The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1910-09-26
TH0UGHTFU[NESS
WAS HIS UND0|NC
McDuffie Runs a Bluff on Thief
Who Took Pity on His
Poor Victim.

Occasionally Chief McDufie comes
up against problems which are difficult
enoagh to make up for the score of
routine jobs that fall to the lot of the
chief of detectives. For twelve hours
over Saturday, he struggled with one
1t was IN effect to solve the reason
why fieshand- blood criminals and near
criminals sometimes do just exactly
what their prototypes in fiction do.
| The instance that started McDufie s
analyzer going was a report from the
Moana Hotel that a thief had broken
| into one of the bathhouse rooms and
walked off with the erstwhile occuz
| pant s clothes. After accomplishing
this he found the man s check in the
pilfered clothes and applying at the
desk with it, he was handed a watch,
pin and some money.
This was the correct procedure for
any well trained gentleman of nocturnal
! training and shady antecedents to fol-
low, but when he left in the place of
the stolen garmets, his own dirty trous-
ers and WORKOUT shoes that his own
victim might not have to go au natural,
| he approached the ideas Of the lady de-
tective novelists.
The owner Of the clothes was Jack
Wellington, residing at the Wahine
Kapu Club. His gratitude towards the
thief of his thoughtfulness i'll leaving
substitutes is not recorded.
| When the chief first heard of it, he
| fastened the blame onto some member
of the WIlhelmina s crew which is now
In the city awaiting trial for breaking
quarantine. His Investigations resulted
| n two things: first, the man who did
| the Job and second that the WIlhel-
nina 5 crew have organized themselves
to keep the peace.
1t was an excellent example of what
a good bluff can do when II is backed
up by substantial train of thought.
! McDutfie missed his vocation; he ought
20 be a poker player.
He went to the crew of the Wilhel-
nina and told them that one of their
number had robbed man at Waikiki
on a certain day and he wanted him
quick. The Wilhelmina crew collec
lively looked blank and stated that
| thew were going to do the best they
could to help the police get the man.
They Their held a consultation and stat
ed that only two of them had been
out to Waikiki at that day and hour.
| One of them was a short man
| McDuffie thought of the substitute
trousers and said quickly:
THAT s him, it was the short man
| want
They then told him that the man
! lived at the Occidental Hotel and to
that place he went. The mans name
was Harry Morris and he denied EN-
pbaticaIly that he was guilty of such
a thing.
The chief snorted and backed his
bluff higher than ever. He told h!m
that he had the clothes he left in the
bathhouse and that they had been lden-
| tilted by his companions.
| The confession followed. McDutfie
| had hit upon the right man on the
first shot out Of the box They found
| Wellington : trousers under the mat
tress and the pin on the bureau. The
watch he had pawned, but this was
also recovered. The dollar and change
that had been spent represented Wei
/ iington s total loss.
The crew of the steamer have as
sured McDufie that they will do every
thing in their power to aid him in
any ease where suspicion points to one
| Of their number as doing anything
| shady. Morris. tie man caught al
ready, was not a regular member Of
the crew hut had worked his way over
from San Francisco, getting no pay be-
sides his six days keep.
He was charged yesterday with
larceny in the second degrees.
. Bv the Introduction Of new presses