Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1912-02-23


enough to wear blue as d'feren1'a''na
him less than suit with cheek
stripe, or patterns. Thus his OWE
cleyerness assists in his undoing.
my orders to those detectives were
to count all the men in blue serge
suits who passed them, excludlhe
those whose age obviously excluded
the possibility of their being RoWeA
I ordered each man to make three
lists-one for the morning hours, ons
for the afternoon, and one for ths
evening, I'D to twelve o'clock, after
which the number of men IN blue
serge suits abroad is too limited rcl
us to draw deductions from 1t. here
are the results:
Passing Forty-second street: Morn
ing, 1856; afternoon, lie; evening, l6
Total, 445.
Passing the Brooklyn bridge sub
way entrance: Morning, 81; afternoon
46; evening, So. Total, 21S.
Passing Twenty-third street ane
Sixth avenue: Morning, 72; afternoon
%; evening, 70. Total, ITO.
Passing the subway entrance or
Fourteenth street: Morning, 3d. aft
ternoon, 20; evening, IS. Total, 1874
what do you deduce from these
figures, Langton?"
THAT a surprisingly small number
of men blue serge suits emerge
from the entrance to the Brooklyn
bridge during the rush hours" l an.
swered.
my dear Langton, you are flying
off at tangent. That is not relative
10 the matter at all. Many take sur.
face cars from Brooklyn and never
pass the subway entrance. And Brook.
Ign is barred from our consideration.
No, do you not see that at three
points the morning and evening traf-
fic is astonishingly even? At Twenty
third street r. men pass in the morn
ing and 70 in the evening. At the
Fourteenth street subway 80 pass in
the morning and IS in the evening.
At the Brooklyn bridge subway en-
trance "a pass in the morning and
IS in the evening.
Therefore we can proceed by strik-
ing out like figures on either side OF
our equation. These men in blue
serge suits are office workers; they go
and return by the same routes morn
ing and evening. Emphatically Row.
ell is not to be found among this lot.
AT our northern point, Forty-sec:
ond street, the conditions are not
quite so even. The men who pass
in the morning number 1856; in the
evening 177-a difference of twenty
one. Now we begin to see daylight
at last after working out these figures.
We have to postulate the average
man, the average unemployed man.
Let us discover him from among the
figures that we have left.
Passing Twenty-third street in
the afternoon, %. Passing Four.
teenth street In the afternoon, 20. Pass
ing the Brooklyn bridge subway en-
trance in the afternoon, As. But these
latter we must disregard, for that Is
in the office district and these 46 are
probably all workers.
"Our final statement, therefore, Is
that % men stroll of an afternoon
from Twenty-third street to Four.
teenth street, where their numbers
are augmented to 49, During the same
period of the day 112 men stroll up
Broadway to Forty-second street,
where, by nightfall, their numbers
have increased to 1T.
Therefore our average man Will
most assuredly be found somewhere
in the theater district after the lights
are lit. Rowell will be there tonight
/ have demonstrated this infallibly.
Come, Langton, we are going to arrest
him."
l rose in bewilderment. Crewe's
figures were falling over one another
in my brain, and only one clear i'm
preston remained to me: That Rowell
was obligingly waiting to tumble into
our arms at the juncture Of Forty-sec.
ond street and Broadway. But surely
this was a case in which one could
not predicate the individual from the
universal. Suppose he had decided to
vary his itinerary for that evening:
suppose he had gone home. Suppose
he were sick, or at theater, or in
had taken fancy to sit In Central
park until the hour of midnight. Sup
pose he had escaped from the city and
were at that moment speeding west
ward. l glanced at Crewe. His face
was resolute, set into its usual de-
cisive lines. I had known him to
solve greater mysteries-but always
by his optical gift, never by pure in
duction. And could not help feeling
that there was a sad establishment
in store for him.
At Forty-second street and Broad.
way we found Murphy on duty. Crewe
drew him aside. saw him whisper
and saw Murphy touch the pocket OF
his coat. I heard the clink of steel
Then we three posted ourselves i'm,
mediately beneath bright electric
light and engaged in trivial converse.
ton, as of three pleasure-seekers.
Half an hour must have gone by At
least fifty men in blue suits had passed
us, a good half of whom might have
been the missing cashier. All at once
I saw Crewe touch Murphy's arm, and
the two swung round and walked