The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1914-11-09

ing toward New ioin
weeks before. Upon this information
7 made a tour all through the country
IN get a trace of a missing negro anu
wasted lot of time IN 1olio"ins 'n
wanderings of colored man VINO hau
worked for several days with iarm'
or near Lodi. found him, but theie
were no wounds on his body, ana tn10
left him out of the game.
"When I returned to New YORK,
had q complete list of all the stoien
goods, and made a tour OF an 'no
fences which were likely to give up
information to the police, but learneo
nothing that would do me any good.
friend of mine who kept liquor
store In Greenwich street told me Oh
a watch which he had bought from =
fellow who looked like tramp ABOUT
q week before, and it had all the
marks of one of the watches Wnicn
had been stolen. took the watcn "
Mr. Baldwin. and he said that 1t was
his property.
81 made up my mind that the tramp
did not have any hand IN the TOD
berry. and had got possession OF the
watch in some other way. l hunted
high and low for this fellow, In the
cheap dives. and finally landed fel-
low answering to his description.
took him to the liquor dealer, and ne
was fully identified. locked him up
and squeezed him very hard for In
formation. He persisted that he had
found the watch in the street, but
after he was put through the mill,
and charged with killing a man to
get the time piece, he admitted that
he stole it from a man who was ly-
ing drunk in hallway in Greenwich
street.
From the description that he gave
me and the knowledge OF crooks
which | had, l concluded that 1t was
probably Danny Mcbride. l dropped
downtown, and, after hanging around
for q few days, l felt satisfied that
Danny was in hiding for something. l
could not find him in any Of his
haunts, and l knew from his friends
telling me that they had not seen him
that he was keeping out of sight for
something. I had never known that
Danny was in the house-cracking bust.
ness, as he had always figured as Q
river pirate, and bad one at that.
Zone evening. while going through
Blocker street, l met Frank Carroll,
and he told me an amusing story
about a voodoo woman, who sold
charms to the superstitious negroes
She was from Cuba. spoke Spanish
and had wonderful powers. She could
destroy witches who followed ne
groes, and could cure diseases by the
laying on Of her hands. Carroll said
that there was report going around
among the negroes that she had
healed the wounds and destroyed the
evil spirit which was bothering a ne
gro at single sitting, for which ser
vice she had received fabulous sum
Ordinarily, wouldn't have listened
to this story, but by some strange
influence associated this negro will
the one who had been bitten by the
dog at Baldwin's house.
"A good detective always run dowr
every idea, no matter how foolish i
may seem, and l decided to have {
chat with the voodoo doctress. Sht
lived In rear building in Wooster
street, on the top floor, and received
me with a great show Of suspicion
l told her that believed in her pow
er to kill my enemies, and offered
to pay her literally for one of hel
enemy.destroying charms.
In a few moments she limbere,
up little and made a statement tina
fairly caused me to jump for JOY. Sh,
said that the voodoo which had thi
man IN his power had bitten him al
over the body, and his flesh was file,
; with deep indentations from tn,
teeth. That was all she would ga,
then, and she would not tell who h
was or anything about him excep
that he had gone to Cuba. I got
detective from the Mercer street sta
ton to watch the house and in tn
evening got AL Pender, colore,
man who could be depended on t
play part.
He called upon the voodoo woman
and the first thing he did was to pu
out a big knife and sharpen it. H
said nothing while doing this and tn
woman became very uneasy. Whe
he got through the pantomime h
told her in very solemn tones tina
the object of his visit was to kill he,
He gave her one alternative. II sb
would tell him who the man wa
VINO called on with the teet
marks In his body life would b
spared and she would get $1,000
gold. Fender shook a bag full {
metal and gave her three minutes
answer. She whispered the name {
spanish Forbes. Pender knew this
ne mad the woman in his power. an
pressed the question, under the sam
conditions, as to where Forbes wa
she told him he was in a certain CO
lar In Wooster street.
i had heard all she said from III
nall, and at this point opened IN
! door. | ordered her to take me ,
, FORBES, but it took a prod from Pen,
ers Knife to make her move. 81