The Monroe journal., 1915-07-30

places him-a little" she unused, put
ting the pistol aside after she had
glanced at It: Hes from the East;
he doesn't know gun from piece
of common hardware
Further search in the tightly rolled
bundle was rewarded by the discovery
of a typewriter book manuscript, I'M
signed and with ii an oblong packet
Wrapped in brown paper and tied with
Irvine. She slipped the string and re-
moved the wrapping. The brick
shaped packet proved to be a thick
block of bank notes held together by
heavy rubber bands snapped over the
ends.
While the little ormulu clock on the
dressing case was whirring softly and
Ginning the hour she stared at the
money-block as if the sight Of 1t had
fascinated her. Then she sprang up
and few to the door, not to escape, but
to turn the key noiselessly in the lock.
Secure against interruption, she
pulled the rubber bands from the
packet. The block was built up in
layers, each layer banded with paper
slip on which was printed in red the
name of the certifying bapk and the
amount. Bayou State Security, 3d.
000." There were twenty of these lay
ers in all, nineteen of them unbroken,
But through the printed figures on the
twentieth a pen-stroke had been drawn,
and underneath was written $4,000.
Quite coolly and methodically
Margery Grierson verified the banks
count as indicated by the paper
bands. There were one hundred thou
sand dollars. lacking the one thousand
taken from the broken packet. The
counting completed, she replaced the
rubber bands and the brown paper
wrapping. Then she repacked the suit
cases, arranging the contents as nearly
as might be just as she had found
them, locking the cases and returning
the keys to the waistcoat pocket from
which she had taken them.
When all was done. she tiptoed
across to the bed, with the brown pa.
per packet under her arm. The sick
man stirred uneasily and began to
mutter again She bent to catch the
words, and when she heard, the light
of understanding leaped swiftly into
the dark eyes. For the mumbled
words we're the echo of fierce threat
Sign It. sign it now, or, by God, I'll
shoot to kill"
The robbery of the Bayou State Sc
curity bank was already an old story
when Mr.. Matthew Broffin, chief OF
the New Orleans branch of notable
detective agency, took over the case
Of the bank robbery few days after
his return from Central America.
Since two members of his own staff
had fired and missed their mark in st.
Louis. there was a blunder TO be re-
trieved.
After a week of patient cropping,
Broffin was obliged to confess that the
problem of identification was too diff.
cult to be solved on conventional lines.
1t presented no point of attack. With
neither name nor a pictured face for
reference, inquiry was crippled at the
very outset. None of the many board
ing and rooming houses he visited had
lost ledger answering the verbal de.
scription of the missing man. Very re-
luctantly, for bulldog tenacity was the
detectives ruling characteristic, he
was forced to the conclusion that the
only untried solution lay in Teller
Johnson's unfortified impression that
the chance meeting at his wicket was
not the first meeting between the rob-
Der and the young woman with the
draft to be cashed.
II was the slenderest OF threads, and
Brofsn realized sweatingly how diff
cult Il might be to follow. Assuming
that there had been previous meeting