The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1903-08-12
meet you, Miss Carmody. The pleas

meet you. Miss Carmody. The pleas
ure is all mine"
There was twinkle in his eve
which was irresistible, and Miss Car
mody laughed until the color came
to her checks, and she looked more
charming thsn ever. She took Mr..
Seymour in charge, and induced him
to tell the story of how he came to
solve the mystery of the Hestor
bungalow Mr.. Chalmers listened to
Mr.. seymour's carefully prepared
narrative.
"When I received Mr.. Chalmers
Geographic advices,' said Mr.. Sey-
mour, Il made up my mind that the
first place to search was along the
lumber docks. 1 thought it all over,
and said to myself, it is like this:
If Hestor has built house in trop-
ical America the lumber probably
came from New Orleans, which is
the great lumber market of the
south. The contractor might hail
from any place, but naturally he
would ship his material from New
Orleans. 1t was nearly dark when I
arrived in the city. 1 went to the
hotel, looked at my mail, and went
from there to the docks. I questioned
stevedores, dock-wallopers, sailors
and levee men of all descriptions.
| went finally to a resort frequented
by such men. There were probably
so of them in the room. picked out
a smooth-looking colored boy and
told him l would give him So if he
would ask every man present if he
ever helped load lumber for man
named Walter B. Hestor. I told him
all about Hestor; that he was news
paper man who owned yacht called
the Shark and that he was eccen-
trio, and liberal with his money.
"He was a bright coon," said the
veracious Mr.. Seymour, "and he
wanted to earn that money in hur-
ry. He got on top of beer key
and made speech. Once in while
he would misstate point, and I
would correct him. When he was
through a darkey, with face as
black as the ace of spades came for
L
would give to know what boat that
lumber was shipped on. l did not
want to appear too anxious, SO I Of
fered him So. We went to one side,
and he told me that about year ago
| a man arrived in New Orleans with a
| yacht called the Shark and that the
owner superintendent the loading of
| ~ win
stuff on schooner called the Sam
Walker He described Hester to
dot. He said Hestor's chief amuse-
ment was to throw money to the ne
groes along the levee to induce them
to sing and dance. He would stand
on the Sam Walker and throw coins
by the hour, until the levee was
black with darllies. l knew he had
the right man. l gave him the So
and promised him $40 more if he
would locate the Sam Walker for
me. At about midnight we found
that the schooner was at Lake Pont-
chartrain, and was going to sail the
next morning. / paid my colored
friend and started for the West End
l found the Sam Walker 1 wanted
to get the information without excit-
ing suspicion. I learned that the
first mate was ashore in some of the
drinking resorts of the place. Then
1 ran across friend of mine who
was much intoxicated. l used him as
a tool. Early in the morning found
the first mate. From him I learned
that the schooner was going to Ha-
vana. He was pretty full, and 1 bribed
him to let me go aboard the schoon-
er. There was no way to shake my
friend, whose name is Bender, so we
took him along.