The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1912-08-29

Rather confused" replied Brockett,
instinctively warming to the big Irish
man. Tell US, won't you, how we
happen to be here?"
Have ye no memory at an?"
laughed the policeman.
Almost none, officer. We can re-
member things going round in circles
and then someone shooing our senses
away from us-nothing after that"
Il can believe ye," returned the Of
ficer. Il was just walkin' State street,
me and Flynn, me partner-Pm Ho-
gan, an the well-known, well-respect-
ed team is Hogan and Flynn, terrors
to all eVil-doers. Well, me lad, be
that as it may, we were walkin State
street, not too far from Taylor, when
We heard sounds indicatin' that Satan
had bruk loose in a coon restaurant
nearby. We went over, an I'm think
in we were just in time. Youse two
was on the floor, an half a dozen big
niggers was tramplin' the stutin' outa
youse. Five minutes more an yed
have both been fine subjects for the
coroner"
Tell me-" ventured Solano, was
there one great big fellow, twice the
size Of an ordinary man, among the
crowd?"
Now ye remind me of it," said the
policeman, there surely was-big Sam
Cruitt, the human elephant. Great big
niger, makes his livin' mostly by dis
tributin' ads for fake doctors and
thievin dentists. He was tryin', as
near as We could judge, to keep the
crowd off from youse two. Anyhow,
he wasn't doin' nothin' to harm either
wan of youse, an when We come in
he backed out the rear door, nice an
quiet. Bad niger is Sam, at times,
but he didn't seem specially bad on
this occasion"
"Just the same" declared Brockett,
"the trouble started because he had
stolen something of mine-or, rather,
had something of mine that another
man had stolen. A money belt, con-
tanning considerable cash and-well,
anyhow, containing all my money"
"He showed the belt in this res
taurant," put in Solano, "and We, acci-
dentally happening to be there at the
time, naturally tried to take it away
from him. Then, suppose, they all
jumped on u.s."
That they did, an the only thing
I'm surprised at" remarked the Of
fcer, "is that they didn't use their
razors on ye. Bad lot of coons hang
round that place, I'm teilin' ye."
We fully believe it," said Solano
with a grimace of pain. But say
officer, how long have we been in
here, and how long have we to stay?'
"Ye have been in only matter OF
three hours. lads" replied the police
man, though | suppose it has seemed
week of Sundays. AS to how long ye
stay-well, ye haven't been booked
yet. I'm not a bad judge of people
when see them, an ye look all right.
Washed and brushed up the boys
felt little more like live human be
ings. Officer Hogan treated them
like younger brothers, assured them
that no charge had been entered
against them, and that they might con
slider themselves as simply held foI
safekeeping. Better stay right here
till evenin'," said the hospitable Off
Ger, "an' then we will sally out an try
to get hold of the big niger. have
a half-idea as to where we can locate
him. He's up against the dope-smokes
hop regular-an' 1t won't be hard tC
find him. Along after supper, lads
wen go out an do the best We can"
Neither Brockett nor Solano could
find words to fit the case, but the
twinkle in the big policeman's eye told
that he fully understood their feel
ings. He shook hands with them re
assuringly, brought them bundle ot
newspapers to while away the time
and then busted himself with the rou
tine of his report upon the days
events. The boys were buried in the
printed columns, when little packet
of paper seemed to wait itself through
the window by which they were sit
ting. The packet fell at Brockett's
feet. AS he caught it up SolanC
sprang for the window, peered eagerly
out-and saw no one excepting two
bIue-clad policemen strolling by.
Brockett opened the packet anC
found several thicknesses of blank pa
per, bound together to give weight and
accuracy to the throwing of the mis-
sile. In the center of the package
was a slip of cardboard. and writer
across this in the hieroglyphs Brock
EFT had himself invented, were these
letterings:
"BA SH SH FA TIC W HR 2BH HR E
Pos PO Pos FA FA TIC HR Z TO A
SH E TO BH SH PO Pos WP E TC
PO TIC e 2BH SH W."
Keep original appointment. Delay
no longer" translated Brockett. "To
nights fortunes then will decide
whether we can keep faith as prom