South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1913-09-20
CONTINUED from Friday.)
CHAPTER XII.
The Perez Family

|
| detective in the Hanska case, He was
| a small Italian of the blond northern
type, thrOwback 10 some remote
Gothic ancestor. He showed his race,
| however, In contour, in manner, and
In certain personal peculiarities, as
the care with which he waxed his
mustache, the loud color in his shirt
pointed shoes. SchOolmaster that ne
had been, linguist that he was, he
| spoke English in academic form but
with trimmings Of police slang
L think" said Grimaldi, that the
real name is Perez"
How did you get that?"
1T took little time. First I
frisked his room. I went in as the
gas inspector
Which was takin' risks" admon-
! isned Resale
Not the way / did il. The real
Inspector is my friend: I had his
permission TO impersonate him."
Pretty good" commented Ro-
sale. An you found nothing about
what I'm after?"
mo. That was the suspicious
! thing mean, the absence of any
sign OF Identification looked curious
| TO me. l didn't have much time, so
| went straight to the favorable places
This Estrilla or Perez had only four
or five books. There was no -iting
in them-but the hy-leaf was torn out
of all the old ones. 1 examined his
clothes. They look English to me
certainly they aren't the work OF an
American tailor nor yet a Spanish
Perhaps you don't know that a tailor
| generally sews somewhere behind a
pocket a little tag giving the date
| his own name and the name of the
customer p"
Don't II" inquired Rosalie. A
hundred times she had used that pc
culiarly of tailors as a part Of her
'mediumship".
Well" said Grimaldi, they are
gone!"
Rosalie looked her surprise.
Gone, every one of them, ripped
right out" said Grimaldi You
could see where the threads had
been. The same with the hats But
amount to much. except that it was
| an opening He has a camera.
don't know wing examined that, I'M
less it was a bunch. 1t was foreign
made-American boxes are manu-
featured by trust, and they all
look alike. Down by the range
scale l found a nickel plate such as
! agents always put on cameras. 1t
read: j. Lichenstein, Cameras and
Camera Supplies. Port Of Spain. Trim
idad''
where's that?"
Trinidad is an island off the coast
of South America-near Venezuela.
! Port of Spain is the main town. It's
a British possession. but there are
many French and Spanish residents.
had taken the precaution, when l
started out, to have the police photo
grapher get a snapshot of this Es-
trilla. / took the picture towel,
! never mind who he is. He's lived
all over South America. He knows
every Spanish colony in town. He
helps the police as a stOOl-pigeon.
which is why I'm not telling his
name. And he gave me what may
| be an identification. He's almost sure
that Estrilla is a Spaniard from Port
Of Spain named Juan Perez. The
Perez family were cacaO growers in
Trinidad. The head Of the family
was named Miguel Perez suppose,
though, you aren't interested in the
family"
| That's just what / want to know"
Miguel Perez was this mans faith
er-if the stOol-pigeOn is right in his
Identification. The stool-pigeon was
down there about three or four years
ago. At that time, Miguel Perez had
just died, and this Juan had inherited
the business. 1t seemed that he
wasn't getting on well with IT. At
least, that was the gossip. That's
all-oh, yes the stl-pigeon remem-
bered one othes thing about Miguel
Perez He'd had an early romance
with an English girl-navy people.
Miguel married her, and she didn t
live very long. After that he mar
ried again-a Spanish girl from Car
acas-and Juan Perez was the son of
that marriage. That was about all he
could remember"
Still. the camera marked Port
of Spain, seems 10 fix it. somehow"
1T seems to. But, of course, you
can't he certain. He may be a rela-
tive and have a family resemblance. "
Your friend didn't know whether
old Miguel Perez had any children
by his first marriage-to the English
girl?"
He didn't say, at least"
Resale CONCEALED TO pose with
the advent of an idea
Tell me-" she asked, when a
father and a mother are of different
nationalities-talk different languages
what language does the baby learn
first-the fathers or the mothers $50
"Oh, the mother s-always."
$50 IL there was a child from his
first marriage-to the English girl
he'd talk better English than Juan
Perez"
There's no reason why, with such a
start, a child brought up in Port Of
Spain which is ar English possession,
shouldn't speak as good English as"
here Grimaldi was about 10 say 'as
YOU" but sense OF truth restrained
him-"as anybody" he concluded.
And a mother always talks 70 her
baby in her own language"
'Oh. OF course"
An if any foreigner-you, for In
stance-gits real excited an talks
quick, what language does he use?'
"Oh, his own first tongue! When
I'm really angry. ! always begin TO
swear in Piedmont dialect"
RoSalie unused aloud: and in that
musing she cleared up for us one OF
her mysteries OF method
1T does look TO me-" she said. 'as
If I'd wasted a lot OF time brushin'
up my Spanish with the Martinez
Photograph Method. Still. it's
bound 10 help here and there. Lis
ten" she addressed Grimaldi. Il did
a turn once-never mind what-on
| "a ca