Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1915-07-15


rency with their teeth than metal
money. But then" Poe laughed. they
| are the greatest children in the world
his lips drew down soberly. but the
nastiest rascals on earth to deal with"
Who? Criminals, you mean?"
cried Burns. leaning forward. having
failed to catch the connection.
mo. Sicilians."
"Sicilians! What about them? You
were talking about criminals"
Il know, but was thinking all the
| time about those broad-shouldered,
staggering. swarthy fellows from the
| wondrous Italian isle"
Then you think there is a gang of
Sicilians behind this fux of defalcated
| money!"
oh, it's only the merest notion"
Poe hurriedly assured Burns, who was
by this time sitting on the absolute
edge of his chair, endeavoring to read
Poe's theory in his manner. THE only
thing we know is that grocers, deal
ers Is butter and eggs, vegetables and
the like, have been depositing these
puny coins quite generally in uptown
New York"
| That's all. But how in the world
do you gather from that that the peo-
pie behind this thing are Sicilians?"
I'm not sure yet. But IL you can't
sleep and want to make q night of 1t,
I'm game" answered Poe. glancing at
the clock
| What do you mean? What can we
do at one o'clock in the morning?"
asked Burns. curiously.
Well. in the first place we can get
ready" Poe switched on another
drop light, and stretched across a low
cabinet to a telephone on q swinging
iron arm. He hooked the phone into
a comfortable position and called
number. Securing the man he want
ed, he asked that an ordinary grocery
wagon and An old horse be ready for
him at three-thirty that morning.
"A grocery wagon? What's that
| for?" asked Burns, as Poe hung up
the receiver
| Well, il you can't figure it out, I'm
not going to tell YOU" answered Poe.
drawing highly polished chess-set
from a case beneath the davenport.
| But at three-thirty in the morning,
A grocery wagon! l don't get you
Christ" The other looked at him
| quizzically.
"Oh. forgot. Before / beat you at
a game of chess, I'll rig you out in
lowly clothes, like mine" Poe disap-
peared into his dressing room, return
ing in ten minutes with a threadbare
| golf sweater, a denied and dusty
derby, celluloid collar, ready-tied
fore-in-hand, and a neat, Germanic,
square cut suit, which he dumped into
Burns lap, and leisurely arranged the
men on the chess-board. playing
against himself until Burns returned,
looking like thrifty German grocer.
They sat down before the board,
and played in silence until the clock
! chimed three-thirty. At the stable a
broken-spirited nag and a rickety
| grocery wagon awaited them.
Mounting the drivers seat together,
| the brother bankers drove out and
cross-town to First avenue. 1t was
quite dark. and there were very few
wagons astir at that hour, other than
| milk and bakery carts.
Poe whipped the horse into a chop
by trot, and they bounced over the
pavement up First avenue, talking
but little. When they reached the
''nineties," Burns asked abruptly:
Are you going to the Harlem Mar
ket?"
That's it," answered Poe. We're
almost there. I've decided it'll be best
| to try the small Italian dealers first"
$50 that's how you jumped to the
| conclusion that the sweaters were ST.
| cilians? You knew IL the small mer-
chants uptown possessed shrunk gold
they probably got 1t down here at
their wholesale MARKET"
That's it. The market is full of
Italian dealers, and is a pretty good
| distributing point for coins that have
been tempered with. But here we
are. Take this"
Poe extracted eight fifty-dollar
Di1tS tEh t"cHLlSS HUN SupUl1
| of large bills he had removed from
his safe before starting "Mingle
with the crowd as though you were
grocer, buy anything small from Ital-
ians only. and look sharp for gold
| change"
| Finding a narrow space between
| two trucks, Poe backed his wagon in
| quite skiifully, and leaped down over
a pile of lemon crates. Burns followed,
and they separated on reaching the
cluttered walk.
Poe canvassed his side OF the street
| for two blocks, either buying some
| thing or asking for change at each
| Italian wholesale store. Much disap-
pointed at receiving no gold except
two five-dollar pieces, which showed
| no signs OF having been tempered
| with, Poe returned to his wagon,
where he met Burns. who had secured
three ten-dollar gold pieces in change;
but on inspection these, too, proved