But," he quickly added, as he noted
Dunlap's impatient gesture, Il think I
can promise you that the time you are
regretting has not been wasted"
The fnancier did not seem convinced
by this assertion; but he nevertheless
consented with an unwilling grace to
assist the reporter to the best of his
ability.
"Well, then" said Sturgis. "tell me,
first of all, whether you keep firearms
in the bank"
''Yes,'' replied Dunlap; "the cashier
has a small revolver which he keeps in
his desk as means of defense in case
of sudden attack by a bank thief"
"Have you the key to the desk?"
eyes," replied the banker.
''Will you kindly see if the revolver
you mention is in it's place?"
''It ought to be-" said Dunlap pick
ing out the key on bunch which he
took from his pocket, and walking to-
wards the cashiers department with
Sturgis at his heels.
"Yes, here it is in it's accustomed
place."
He handed it to the reporter, who ex-
amined it attentively.
Exactly" said Sturgis, with salts
faction; 'this is what I was looking
for
''What do you mean?" asked Dunlap.
81 mean that this is the revolver
which was fired twice last night in the
Knickerbocker bank. See for yourself;
two of the cartridges are empty, and
the weapon has not been cleaned since
these shots were fired"
But who can have fired the pistol,
and at whom was it fired, and why?"
Hold on! hold on!" exclaimed Stur-
gis, smiling; lone thing at time. We
shall perhaps come to that soon. For
the present, if you will come back to
your private Office, / shall endeavor to
piece together the scraps of evidence
which [ have been able to collect.
There, sit down in your own armchair,
if you will, while fit these bits of pa
per together; and in less than ten
minutes L shall probably be ready TO
proceed with my story"
Dunlap was still nervous and impa-
tient; but all trace of amusement and
skepticism had vanished from his face,
as he took the proffered armchair and
watched Sturgis patiently piece to-
gether the tiny fragments of paper he
had SO carefully gathered. When this
work was accomplished, the reporter
went to the typewriter and wrote a few
lines on sheet of paper. He next pro-.
ceeded to examine under the micro
scope the minute fragments and parti
cles which he had collected in his
search.
When he had finished this operation,
he leaned back in his chair and looked