Putnam patriot., 1914-05-08
ternatlonal Press Bureaul

tered it in its travels until very re- gently.
 "Is this tlle only letter of this sort you have?" I asked
 'No, no," he laughed. There were others. I tore them up. paid no attention to them until this one came. It names a time when I must have the money ready. That is why I came here"
 Were the letters all in this hand writing?" ] asked.
 He was a little slow in answering "Yes," he said, finally. Yes, all the same handwriting"
 "All right" I said; Tets go down to your office"
 He grumbled at this.
 .It would not do for me to be seen with ysu," he protested "The so- ciety has eyes everywhere. If you
 come to Elizabeth street with me it's spies will see and they will get suspi- cious. Then they will kill me as warning for others to be careful" All right" said I. "When can I come to see you?"
 You want to see me in the office?" "Yes, in your office"
 "That is absolutely necessary" "Yes," I said, tits necessary" All right, all right" he said. Come tonight then, at ten. The street will
 be crowded so that you can slip in | without being noticed" put on some old clothes that night l and slouched through the crowds in | Elizabeth street until reached Leoni's store. I went in. pretending to have some business at the banking window. l and when no one was looking slipped I back into the office.
 '1 want to take a look at your books | first of all," I said. He was puzzled. but he turned over | to me his books. He had kept the signatures of his depositors in sin l gle big book, and this was what i looked over most carefully. I found what I had hoped to find. | About a year before one ''Isnacio Mar l tina" had written his name and his address, "Whitefsh. Wis.," in Leoni's l signature book in the same fine Ital- ian hand that had written the threat 1 ening letter. There was no mistak- 1 ing it. The writing was too distinc-
 tive to be confused. I was on the point of telling Leoni
 what I had found. but on second flash l I reasoned: Here is an excitable 1 Italian, half crazed with fear, and if l tell him what I think I have found l he'll go up in the air, and if he doesn't 1 plot to take his private vengeance he's almost sure to let someone know what he's been told" So said noth-
 ing, but looked through the book
 without comment After a short time
 left Leoni, telling him I'd call him
 up in a day or two.
 "Do you think you can catch them?" | he asked.
 l 'I 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 case yet" l "Ah," he said. But you never had
 case like this?"
 "No," said I; that's true, too" When I got back to the office the
 manager said: Well, how do you | like Black Handing as far as you've
 gone?"
 "That's a funny looking case to
 me-" said ''It looks too easy to be true"
 I told him what had found, and what my theory shaped up like.
 ~Oh, drop it if you want to-" he said. l Ix fn ha mi a6
 up in that sort of mess. Do just as
 you please about it." | 1 had already made start on the
 case and had discovered what l was
 inclined to believe was striking clue. The attraction of the man-hunt had me. and I said:
 "I'll go on with it for while at
 least if you don't mind" Next day I 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- l ceiyed. I called up Leoni's bank on the phone. Leoni didn't happen to be l in. If he had been this story proba- 1 bly would never have been told. His
 clerk was in and in answer to my | question he looked up his books and l found that Ignacio Martina still was 1 living in Whitefish, Wis, that he got his mail at the general delivery, and | that he was a tall thin man with . thin face.
 left for Whitefish that day. Thirty
 hours later I was asking the postmis- {, tress of that little town if she had
 any mail for "Ignacio Martina" She | had. Of course she knew that l wasn't | Martina so she wouldn't hand over | the letter, but 1 had a glimpse of it
 and saw that it was from New York. I spotted Martina next day. He | was a villainous, though intelligent
 looking fellow who lived in the ltal- l ian settlement of the town without any visible means of support Now see
 how pure luck often makes case for A detective with scarcely any effort or | his own.
 1 There was in Whitefish a private | Italian banker operating much alter | the manner of Leoni in New York. | The Italians who lived in the town were mostly men who worked on the railroad. and their families. They had begun to settle in the town Iew years before, and one Frank Cantino' a white-headed old Calabrian. had ta- ken upon himself the burdens or King