The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1912-10-10
oop1rgh. b. she Inserna..osal re. bursen-l


night" he said. 81 found 1t when l
open store in the morning"
put the letter under a microscope
and examined It carefully.
did It come just the way 1t was?"
asked.
Yes"
mo envelope?"
mo, nothing but what you have
there"
That didn't sound good TO me. IN
der the microscope the letter failed
to show any Of the dust or dirt
that would have adhered TO 1t IL 1t
had been carried uninclosed and. with
out a cover, pushed under the door OF
an Elizabeth street store. The letter
was crisp and clean, as II It had been
taken from an envelope that had shell
tered 1t in It's travels until very re-
Gently.
'Ts this the only letter Of this sort
you have?" asked.
mo, no." he laughed. There were
others. l tore them up. I paid no
attention to them until this one came
It names q time when / must have
the money ready. That is why came
here"
Were the letters all in this hand
writing7" I asked.
He was a little slow in answering.
yes" he said, finally. Yes, all the
same handwriting.
"All right" l said; Tets go down
to your Office"
/ He grumbled at this.
"It would not do for me to be seen
with YOU" he protested. 1.-THE So
ciety has eyes everywhere. II you
come to Elizabeth street with me it's
spies will see and they will get suspi-
cious. Then they will kill me as a
warning for others to be careful"
"All right" said l. when can I
come to see your"
"You want to see me in the Officer"
eyes, in your Office"
THAT is absolutely necessary"
EYES," l said, cts necessary"
Cali right, all right" he said. Come
tonight then, at ten. The street will
be crowded so that you can slip in
without being noticed"
put on some old clothes that night
and slouched through the crowds in
Elizabeth street until reached Leoni's
store. I went in, pretending to have
some business at the banking window,
and when no one was looking l slipped
back into the office.
81 want to take a look at your books
first Of ALL" ] said.
He was puzzled, but he turned over
to me his books Z He had kept the
signatures of his depositors in a sin
gle big book, and this was what I
/ looked over most carefully.
l found what I had hoped to find.
About year before one ''Ignacio Mar
, tina" had written his name and his
address, "Whiteish, Wis.," in Leoni's
signature book in the same fine Ital-
ian hand that had written the threat
ening letter. There was no mistak-
ing it. The writing was too distinc-
tive to be confused.
I was on the point of telling Leoni
what had found, but on second flash
, reasoned: Here is an excitable
Italian, half crazed with fear, and if
tell him what I think l have found
he'll go up in the air, and if he doesn't
plot to take his private vengeance
he's almost sure to let someone know
what he's been told" SO I said moth
| ing, but looked through the book
without comment. After q short time
left Leoni, telling him I'd call him
up in day or two.
do you think you can catch them p
he asked.
81 don't know" said. tits pretty
| hard for an American to get onto the
crooked ways of these fellows, but
we've never failed on q case yet"
"Ah," he said. But you never had
| O case like this?'
NO." said /; that's true, too"
When I got back to the office the
manager said: well, how do you
like Black Handing as far rs you've
gomez"
That's q funny looking case tc
me-" said. at looks too easy to be
true"
! I told him what I had found. and
what my theory shaped up like.
! ooh, drop 1t If you want to-" he said
81 don't think we care to be mixed
up in that sort Of a mess. Do Just a.
| you please about it."
had already made a start on thu
case and had discovered what I wal
inclined to believe was q striking
clue. The attraction of the man-hun'
had me, and said:
'Tll go on with it for a while a
least, IL you don't mind"
Next day I went down to the Fed
eral building and looked over tn.
names Of Italians who had applied fo
citizenship in this country. There
found '1gnacio Martina's" name again
and in the same handwriting as tn,
Black Hand letter that Leoni had re
ceived. I called up Leoni's bank OF
the phone. Leoni didn't happen to b,
In. II he had been this story proba
bly, would never have been told. Hi