The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-04-25
THE MISSPELLED WORD
Continued from page %

I
right fore-finger Imprint. lie handed
It 10 Burns and watched him musingly.
In answer to his friends anxious
questioning and enthusiastic praise
over the capture Poe finally rnanased
to sketch the whole thing to him, Jast
what had happened when he was alone
with Horton.
"How the devil did you spot the fei-
low" burst out Burns.
at was easy from the minute !
spotted tina, misspelled lahour. and |
saw the duplicate of that flnger-print |
you hold in your hand" he explained |
IF you'll stop to think youth remem-
Der that Englishmen stick to tho old |
form of spelling honor armor. |
labor and the like They always put |
in the letter u; making 1t hon
our. armour and l-a-b-o-u-r
Well, the minute I saw that word
spelled l-a-b-o-u-r knew an English
han had done the work and evidently
had been an engraver on English
stamps or securities Of some sort in
which the word labor also appeared
and that the spelling of it had become
second-nature to him
Then came across the fnger-print
on the bill, you and Mitchell didn't
seem to take account of the fact that
the fnger.print showed In tight green
ink, identical with the ink used on the
bach Of the note That proved that
the counterfeiter himself had touched
4 while 1t was still wet, OF while ne
had e little Of the fresh ink on his
finger: he smeared his light mark on
It, without noticing On examining
tina. finger.mark under the microscope
was doubly sure the counterfeter
was the one who had left his mark,
for found that the ridges on the fin
ger-print. which were loops approx
mating tented arches. as they classify
them In the print Identification sys-
TEN, showed callouses. heavy callouses.
AS these were on the fore-finger of the
right hand | Immediately knew that
1 the man was an engraver, for only the
continuous use Of the graver could
have left such mark"
Poe paused for breath and Burns
! prodded: But that didn't give you
the identity of the man"
| mo. Then | found the two scars,
close together on the finger-print.
/ figured out by the process of elimina
! ton about the only thing they could
/ have been caused by. Then suddenly
/ recalled seeing twin scars on the fin
| ger of a snake-charmer, left by
| cobra's fangs. / Immediately felt these
must have originated the same way.
| Having the facts that the man was
/ English. had been bitten by cobra.
/ and that the snake was tame one
/ with his poison sacks removed. or the
/ man would have died before the bite
/ became scars | began putting two and
| two together. The counterfeiter must
/ have associated with East Indian IA
! kers to have been bitten by show
! cobra, as they are the only ores who
/ tame them, recalled, too, the fact
1 that fine paper Is manufactured in In.
/ dia and that some Of the bonds uttered
! by the British Government there have
! silk threads in the paper. similar To
! our currency. conceived the notion
that a clever young Englishman might
have worked in the engraving house
/ for the government there and come to
/ America with this wonderful new coun-
| terfeit, and few East Indian takers,
! his friends and servants. TO help him
/ get rid of the stuff without suspicion
falling on him."
4 That's just what he confessed" put
in Burns.
So called up Mitchell and asked
about the Coney Island bank. remem-
bering that he had said 1t was big
loser Finding that most of the notes
had been circulated in Coney Island
and upper Brooklyn. | became certain
4 that some young Englishman, aided by
few clever East Indians, was DOING
4 the work, and passing the stuff off 10
cally | felt sure he couldn't have any
American associates or one of them
would have caught the error in spelling
labor Well, you know the rest; w
found only two prominent English
managers this afternoon: ! couldn
find the one on Surf Avenue when
called, but luckily the other fellow
happened to be the right one. I sup
pose most Of the East Indians were II
the trick, some helping to make tht
money and the others disposing OF It
1t was a good scheme; Coney makes ;
good distributing point. | suppose thu
money is pretty well spread over tht
: country By travellers now. He mus
have brought a stock OF paper witt
, him from India"
Yes, answered Burns We fount
It Horton confessed everything. hu
. the East Indians thought the none.
was good; except those who helped
, make It. He's shrewd fellow, and
treacherous one. He nearly did 70
you. We found you lying head first II
the dumb-waiter shaft downstairs; lef
for dead, guess Here's the silk cor,
the fellow garroted you with; want
for souvenir?
) Thanks smiled Poe, taking tn
} stout thread. He fingered 1t for FEY
moments. separated several ffbers fror
it, and then looked up with curiou
expression.
What do you know about this
! Burns?" he exclaimed. It's the cam
kind Of Indian silk they used in tn
counterfeit paper that attracted my Al
tention from the first It's just trif
| stronger than the silk we use in on
paper money and more delicatel
tinted-much more delicate"