Evening star., 1912-11-24

T1URK O'FALLON, waiting in New Orleans for
held-up clearance papers for a steamerload of
general merchandise which the federal authori-
ties of New Orleans had somehow suspected to be
cargo of arms and ammunition for certain Central Amer
lean revoutionists- s-Turk in the placid enjoyment
of one of those eleven o'clock breakfasts at Madam
Begues Turk, being used 'dobes enjoyed the next
best thing, sanded floor; and the floor at Madam
Begues sprnkled with fine white sand. Also, in
his relaxed hours he had keen instinct for proper food
The Begue breakfast habit had claimed too which
why this morning happened to be seated at the
same little table with Turk.
The beamfu Madam Begue (whose footprints, alas!
are no longer seen upon that sanded floor, passing
among the tables to that her guests getting
service to justify their morning hearts and morning
faces noticed that although had morning papers
to read quiet She placed morning papers be-
fore
zone must read the news if only order that one may
gossip" said Madam Begue, with her Welsbach smile.
"And without gossip what is life, Monsieur O'Falon?'
And she passed on watchu alert tightening whatever
little burdens existed among her "gamns thus she
called those of her young men guests whom she knew
very well.
Turk glanced aloohy at the spread headline of his
morning paper Then he read enough of the teegraphc
story grasp its essentials 1t appeared that very
young heiress of an Eastern city, who had eloped
month before with elderly waiter had at length been
found by the detectives. The press dispatches had
throbbed with the story during all that time. The
glory of the detectives at last finding the heress had
been considerably whitfield down by the fact that dur
ing all of her wanderngs from city to city, she had
carried under her very fat and old fox terrier,
her playmate almost from infancy When it takes
hundreds perhaps thousands of watchfu seuths an
entire month to down very distinctive looking girl
who travels from great city to another with large
wheezy and peevsh old dog under her tired arn there
is an excuse for to smile he reads And Turk
smiled
@Now, if that dog" observed Turk chad worn round
his neck chime of bells that PLAYED The Rosary
every time he sneezed, if the dog had had glass eye
that when it fell out he would pick and replace with
his paws probably it would have taken the detective
persons of all North America two months instead of
one to corral the girl who carried the dog everywhere
with her through the sunny streets of major cities.
"Keen men, though, of these detectives said
l bromidically. "They-"
"Damascene blades dull to Them said Turk.
@But when you say Damascene blade you express all
there is of dullness. l felt the edge of Dam
blade that would cut Camembert cheese If you
to escape recognition by detective, stand di
rectly front of him and ring auctoneers bell And
if then, by any remote chance, he does recognize and
nab you gently detach yourself from his grasp and walk
away, whistng plantivey. He will never know the
difference. | know story about a detective, some
fugitive folks and dog. 1t illustrates the pespcacity
of the sleuth. Some day shall uncoil it for you"
"Some day" meant to Turk what "maflana" means to
a Mexican And SO | made him "uncoi" it the
debris of the Begue breakfast.
ONE hot winters morning Git is Turk speaking), just
- before the overWorked phrase "tln de steele" had
to be abandoned to make way for a new century,
dropped in at Consulate at Vera Cruz to get my
nominal negligible mail clnging to the fiction
that my mail from the States there There never
any. | had no office in Vera Cruz, because was
trying to get the municipal electric light concession 1t
is not thing to have office when you trying
to get any kind of concession anywhere in Latin Ameri
1t makes it too easy for the smaller cougars who
obstruct your path to the concession to find YOU and
demand theirs