The Green Forest tribune., 1909-04-09

broad grin spread over the doc- tors bearded face.
 q fancy it was one or. the othsr," he said, but which?"
 How do I know?" responded Birsch, fatuously : The doctor smoothed his features and answered, mildly:
 That is where, psychology--yes, psychology-gives me the advantage of you. Would an uneducated Italian, such as apparently wrote this letter. spell Wednesday with a d invari- ably in the first syllable, once with a
 y, as if to let the reader know that
 he really knew how to spell it, and
 then write i, twice without the 'y,' as
 well as to leave the same letter out
 of 'Thursday?' Would an unedu- cated Italian spell thousand with a dash, thous-a,' would he write 'need-a' for need or 'kil-a' for kill, and so on? He would speak this way, but
 he would require some education in order to write this way. Moreover, the punctuation and use of capitals are perfect-two positive proofs of certain degree of education. And to clinch the evidence, look at the hand
 writing. It is disguised. but irregu- larly, as if done by an immature mind, and the vertical penmanship taught little while ago in our public schools sticks out all through the letter. The character and attainments of the writer of this letter, taken together with the! injured boys testimony, points with finality to certain one of the persons known to be concerned. In short, whatever his motive may be, and impossible as the known facts alone seem to render it."
 The doctor paused as footsteps sounded without, and then went on the person who threw that bomb was"
 Master Frank Macalusco," an nounced the maid, opening the door. And forward stepped the son of Tony, his face bandaged, but wearing a smile of deprecating good humor.
 Detective Birsch stared at the boy and then looked at the doctor.
 You don't mean" he began, and paused. Dr. Furnivall smiled some what grimly.
 Take seat, Master Frank" he said. And when the grinning youth had taken a tentative position on the edge of the couch, hat in hand, the doctor continued, Shall I be com peaed to hypnotize you, or will you tell your story freely?"
 "Oh, it's all off now, and I might as we'll talk" the boy answered. Far from feeling embarrassed, he seemed to enjoy the situation, grinning i'm partially at each of his hearers as he proceeded with his confession You can take it straight" he said, in schoolboy slang, that it wasn't me for the priesthood. It was my folks that put up that job for me It is me for the stage-Tm going to be an actor. It wouldn't do to let my father know that, though-he'd go nutty. He thought it was all settled long ago, and I let him think so because it would be no good to start in fighting him before I had to. Of course l knew he had the money saved up. How could I help getting wise to it, when they're always whispering about it to each other, looking mysterious and acting funny, me right there with 'em so much? So fixed up this deal to lift the money from father. I wouldn't use it-all wanted was to lyo hn n0,y1dp,f to college. l could not do that this way without making him mad at me for not doing as he wished, and I could give the stuff back to him later. knew he was easily frightened, and thought he would give up right off as soon as I was threatened, without going to the police, but when I heard him in the other room talking with mother about the letter and the trap the police had set I didn't know what to do. At first I thought I'd call it all off. It was too risky. But the excitement sort of appealed to me, and I thought that as was bound to be an actor, this was as good a time as any to begin. So finally I hit on the thing I did. Last night I got an old piece of lead pipe and split it, to make it look like an exploded bomb, and put it on the rug, which scorched with match, cut my face a little with my razor, and then touched off cannon firecracker. had no gun, you know, and these things wouldn't tell any tales. I had my door already unlocked, and ran and opened it, and slammed it back latching it, jumped a few steps downstairs, and then ran back again, closing the door softly. I had meant to unlock my window, to make believe the Black Hand got in that way, but guess was little nervous, and I forgot it, and so had to say the man I saw was on the fire-escape out side, instead of in the room, as I had intended to say. The situation was wasn't it? It was funny the way everybody swallowed such a stiff as that!" He threw the cha grined detective sly glance. He was the everybody" referred to. Then the boy. this would-be actor, thrilling with pride over his ex. ploit that not even its detection and failure could materially lower, added q told father in the letter to send the money to the San Francisco post of- flee, then I wrote to them there to forward any letters for John Kill braith to another post office, and wrote that office to forward the mail to another, and so on, and the last one was to forward it to our general delivery here. where could get it."
 He paused, looking at the detective, who examined him moment as if he