The Tomahawk. [volume] (White Earth, Becker County, Minn.) 1903-192?, 1916-10-05


sented by William H. Gard, one of it's
best men, was also ineffective in trac-
ing the fugitive further than to
railway station wEore he took q west
bound train.
1t was more than year after this
and George d. Caviness was serving
time in the federal penitentiary ut At
lanta. Billy Gard had been working
hard on many other cases that had in
tervened and the tracing Of Homer
Hester had been allowed to rest. 1t
is the motto Of the federal detectives,
however, that case is never aban-
doned, and now Gard was back upon
cashier. His decks were otherwise
clear and hi instructions were to get
his man.
Gard locked himself up with the
Hester case for three days. He read
the records Of it, reviewed his person.
al knowledge, got together every scrap
of information that had any bearing
upon the character of the fugitive. He
wanted to know exactly what sort of
youngster Hester was, he wanted to
| place himself in that youngsters place
and attempt to determine what he
would have done under the circum-
stances. 1t is method that has been
great success. But it is only the &C.
casional man who is so human that he
may discard his own personality and
appreciate the course that would be
taken by another who may thus get
results.
In Hester he had youth Of twenty
| four who had been born and reared
in Royerton, had rarely been away
from that town, had no interests out
of it. He was a young man Of good
character, had demonstrated certain
strokes of boldness and action. He
had a mother and father and two Sis
ters living in Royerton.
1t appeared that Hester had fled and
that he had cut all ties behind him
that he had left town and had never
communicated with his relatives or
friends. While Gard had been off the
case vigllant watch had none-the-less
been kept upon all letters arriving in
Royerton that might possibly be from
tho fugitive. No letters had come.
"Now Card" said the detective to
himself, were you youngster Of this
training, living thus in Royerton, sur
rounded by a family to which you
were devoted, with no interests in the
world outside, with a certain element
of boldness in your nature; If under
these circumstances you got into trou-
BILE, would you run clear away and
never communicate with them?"
NO." answered Gard, transported
back the few years that separated him
from the inexperience Of twenty-four
II could not break so easily from my
dependence upon my family and the
only world I had ever known"
"And if you were thus thrown upon
your own resources in the big outside
world and had no money, and If you
had the additional handicap of having
to keep in hiding-would you be able
to face proposition like this and still
not call for help from your people?"
NO." again answered the imaginary
youngster. 81 would hide and find a
way to get money and news from
home"
So the detective reached the conclu-
sion that Kester was, in all probable
ity, communicating with his relatives.
1t was evident that he was not writing
home Too close watch could be kept
on letters coming to a small town for
| any Of his people or their confidential
friends for them to be received with
out the knowledge OF the special
agents who, through the postmaster
and letter carriers, had been steadily
watching this means of communion
ton.
So the conclusion was reached that
Kester was getting messages to his
people through some other means
than the mails, in all probability
through confidential messenger. TO
do this he must be near by. He could
hide to best advantage in a city. Phila-
| delphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore were in
a convenient radius. The detective
drew the conclusion that, were he in
the boots Of the fugitive, he would
have taken refuge in one Of these
cities; that, had he not been willing to
risk the mails, which Hester evidently
was not, he would have used some
trusty go-between and through that
agency would have learned the news
from home and received from his rcla-
tives the money upon which to live.
Upon the basis of this theory Billy
Gard asked himself more questions.
Were I hiding under such condi-
tons whom would I use as a messen-
ger?"
A faithful former servant who might
be living there, a distant relative,
some individual hired for the task.
There we're not so many possibilities.
They might be exhausted in few
weeks investigation. Was there not,
however, a shorter road to results?