Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1909-04-08

into his face. He paused abruptly
in his speech and stood considering.
Then he looked at his watch. I'll
leave this to you, Murphy for the
present" he said, finally. "You know
what to do, and I'll see you later. 1
am due somewhere else now" And
he went out.
CDR. Furnivall," said Detective
Birsch, here is something that will
interest you, or l am nightly mis-
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 kiI-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. DR..
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 and in a low voice,
as if fearing possible listeners, "Tony
Macaluso, the barber, brought this
letter to II 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 a surprise for him on his birth.
day, which ZONES 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 a puzzle from the start who
could write that letter. We told
Tony to hold his grip on he cash,
and we would see him through. First
we sent a 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
windows; another man, Murphy,
sneaked around in the lower hall,
where he could see everybody that
went over the stairs, and still another
man, Nnnegan, laid on the landing
almost right at Tony's door. Just the
same, at two o'clock this morning,
nobody being een 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 gtairs 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
ply, rubbering it up the stairs, be-
cause he heard some noises. But
when Finnegan asks him for his man
he swears he has e nobody!'
The detective paused and looked
suggestively at DR.. Furniyall, who
smiled delightedly.
60 on" he said.
I'VE hiked 1t for all we were worth
for Tony's, and found him praying OF
the floor, and the boy with a cash 4
foot long, more or less, In his face
his mother holding him up In bed, ant
scattered all round were marks Of !
bomb good and plenty. The boy was
hurt 80 that he was only half taking