The Springfield herald., 1912-08-09
Copyright by the International Press Bureauj

| TOW Olu the letter come TO your
asked.
ut was showed under the door at
night" he said. II found 1t when I
open store in the morning"
I put the letter under a microscope
and examined it carefully.
''Did 1t come Just the way 1t was?"
I asked.
"Yes."
mo envelopeT.
mo. nothing but what you have
there"
That didn't sound good to me. I'm
der the microscope the letter failed
to show any of the dust or dirt
that would have adhered to 1t If 1t
had been carried uninclosed and, with
out cover, pushed under the door Of
an Elizabeth street store. The letter
was crisp and clean, as If it had been
taken from an envelope that had shell
tered it in its travels until very re-
Gently.
"Is this the only letter of this sort
you have?" asked.
"No, no." he laughed. There were
others. tore them up. l paid no
attention to them until this one came.
1t names a time when I must have
the money ready. That is why came
here"
Were the letters all in this hand
writing?" asked.
He was little slow In answering.
YES" he said. finally. Yes, all the
same handwriting"
"All right" l said; "let's go down
to your Office"
He grumbled at this.
at would not do for me to be seen
with you," he protested. "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
come to see you?"
You want to see me in the Officer"
Eyes, in your Office"
"That Is absolutely necessary"
"Yes." said. ITS necessary"
"All right. all right" he said. Come
be crowded so that you can slip in
WITHOUT DelnS nOtlceu.
put on some old clothes that night
and slouched through the crowds in
Elizabeth street until reached Leonis
store. 1. went In. pretending to have
some business at the banking window,
and when no one was looking slipped
back into the office.
"I want to take look at your books
first of ALL" said.
He was puzzled, but he turned over
to me his books. He had kept the
signatures of his depositors in a sim
gle big book, and this was what
looked over most carefully.
1 found what had hoped to find.
About year before one "Ignacio Mar
tina" had written his name and his
address, "Whitefish. 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.
was on the point of telling Leoni
what l had found, but on second flash
I reasoned: Here is an excitable
Italian, half crazed with fear. and If
he'll go up in the air, and II he doesn't
plot to take his private vengeance
he's almost sure to let someone know
what he's been told" So 1 said moth
ing. but looked through the book
without comment. After short time
I left Leoni. telling him I'd call him
up in day or two.
do you think you can catch them?"
he asked.
81 don't know" said. "It's pretty
hard for an American to get onto the
crooked ways of these fellows, but
we've never failed on a case yet"
"Ah," he said. But you never had
case like this?"
NO" said 1; "that's true, too"
When 1 got back to the office the
manager said well, how do you
like Black Handing as far as you've
gomez"
That's funny looking case to
me-" 1 said. at looks too easy to be
true"
told him what had found, and
what my theory shaped up like.
"Oh, drop it If you want to-" he said.
81 don't think we care to be mixed
up in that sort of mess. Do just as
you please about it."
had already made start on the
case and had discovered what l was
inclined to believe was a striking
clue. The attraction of the man-hunt
had me, and I said:
"Ill go on with it for while at
least, If you don't mind"
Next day l went down to the Fed
eral building and looked over the
names of Italians who had applied for
citizenship in this country. There
found 'Ignacio Martina's" name again,
and in the same handwriting as the
Black Hand letter that Leoni had re-
ceived. l called up Leoni's bank on
the phone. Leoni didn't happen to be
in. If he had been this story proba-
bly, would never have been told. His
clerk was in and in answer to my
question he looked up his books and
| found that 1gnacio Martina still was
living in Whitefish, Wis. that he got
his mail at the general delivery, and
that he was tall thin man with
thin face.