Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1906-01-13
WHEN THE DRUMMER
GAME

full village among the hills of New Eng
land man of mystery. He took the
landlord of the inn up into the garnet
and whispered:
I'm at the head of a detective bu-
reau in Chicago. The accusing finger
points this way. I want you to be
come a detective and assist me to IN
earth these mysteries"
The landlord jumped at the chance.
Then the mysterious man called on
the undertaken, the grocer, the post
master, the blacksmith, and the aid Of
each one was enlisted unknown to the
other.
Only one woman was taken into the
strangers confidence. That was Aunt
Sally Warner, the gossip of the vii
lage and a sister of the undertaker's
wife. The moment the detective men
toned mysterious crimes to her she
replied.
eyes, I've suspected for the last
twenty years that murders and other
things were going on in this village,
but never have been able to trace
them. I will now take the trail of
these guilty wretches."
The last thing the stranger did be-
fore leaving town was to caution each
of his assistants to watch another. The
grocer was to watch the postmaster,
the postmaster the blacksmith, and so
on around, while all were to watch
Aunt Sally. Weekly reports were to
be mailed to a certain address, and in
case a crime was unearthed a fitting
reward was to be forthcoming. The
innkeeper began his Old Sleuth duties
before the stranger had reached the
depot. His place was the only one in
town where a stranger could get a
drink, and there were always a num-
Der of idlers hanging around. He be-
gan to run his eye over them. There
was Dan Tompkins, carpenter. Dan
had the reputation Of being a good fell
'ow, and he was always at work, but
0w, as the landlord watched him
nix a glass of beer, he saw that Dan
d 9 suspicious look about him.
rmer Joe Skinner, who had come
in ter a pitchfork and had stopped to
wet his whistle for the dusty drive
home, was one of the county super
tation, but as he stood at the bar and
talked about later hugs and the want
of rain the landlord made up his mind
that it was all discrimination and cal
culated to throw him off the scent.
There was no doubt that Joe Skinner
was meditating crime, but he would be
nipped in the bud. He also had his
eye on the grocer, the postmaster and
the blacksmith, and if Aunt Sally sue.
ceeded in committing burglary without
being caught she'd have to be sharper
than a fox.
The postmaster got on to a score of
suspicious things. In less than a week
he and the undertaken clashed The
undertaken received a letter from Co.
lumbus, o. The envelope had been
closely scanned by the postmaster, and
he had not been able to convict it Of
crime, but the way the undertaken put
it in his pocket instead of reading it
at once was living proof that there
was hen on. The P. M. followed the
undertaken and said:
"Look here, Silas Tompkins, if you
and throw yourself on my mercy"
What are you talking about?" de-
manded the other.
'"The finger Of suspicion is pointing
at you"
You are a jackass, and if you don't
mend your ways I'll have you behind
the bars within a month";
would be assassin
''Hog thiefy'
It wasn't long before the grocer and
the blacksmith were discovered dog
ging each others footsteps at night,
with the landlord logging both, and
there was a row in which one man got
a black eye and another a skinned
nose. Aunt Sally had gone into the
business with great enthusiasm. She
had hardly got her dishes washed the
first morning after being appointed
a detective than she was out on the
trail.
She went over to see Mrs. Johnson,
as she had done a hundred times be-
fore, but she had not been in the house
five minutes before she made a dis
cOvery she had never made before. 1t
was that Mrs. Johnson was not frank
and outspOken. When she asked her
if she and her husband had ceased to
have family rows, Mrs. ]. flushed and
lodged the question. The inference
was plain. She was intending to pour
hot lead into her husbands ears while
he slept
Aunt Sally took up trail after trail
with the greatest success. She went
up as high as the minister of her
church, and dropped down as low as
Bill Jones, who worked in a livery
stable. The finger of suspicion pointed
in all directions, and she had begun
to doubt that the state prison would
hold all her victims, when copies of
the first weekly reports of the five de-
tectives were sent to almost every one