Woodruff County news. [volume] (McCrory, Ark.) 1901-1910, 1909-04-08

taken.
He passed a 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 media 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 gotta da
mon Wednesda You sen in letter
to Jon Kilbraith, General Delivery,
San Francisco. Calf We mean-a da
biz now, an we donna wan no chin
about da mat. You sen da mon or
we kil-a sure"
Heading the sheet were a rudely
drawn black hand and coffin. Dr.
Furnivall regarded it in silence for
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, "Tony
Macaluso, the barber brought this
letter to our station He had lust
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
it 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 sup
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 t 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
xxyi,, n
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 Tonys 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 Tony's room. Finne-
gan heard a door open anu shut right
on top of the explosion, saw man
jump out of Tony's 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 Muir
cause he heard some noises. But
when Finnegan asks him for his man
he swears he has seen nobody!
The detective paused and looked
suggestively at DR.. Furnivall, who
smiled delightedly.
GO on" he said.
''We hiked it for all we were worth
for TOnys, and found him praying on
the floor, and the boy with a cash
foot long, more or less, in his face,
his mother holding him up in bed, and
scattered al round were marks of a
bomb good and plenty. The boy was
hurt so that he was only half taking
notice, but he was leaking grit, just
the same, and managed to tell me all
he knew, which wasn't much. He
said that he woke up in the night
and saw a person on the fire-escape
outside his window, and when he
asked who was there something struck
him in the head, and he fell out of
bed unconscious. Tony and the old
woman heard the sound of feet run
ming across the boys floor heard the
uOOI OpCu anu OIluI anu Tie l66l SO
pattering down the stairs-just as
Finnegan says. And Murphy swears
nobody came down."
He paused again, regarding DR.. Fur
nivall earnestly. and again his listen
er smiled delightedly, but said moth
ing.
Now" Birsch continued, "the sec
ond strange thing, or bunch of
strange things, is that the boys win
dow was shut and fastened, the per-
son he saw was outside of it. the |
bomb that person threw struck the |
boy without breaking the glass, and
without the sash being raised, and |
the mother and father heard some |
body cross the room, open the door,
shut it. and skip downstairs. Finne- |
gan saw this somebody, heard the
door open and shut. and saw and /
heard the person going down the I
stairs, hut Murphy at the foot of these
stairs sea nothing of any person of
A. 1t, i