The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1909-07-22
The RAT SW|NDLE.
BY BRUCE PARKER.
copyright, 1909. by American Press Asso-
ciation.l

mint inspector "a ulnL UauARSE uSSuS
to keep his eye open to be able to
turn back the metal he receives. Gold
is valuable In very small quantities.
It's just as good In filings as 1t is in
coins and as good in chips as in bars.
There are lots of ways small bit Of
the metal can be carried away, and as
soon as one method Is found out an
other is invented.
"When ! was inspector at a western
mint young man named Trevor came
into the service, In whom | took deep
interest. Indeed, it was natural that
/ should be interested in him, because
he was engaged to marry my daugh-
ter Betsy. l had no objection to the
match provided they would wait long
enough for Trevor to become sufi-
GENTLY valuable at the mint to COM
mand an adequate salary and to have
saved a little money for O nest egg.
He thought differently. He wished to
be married first and get the salary and
the nest egg afterward. But I stood
firm, and he was obliged to wait.
"In mint the gold ingots are sent
to the rolling room to be rolled into
strips. When received they are care
fully weighed and when sent out are
weighed again. OF course both figures
should tally exactly. Well, one day
there was a deficit of about $40. OF
course l was greatly troubled Before
letting any one out of the room made
a personal search of every employee.
Trevor worked In the rolling room,
and when he came up to be searched
he seemed to me to be trif1e agitat-
ed. Now, we inspectors are like de-
tectives. We build up theories on
small occurrences. 1t popped into my
head that Trevor in his impotence
to marry had fallen under temptation.
But nothing was found on him or any
one else. The next day there was an
other shortage Of about $14, and the
next and next shortages Of various
similar amounts.
''My theory about Trevor was terri
BILE anxiety to me. liked the boy, and
| knew Bet was bound up In him. To
discover that he was thief would be
a disappointment to me and heavy
blow to her. Ordinarily l did my own
investigating, but In this case l was
so disconnected over Trevor's probable
guilt and so averse to watching him
that introduced detective into the
rolling room under the guise of an en-
ployee. with instructions to look for
clew and to watch Trevor especially.
whether my feelings betrayed me
to Bet or to Trevor or both or whether
they saw through the detective ruse /
don't know, but a constraint sprung up
between me and them. Neither party
said anything about the matter be-
tween us, but each knew the others
secret. One day Trevor came up to
me and said he'd like to see me In
the coinage department. saw that
something was on his mind and went
with him in a state of dread, fearing
confession When we reached the
room we had started for. Trevor sud
denly turned to me and said:
"'Do you smell anythingT
Surprised, shifted and replied that
certainly did smell something dead.
"'It's rat in trap he replied.
"'Well, what Of that2'
"'Go In there pointing to place
of concealment. and watch. We will
close in twenty minutes. Before that
time you will see the rat removed.
Then step out the door, go down the
back stairs and look out the window
into the yard
Nov, it would require several days
for dead rat to emit an odor The
rat had not been there more than a
day, probably not half day. That
knew because had seen one taken
out the evening before by an employee
"a 'stamper;' I'll call him Jim Smith
who tossed it out through the slot
above the window.
rats had bothered us more or less.
and was not surprised at the trap
or the catch. What puzzled me was
that rats dead body should decay SO
quickly. Taxing this with Trevor's
act-I hate punning; don't mean to
pun smelled a rat I hadn't been
on watch ten minutes before Jim
Smith came into the room, stopped at
the trap and. iocularly saying, Hello,
another rat! took out the corpse by
the tail and tossed it out through the
slot. In a jiffy / was down the stairs
with my eye to window overlooking
the yard. had been there but few
moments when saw man pick up
the rat. put 1t in a canvas bag and
walk away
"And so the man ! had set the de-
tective to catckrhad caught the detec-
tive mapping. / kept mum and the
next day removed the same rat from
the trap and inside of him found gold
worth $2S.
1t Is singular how criminals will give
themselves sway. If the man who
used the dead rats to convey gold out
Of the building had taken the trouble
to get frefih rat once In awhile he
wouldn't have been betrayed By an
Odor. We didn't like to prosecute such