The Green Forest tribune., 1909-04-09

The detective looked inquiringly al the woman, who nodded.
 We heard-a da one," she said, in the midst of her moaning. He make-a da foot on da floor, on da floor, an make-a da door go bang. We hear for sure"
 Detective Birsch started suddenly into the next room, the sleeping quar- ters of the parents, and the living room of the family as well. On the way he raised the praying little Ital- ian by the collar, and, carrying him along, deposited him on chair. | Then carefully closing the connecting door he gazed sternly at the fright ened eountenance of the man who in the neighborhood was known as Tony the Barber
 Look here," he said, with all the weight he could put into his manner, didn't I say you mustn't let liv- ing soul know you had received a let ter from the Black Hand? Yet here l you go and tell it-"
 Non, non, no tal-a!" the Italian interrupted. You tal-a me no tal-a anybod. I tal-a nobod', for sure. Da boy he ask for why I clos da wind sosh da hot night, I no tal-a da boy. I tal-a nobod'. non non!"
 Well, but it's a sure cinch they were on the lookout for us, or the thing wouldn't have been pulled off so slick. They must have been onto the game for fair, however they got there. Why, here was Murphy at the foot of the stairs, Ffnnegan almost right at your keyhole, and I myself in the alley under your window; yet this slick gazabo scoots in, bangs the bomb and slides to esver without any trouble. The thing is impossible. It's impossible any way you look at it. Now"
 The detectives puzzled gaze hap pened at this moment to light upon Murphy, who was poking around in a closet with his night-stick. and a gleam of surprised intelligence shot into his face. He paused abruptly in his speech and stood considering Then he looked at his watch. 'I'll iSiNC illlo u JOu, puy lOl tLc present." he said, finally. You know what to do, and I'll see you later. I am due somewhere else now" And he went out
 "Dr. Furnivall,' said Detective Birsch, "here is something that will interest you, or l am nightly mis- taken"
 He passed letter to the celebrated psychologist as he spoke, his thin, clean-shaven face flushed with eager ness. Dr. Furnivall sitting back in his chair, glanced at his visitor and, taking the dirty sheet of paper, read slowly aloud:
 Tony, you gotta four thous-a dol lar wat we gotta get from you Wednesday, sure. We donna wan no foolin'. We need-a da mon bad, an gotta get it by this-a time Wednesda' da 10 July, or we kil-a you. We kil-a da boy frs an da wom'. Thursda' we kil-a da boy if we donna getta da mon Wednesda' You sen in letter to Jon Kilbraith, General Delivery, San Francisco, Calif We mean-a da biz now, an we donna wan no chin about da mat You sen da mon or we kila sure"
 Heading the sheet were rudely drawn black hand and coffin. Dr. Furnivall regarded it in silence for some seconds after finishing the read ing. Then he examined the detec- tive through his colored spectacles.
 "Well?" he asked
 Detective Birsch leaned forward in his chair.
 A week ago yesterday" he said, speaking rapidly and in a low voice, as if fearing possible listeners, Irony Macaluso, the barber, brought this letter to our station. He had just received it by mail. It seems he has saved up $4,000 to put his son, who graduated from the Latin school last month, through college in Rome and make a priest of him. Now, the strange thing is that nobody but Tony and his wife knows he has this money, not even the boy. for they intended 1t for surprise for him on his birth day, which comes next week. They have lived so poorly in order to scrape the stuff together that they are SUD- posed to be about down and out. So it's puzzle from the start who could write that letter. We told Tony to hold his grip on he cash. and We would see him through. First we sent dummy letter to the San francisco general delivery, and then notified the police there to look out for it. At this end of the line we could do no more till yesterday, Thurs day, because nothing was threatened against the boy until then. We kept the whole family covered all day, and last night hid myself under the fire escape, within eight feet of Tony's windows; another man, Murphy, sneaked around in the lower hall, where he could see everybody that went over the stairs, and still another man, Finnegan, laid on the landing almost right at Tony's door. Just the same, at two o'clock this morning. nobody being seen going in, we all heard an explosion, which turned out to have been in Tonys room. Finne- gan heard door open and shut right on top of the explosion, saw a man jump out of Tonys rooms, and heard him running down the stairs towards the front door, where Murphy was posted, and out goes Ffnnegan from the hall window, dropping right in front of the door. There stands Mur- phy, rubbering it up the stairs, be- cause he heard some noises. But when Finnegan asks him for his man he swears he has seen nobody"