The pioneer express., 1912-10-11

seen by g least NIFTY men. tue r6h.
berry occurred II broad daylight aty m
hour when tho street u most crowd
ed. Yet after . long search I only
found one person. who had seen any
thing which might be OF value. i ran
across q street vender who must have
been within twenty-five feet of the
messengers when they we're attacked.
'He did not SEQ the assault, but :
second later. and before he under.
stood what had happened, he saw
two men. very we'll dressed, hurry
across Broadway and turn down Ce.
dar street toward the North river.
That was the natural course which
thieves who knew their business
would have taken. The vender had
pretty fair idea Of the appearance
Of the two men and their clothing.
With that as guide I went through
Cedar street traced the men 10
West street by witnesses who had
noticed them moving quickly as ie
they were in hurry to catch a train,
but lost track Of them In West street
until reached the Liberty street
ferry. Then I picked up the very
clue was after
1.-THE ticket agent had seen the
men. and bis attention was attracted
to them particularly because In buy
ing ticket for Scranton one Of them
took some money out Of bag. This
was red-hot stun. A moment later I
struck something better. While
searching for Information from the
ferry hands ran across a porter who
had found valise In the lavatory and
had taken 1t to the lost and found de-
partment. It did not take me long to
get there and see that bag. It was q
medfum-sized affair. and had been
found unlocked and empty. There was
no mark on It to indicate where It
had come from. I sent It to the bank
and in few moments received word
that 1t was the bag which had been
used by the messengers.
"That point being cleared mp, I
next started the telegraph lines work
ing, and kept them hot until the train
dispatcher held up the Scranton train
at station. and got the conductor on
the wire. He had noticed every one
on the train. simply as matter OF
business. soon after leaving Jersey
City. He was positive that no person
answering the descriptions of either
of the men who had brought the bag
to the ferry house had been on board
his train. This settled beyond reason
able doubt that the thieves had not
left the city. at least by that route.
"The porter who had found the bag
had got very good look at the two
men. He remembered them even more
accurately because he had associat-
ed them with the lost bag. His de-
scrtptfon Tailed with that given by
the street vender. except that he gave
more complete details. In thinking it
over it suddenly struck me that had
read similar description somewhere.
I could not place 1t until the next day.
Then 1t came over me like a fash.
What had seen was the alarm which
had been sent out at the request of
the Erie county police giving the de.
scrfptions of Sam Ellis and Phil Helm
rich. fugitives from Justice.
"The case then appeared perfectly
plain to me. Ellis and Heinrich, after
leaving Buffalo. had come to New
York instead of going to Canada, as
had been generally believed. They
probably had adopted the red-pepper
scheme Of robbery In order to raise
money at once. since their scheme
had been frustrated to flood Canada
With counterfeit money. The job was
not exactly in the line Of either of
the men, but they were; T knew, fully
competent to undertake. anything in
any branch of thievery.
Unfortunately the newspapers got
hold Of the story of the finding of the
bag and the description Of the men.
This was. Of course, sufficient warn.
fng to the team of worthless to dive
deeper into their hole. and made my
work so much harder. How was I to
get to Ellis and Heinrich? did not
know. They were cunning lot. and
/ knew had stif game.
II knew all the haunts Of both men.
and after putting on some togs to suit
the occasion spent my days and
nights bumming around booking tips.
It was slow work. but 1t was all that
could be done. I got in with . lot Of
people and heard all the gossip that
was going on among crooks, but it
was over a month before heard any.
thing Of Importance. had to 60
very quietly in order not to excite
suspicion. did not dare to ask lead
ing questions Of anybody or might
have got tip sooner.
Zone evening, while was having
some oysters in Billy the Bites in
Wooster street. Jack Griffin came in.
A few moments later in came his old
friend. Reddy the Blacksmith. They
were both friends Of Ellis and Helm
rich. To my utter amusement Griffin
began telling in my presence about
the arrest Of both Ellis and Heinrich
In Pittsburgh for Fighting and clean