The Washington herald., 1913-07-13

lout q range Of the propristprs WHISKY.
coetse breath. taking from his outst11
poexee The glass-coatsd thumb and d1up-
pmg into me sambler's pink palm
ouch Damn IT," the ovuar t1ruuool
the thumb like red-hot cuai .Whsfrs
you tryfn' to do? This amt your houaol
What IN helfs got insB you. Hardy? You
ANT turned stool-piseon?" Tho yains =
MS neck swelled malimanfly and be
glared down at the thumb which nv n
his feet. his gaze nxing on It in horrible
fascination. - :
But what does that prove, anywsyY-
I ne clustered In an effort to recover his
/ doughty dignity as q man Win h.Se.,
nerves and conscience picked M fss ~.
eous exhibit and displayed IL on his psim.
Remove the glove from his left hapd ana
you'll see-but be careful he doesn't bite
you" replied Poe. pointing to the Huna n
Frog. q tribe spent, but stin ruanagfnr
occasionally with a sinuous twist to
loosen the hold Of one Of the eiGht
strong arms that held him.
A fresh fight followed. The Frog's
loose flesh began to creep across his
bones again as he coiled and buekied
| like q frantic venomous reptile. the
whole slippery length Of him. They were
unable to remove the glove until the
doughty little owner stepped over and
| delivered a deliberate, sense-snufYine
kick coId-bioodedly with his heavy heel,
directly in the fear-frczen face of the
Human Frog. While the poor devil was
recovering they snatched on his glove
and exposed a big bandase In place Of a
thumb. The proprietor ripped that OF
with brutal jerk and disclosed an un-
slightly wound. freshly dressed :.
It's his thumb all right" agreed the
gambler hesitantiy. But how does that
prove he did for the Manhattan National
watchman this morning? I read that the
watchman lost a thumb, too. What's the
dope?"
Poe took the proprietor aside and with
a shrewd wink explained quickly in order
70 maintain his character as Hardy,
sRender and sport. I'm doing this to
keep my, stand in with one of the Man
haitian directors. see! Poe. his name is,
aueer guy, doped out this theory about
,ne frog an sent me over to get the
frog out of here without making any
trouble, seer'
are you on the level. Hardy" asked
me Juny proprietor suspiciously.
friend Of mine doped H." said Poe con-
vineinsly. He said from the firxt no.
oody out a regular eel like Frog here
couio wrssle through a little window in
,ne pdhk ne found the glass cut out of
was there when he climbed : Iadds,
rubbed his finger over the sill of tbe vin'
COW and found little threads where IN.
Iope mao rubbed He said Frog used two
ropes, one tied high up on the nre escape
next door, which he used to svin. ~
70 the theater on and the other 10 hold
tne grating and glass in place and dive
MIN something to hold on the wh,,e he
shpped down to get Summers, who was
probably half asleep" Poe spoke in ths
character OF Hardy with such visor that
,ne proprietor drew him into a chair and
leaned close in intense interest.
This director found the watchman.s
ucker gone and marks as though he'd
oeen tied up. The Frog went to work.
and opened the vault door with the kev
and combination which he had boupb,
from friend, as I Just found on, hv
ieading him on with a pipe story NJ m.
taoie mere. There was one of the new
whiriins safes inside that vault an, the
frog In his surprise probably pushed In
ms nand to feel for a door ana eot his
thumb nipped clean on
nut tne paper said 1t was Summers
thumb that was taken on" aid N.
on?" '"os LOOK
sure! Listen! At the same seeond
tnat the Frogs thumb is taken on the
Waterman works loose from the ROM,
ana turns in a burglar alarm in the vail
near by. Frog catches him. crashe.
IN his skull with the butt of his s,,n
dfaes him back to the safe. and does
some tail thinking. helped out by the
pam IN MS thumb. He sees he was
2 nahded q lemon by the crook that sold
him the keys and combination. no n
comes to him all of a sudden to rn.t~I
u look like Summers did the work. He
taxes on the ropes. smashes the buIPx
eye ana put II by the watchman's head.
inen to make 1t even surer. as he hears
the cops outside. he sticks the dead
mans thumb into the whiriing safe; it's
nipped on neat and drops at his feet
II all worked fine except that when he
sroped around on the floor to pick up
nis own thumb to keep IL out of evil
lence ne got Summers by mistake, and
eft his own In his hurry to make mis-
getaway. pawn the watch he had stolen
rom Summers. and get here to gamble
away the thirty dollars"
i''He was sure enough fool" said the
disgustedly. Il always did
say the Frog was crazy: of course, any
good detective could trace a crook by;
lis thumb; it's even better than q thumb
,rint''
"A good deal, according to this friend
II mine, said Hardy, looking anxious
" "nere the frog was being held
waiting the proprietor's orders for his
isposaL He's studied thumbs and
hings and got a pretty good descrip-
ion Of the fellow just from the fact
hat he had what's called a clubbed
humb. He said the skin under the
all was blush brown, showing that
he fellow was full of Niger blood, but
ad white skin on the outside"
That's goin' some." said the pro-
rfetor. "A fellow was just telling
,e the other day that the Frog had
nigger mother, and his hair was
inky till he had 1t Strengthened by a
and his face enameled What
o you want done with himy'
Give me a man and Wen take him
ut quietly, so your place won't get a
this precinct or somebody else to
lake costly raid" Poe winked sig
ificantly in his character as Hardy
nd the nervous little proprietor gave
n abrupt order. The Human Frog
as rushed through a secret door into
lie adjoining house, and from that in
ocent dwelling Poe phoned for a taxi
nd took the Human Frog to police
where-he easily found Q
elective waiting to claim the honor Of
aving ferreted out the Manhattan
ational mystery and arrested the
'iminal. according to details furniAhed
IN by sporting man who had done
for friend. director in the Man.
attain National. and wished both
ames kept entirely out Of the case
fTJr, uNrnN