Tombstone epitaph., 1915-07-18

The cashier frowned. then looked up with an illuminating fash.

| The cashier frowned. then looked
 up with an illuminating fash. Cant yousseeF" he cried Who
 ever did it tried to get away with both
 the murdered bodies. to place suspi-
 cion on the scrub-women. He got out
 with one. and was evidently scared on
 sill
 But how could the man himself
 have got in?" cried John Beggs. | The cashiers ardor abated. He
 made no reply. but went again to the
 safe. set in the wall at the rear of the room in a prominent position. His inspection produced the aston
 ishing facts that the outer door had
 been drilled through. evidently by hand, in just the spot where the tum-
 blers could be thrown; but the metal of the inner door. by far the more | important of the two. had been melted
 by a powerful electric current It was a curious combination, wholly unpre- cedented. Why the same process had not been used on both doors was a mystery. Why the automatic sig nal had not worked when the safe
 was broken, was another: for there was a metallic casing in the outer door which could not have been | broken through after five-fifteen. when the burglar alarm was mechanically set by the Burglar Insurance com pany.
 | That outer door is twelve inches | thick" declared the insurance man. | Nothing but diamond drill could touch that chrome steel. l doubt if
 man could drill through 1t in ten days. The whole thing seems impossible. The minute the drill touched the cleo tric sheathing the signal would have been sounded at our office. It regis | tered all right, when the front door
 was opened at three-ffteen. The sig nal hasn't been meddled with. either"
 Well. I give it up." groaned the cashier.
 Tt must be one mans work. He couldn't have let any confederates in," have been given at our office on the | opening of a window or door, and there's been no tampering with the circuit
 Maybe the second scrub-woman was confederate!" suggested Crib | ben suddenly. She can't be found.
 Beggs didn't see her killed. She
 must have helped the thief. He couldn't have done all this without an accompiice."
 But, sir" exclaimed John Beggs.
 who was listening to the theory, that
 woman's scrubbed here for two years. She's all right. I'm sure she was
 killed. I heard her scream and moan. I know her voice."
 Again the nervous cashier was | forced to give up his clue.
 Well, what's to be done?" he asked hopelessly.
 Wed better wire the Bankers Pro- tective association" suggested the in 1 surance man. You're members, and 1 Mitchell. the president, has a great
 way of getting to the bottom of these things. I've sent the news out through
 our regular channels, our detectives, and the papers,"
 Then telegraph Mitchell We'll leave things just as they are"
 There isn't much to leave. but the | safe itself" answered the other. The ! devil couldn't have done a heater job. Not clue. Not a thing" At two o'clock that afternoon a short-waisted man, of medium height and athletic build. dressed in sim pie Oxford suit, stepped into the Mer- chants National. and was shown in to the despairing cashier.
 My name is Hardy; MT. Mitchell has asked me to come down and see what l can do." he said simply. taking of his hat and running thin hand through his brown brush of upstanding hair, a patch of white tufting out near the middle.
 Cribben glanced grumpily at the | newcomers eyes; they were violet, and he seemed more like a dapper so- ciety butterfly than a world-hardened man sent out on criminal investiga- ton.
 The cashier went into details in desultory manner. It was evident he had little hope. Having told Hardy all that had been learned, he summed up in a weary, disheartened tone: You see. it's something extraordi- | nary. A crime greater than the Man. haitian robbery. in '7s: greater than the Kensington job"
 Christopher Poe, otherwise "Mr. Hardy" leaned back. thoughtfully knit ting his slender fingers together. and two lines deepsned into . cynical set, one at each side of his mouth. draw ing the ends of the sensitive nose to the corners of his twitching lips He did not speak for a full minute: then looked up with those intense violet eyes that puzzled all mankind. and re- marked:
 You say the man your watchman saw had a dead-white face?" Cribben looked up at him with . mixture of doubt and disappointment What possible difference can that make? He doesn't answer the descrip- tion of any known criminal" Poe caught the irritation in his tone. and the lines deepened around his mouth. He answered in a musing