The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1915-08-28


body has got to be mean and sneaky
and find out Would you rather II
would be l than someone else who
might care even less than I dog"
The sleeping man opened unseeing
eyes and closed them again heavily
81 found the money, Carlotta mia; you
didn't know that, did your" he NUT
tered; and then the narcotic seized
and held him again
His clothes were on a chair, and
when she had carried them to a light
that could be shaded completely from
the bed and its occupant, she searched
the pockets one By one 1t was little
surprising to find all but two of them
! quite empty; no cards. no letters, no
pen, pencil, pocketknife, or purse;
nothing but a handkerchief. and in
one pocket of the waistcoat 4 small
roll Of paper money. a few coins and
| two small keys.
She held the coat up TO the electric
and examined it closely; the workman
ship. the trimmings. 1t was not tailor
made, she decided. and by all the little
signs and tokens 1t was quite new.
And the same was true of the other
/ AACALS- OQl luSI6 HdS uO Tag VI
trademark on any of them to show
where they came from
Failing to find the necessary clue
to the castaway's identity in this pre-
| liminary search. she went on resolute-
| ly, dragging the two suitcases over to
| the lighted corner and unlocking them
with the keys taken from the pocket
of the waistcoat
The first yielded nothing but cloth
ing, all new and evidently unworn.
The second held more clothing, a
mans toilet appliances, also new and
unused, but apparently no/scrap Of
writing or hint of a name. With
little sigh of baff1ement she took the
last tightly rolled bundle of clothing
from the suitcase. While she was lift
ing it a pistol fell out
In times past, Jasper Grierson's
daughter had known weapons and
their faults and excellences. That
places him-a little" she unused, put
ting the pistol aside after she had
glanced at it: He's from the East;
he doesn't know a gun from piece
of common hardware"
Further search in the tightly rolled
bundle was rewarded by the discovery
of typewriter book manuscript, I'M
signed, and with it 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 it had
fascinated her. Then she sprang up
and few to the door, not to escape, but
to turn the key noiseIessly 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 a paper
slip on which was printed in red the
name of the certifying bank and the
amount Bayou State Security, So
OOO." There were twenty Of these lay
ers in all, nineteen of them unbroken-
But through the printed figures on the
twentieth pen-stroke had been drawn,
Quite coolIy and methodicaily
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 tc
mutter again. She bent to catch the
words, and when she heard, the Hgh
of understanding Ieaped swiftly int
the dark eyes. For the mumbleC
T words were the echo of fierce threat:
"Sign it: sign it now, or, by God, II
shoot to kill"
The robbery of the Bayou State Sc
= curity bank was already an old storI
when Mr.. Matthew Brof1n, chief o
the New Orleans branch of a notable
/ detective agency, took over the case
8 of the bank robbery a few days ate
his return from Central America
e Since two members of his own stat
r had fired and missed their mark in ST
e Louis, there was a blunder to be re
- trieved.
g After a week of patient cropping
s Brofin was obliged to confess that tn
t problem Of Identification was too diff
: cult to be solved on conventional lines
o 1t presented no point of attack Wit
t neither name nor pictured face TO
reference, inquiry was crippled at tn
:, very outset. None Of the many board
u ing and rooming houses he visited hai
n lost a lodger answering the verbal de
d scription of the missing man Very re
=. luctantly, for bulldog tenacity was til
It detectives ruling characteristic,
Il was forced to the conclusion that tn
L only untried solution lay in Telle