The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1909-10-26
QUICK WORK.


ing at headquarters awaiting assign
ments and swapping stories All but
one had told of some puzzling case
that he had solved and he was called
upon to help the party pass the time
Come, Billy" said one of the
number: Don't sit there mum when
were giving experiences. Tell us the
most oifiicult case you ever tackled"
You've all been giving that kind
of cases. Suppose to vary the enter
tainment | give YOU the easiest case
{ | ever tackled and you fellows guess
how | solved it,"
That's good idea Proceed"
1T was case of identification, not
one to discover criminal though |
solved that, too. afterward When |
was on the secret service force of the
, town Of Yaldley a telephone came
from farmhouse a dozen miles in
the country that the dead body of
man had been discovered living be-
side road 50 stripped and mutilat-
ed as 10 be unrecognizable. They
wanted police force sent out to at
tend to the matter. The captain told
me to take the patrol wagon and
man or two and drive out to the
place where the body lay. He charg-
ed me especially to find out the name
of the murdered man. since ii is both
for h.a 20 AY
and It's bad policy To bury it with
ont Identification
we drove out 10 he farmhouse
from which the telephone was sent.
where | found Farmer Bowers, who
led me half mile down the road
and showed me the body Whoever
had done the job had taken great
precaution 10 conceal The identity of
his victim. Why he did so afterward
gave me a clew by which | brought
him to the gallows The outer cloth
Ing had been taken off the body, and
there was not mark anywhere on
his underaarments. A small bit of
material had been cut out at the bot
tom of the shirt bosom, where shirt
makers usually place the owners
initials, AS to the face, it had
been mutilated beyond recognition. |
looked for some defect on the body,
like a mole or birthmark, but there
was nothing of the kind. No dog
whined beside his murdered master.
Indeed, there was no living thing
about him.
Il confess | was puzzled. The only
way | could see to find ort who the
man was was to take the body to he
police station, publish the facts and
wait for claimants. But this was not
what the chief wanted. SO | did a
hard job of taking in surroundings
and in fifteen minutes hit on an ex-
pedient, Two hours and thirty min
utes after | arrived on the ground |
had brought the murdered mans son
from distance of fifty miles 10 his
fathers body, which he identified at
once beyond the slightest doubt.
There was long silence, broken at
last by one OF the party who claimed
that some missing article, like a
handkerchief with name or initials
on 1t or a paper tossed about by the
wind. had been found But the story
teller ayerred there was no such ar
ticle of any kind whatever. Then
one man guessed that the eat mem
toned belonged TO the dead man and
had his name and address on the coll
lar. The reply to this was that the
cat belonged on the farm where the
barn stood. Then there was a guess
that the mans son knew where his
father was and came Of his own ac-
cord. This would not do, for Billy
had sent him a message to come and
where to come to, One superstitious
detective guessed that the murdered
mans ghost gave the necessary in
formation, and another suggested
that it was a case Of mental telegra-
ply Finally every man gave up The
conundrum and asked for the solu-
ton, The story teller resumed:
Among the doves in the cot" he
said Il saw several OF different
breed entirely from the rest They
we're fraternizing with the others go
ing aud coming to and from the cot,
but not at all like them. The reason
why | noticed these apparent strang-
ers was because / have always had
pigeons on my barn at home. and !
had never seen his variety before.
had seen pictures Of them, but |
couldn't remember the breed
while I was thinking a boy came
up to the crowd carrying a wicker
basket with a cover. He said he had
found 1t short distance IN the road.
couldn't see any connection be-
tween it and the murdered man UNI
less possibly he had been carrying
something in it. Why 1t occurred to
me ! don't know. but ! connected It
with the pigeons.
Suddenly / recollected they
were carrier pigeons. It's wonder
full how rapidly sometimes one idea
viii lead to another. Suppose these
lnterlopers had belonged to the muir
dered man? V lthout waiting to
think about the improbability OF such