The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1907-03-29

S liel!e."
Y es. thls is Cheney"
on, IT. YOU. Van Colt. Sure thing.
ssTnn glad you're In town. Come RICH,
sHNp
lei, minutes later Mr. Cornelius
sgeSan Colt. general superintendent, OF
on OF the large express companies
IN Cheney's office. Cheney
"A Cot We're old friends.
Well. what on earth brings you
AEherc. VAN? said Cheney. after shak
Wing hands. Whatever 1T is. I'm glad
10 see you. III put you up while you've
S9An the City
N Hold on. Cheney; this ia It business
not for pleasure"
Wife with YOU" interrupted Che
laughing
Stop your f~oolisaness. l came
to sec You personally-on bust
s8ness. Observation-Disclosures business.
~ gu won't pu. me up. either, nor will
you be here for "a few days after l
sgget through with YOU"
s@ ''Phcw. It's the real thing. then"
s#Cheney had Il pretty good idea of the
s~#iiature of the business. His detective
Nservice had done a lot of
valuable work for Van Colts corpora
s9tlon. ana heneNe anything unusual
Happened Cheney was called upon to
edo the work necessary to solve the
Ncase. This, Notwithstanding Van Colts
81 company had a pretty good secret
service department of its own. The
head of This department, John Cogh-
CLAN, Was Il warm adlnirer of Cheney,
d personally, and he had 20 jealous feel
n ingS when Cheney MAS called in on Il
h difliCul; ease.
1T hasn't been in the papers. as yet.
B but L presume YOU know u st. Louis
4 office was touched to the extent of
100000 a few days since. The money
disappeared rs If by magic. 1t was
d checked in all right, and apparently
checked out the same way, but when
the package was opened by the con-
signee i'll was found to contain tissue
paper"
who was the consignee?"
Third National. 1t was a remit
tance from q Pacific coast bank. We
put our own men to work On the case,
and notified the st. Louis police. There
hasn't been much progress made, and
that's the reason I'm here. l want You
derstand."
suspect any one at all?" asked Che
ney, biting off the end of a cigar.
NO, not a soul. rye looked up the
record of every man in the office. and
they all appear good to me-"
Who receives the money in the st
Louis office: l mean large amounts?"
Mare Catlin received This package"
"Catlin?" said Cheney, interroga-
lively. lis that your presidents nance
Yes. and Marc Catlin is his nephew.
oh, he's all right"
"How old?'
about s."
Habits 2"
Good, now. About seven years ago
he got mixed up financially. Thought
he was a Napoleon of wall street.
Usual rcsult-went broke and through
bankruptcy. His uncle put him in this
express business, and he has since
done mighty good work. We are on
the eve OF promoting him to a better
position"
Anyone else around catin while
this particular package was being ham
died."
There was another clerk, Daniels by
name, but Catlin says the package
wasn't out OF his sight from the min
ute he received it until ii was handed
the bank messenger. And the bank
messenger, by the way, was one of the
assistant cashiers, who was sent down
purposely by the president for rhis re-
mittance. lie brought another man
with him. and the package was de-
livered to The bank as received"
CHATS what the assistant cashier
says, eh1"
"Yes, and that's true, all ,right,
Cheney. The bank officer. Chadwick,
and the other man are we'll known in
society. financially we'll fixed, no bad
habits. I've had THEM looked UP. They
didn't take IL"
terry there. VAN Cot. Who of the st.
Louis force has been active on the
case"
The chief gave me his best man.
Lieutenau. Darrell, and he, in turn. has
but. apparently, they're UP against a
blank NIell. Now, it's up to you,
Cheney. Az o willing TIC take it,"
Yes. III DO it," replied Cheney.
amy other officer of the company
know yol. were coming 10 me-"
nc I'm the only Gre. You work it
out, and our reward VIII be COM
1~nensulntc VIII the size of the case
Don't you worry about that. Van. I'll
make MY bill ample enough TO suit all
requiremcnts-' All through the con
Nersa1ion Cheney had assumed a spirit
OF raillery towards Way Colt. but UNI
deIIlcath il all he was doing a lot of
thinking. II his mlad Was quickly
made up.
Go hack to 81. Louis. Van Colt.
Pursue your investigation and later
You will hear from .Ae. I'll be down
that way before long and will see you
later"
Var Colt ook his leave and Cheney
gave the case q great deal of thought
that day. Miss Woods had been in an
adjoining room and through Il con
cealed speaking tube had heard every
word Of the conversation, had taken
1t down, and later gave Colonel Cheney
the transcribed report. He went over
it very carefully ana then filed it away
properly briefed. \ full record was
kept of every case handled by Colonel
Cheney or his men. He came to the
conclusion that it was an inside case"
that is to say, h stealing was done
by someone or the inside who was in
the pay or power of az outsider or a
gang. This was tho theory on which
he would work. First he wanted to
find out what progress the ST. Louis
force was making. He wanted their
theories and ideas. Already he knew
the express c~onpany's side of the case.
Cheney was a firm believer in coop
Grafton, where the parts cooperating
were harmonious. His relations with
the police departments OF the various
cities were most cordial. and when he
appeared in Chief La%nlingham's office
in ST. Louis the rex. morning he was
well received.
What case are you on now, COL
onel?' asked the CHIEF.
That sl0o, 600 express robbery re-
piled Cheney.
The chief was interested at once.
The express robbery, Ell? Well, it's
q damned puzzling case, Cheney, and
~ nat 1s~N .~sS- go W