The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1908-09-26

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got in with Robyns. saw him make his
spurious dollars and all that sort Of
thing-but one day he tripped.
Robyns wanted some acid and asked
our man TO buy &C. The operator con
sented, and when his report reached
the Office he was recalled and the case
against Robyns dropped. We conId
not afford to make the governments
agents pariiceps criminis Three
months later, however, we jugged
Robyns on an entirely new charge.
by the way" Chief Wilkie oh
served, as a new angle Of thought
struck him, "did you know that
slelght-ofhand is figuring more and
more in the operations OF the secret
service? / am trying to get The art
down to thorougly practical working
basis, and so far have had good re.
suits Yes. it's a little hobby of mine
this hand is quicker than the eye
business-but believe ] have several
men in this bureau who have 1ie
beaten at It.
zone Of our men who Is pretty
handy with his fingers was trying to
land a gang Of counterfeiters and sue
ceeded In establishing friendly rela-
tons with the bunch Every new
conner is naturally looked upon with
suspicion until he commits some overt
act, and in this instance the gang de
termined to have a showdown. in
floating bad money each man is given
so much of It and keeps half Of the
good money he gets hold Of. turning
the remainder In to the makers Tho
operator was given a lot of one-dollar
limitations and told 10 get rid of them,
another OF the gang going along to see
that he made good. Each time he en-
tered a store to make small pur-
chase, as the real crook thought, be
came out with the proper change.
But for some reason his companion
was not satisfied and adopted the pol
icy OF entering the place with him.
watching him closely as he bought
II was pretty trying situation, but
our man managed to do the sleIghi-
of-hand trick so well that good Amer
lean dollars found their way to the
cash drawer, while the phony' ones
disappeared somewhere on his per.
son, as evidence against the count
erfeiters.
"Shadowing and roping." said Chief
Wilkie, may seem mighty easy to an
outsider; this thing of merely follow
ing a man, but any one who has ever
turned bis hand seriously to 1t VIII
tell dlyerent story. It's hardly put
ting It too strongly to say that It Is
an art in itself Remember. the
shadow is dealing with criminals. who
feel that at all times they are being
watched They suspect every one
and are constantly on the alert TO dis
cover whether they are trailed One
will go TO the gutter, ostensibly TO
expectorate, and look backward under
his arm or over his shoulder, or start
on a run. and, turning a corner sharp
ly, stop stock still TO see whether the
shadow comes Diling after him. only
to be given the laugh. The double
glass windows Of drug stores also ar
ford an opportunity to crooks to re-
assure themselves that they are not
being followed And sometimes where
the suspicion is strong second man
viii be put out to see If No. has a
shadow in his wake.
Obviously, what Is needed to make
a successful shadow. then, is a man
who looks like everybody and nobody.
who, 4 you meet him in one block with
his hat down over his eyes would mo-
be identified as the fellow you met
in another block five. minutes before
with his hat on the back of his head.
He must be a man of Intuition. too.
who knows in some way or other
about the next move the crook viii
make, and who Is always on bin
guard against surprises.
"Roping Is accompanied by moro
danger than shadowlng. The term
embraces wornling oneself into the ae-
quaintance OF gang for the purpose
Of effecting arrests or course q mans
life isn't worth much II he's caught
at such game and has the goods on
those whose confidence be has won.