The Elbert County tribune., 1909-04-08

DIR. Furnivall," said Detective
Birsch, here is something that will
interest you, or / 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 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 getta 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 kila sure"
Heading the sheet were a rudely
drawn black hand and coffin. DIR.
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 aud in low voice,
as If fearing possible listeners. ''Tony
Macaluso, the barber brought this
letter to our station. He had just
received it by mail 1t seems he has
saved up $4,000 to put his son, who
graduated from the Latin school last
month, through a 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 1t. 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 I hid myself under the fire.
escape. within eight feet of Tony's
windows; another man, Murphy,
sneaked around in the lower hail.
where he could see everybody that
went over the stairs, and still another
man, Ffnnegan, 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 Tony's room. Finne-
gan heard a door open and shut right
on top Of the explosion, saw a 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 F1nnegan from
the hall window, dropping right in
front of the door. There stands Muir
ply, rubbering 1t up the stairs, be-
cause he heard some noises. But
when Ffnnegan asks him for his man
he swears he has seen nobody!"
The detective paused and looked
suggestively at DR.. Furnivall, who
smiled delightedly.
60 on he said.
I'VE hiked 1t for all we were worth
for Tony's, and found him praying on
the floor, and the boy with cash a
foot long, more or less, in his face,
his mother holding him up in bed, and
scattered all round were marks of
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
door open and shut and the feet go
pattering down the stairs-just as
Finnegan says. And Murphy swears
nobody came down."
He paused again. regarding DIR. Fur
nivall earnestly. and again his listen
er smiled delightedly, but said moth
ing.
Now" Birsch continued, "the sec
ond strange thing. or a bunch of
strange things. is that the boys win
dow was shut and fastened, the per-
son he saw was outside of 1t. the
bomb that person threw struck the
boy without breaking the glass, and
without the sash being raised. and
tho yppfhor and faft.,r haord