The Tomahawk. [volume] (White Earth, Becker County, Minn.) 1903-192?, 1916-08-10

He begged me to use I'll possible ef-
forts to discover who the person was
and to bring him to justice. He then
told of having received tie anonymous
letters, which he laid before me. l at
once perceived that they were all writ
ten upon the same brand of paper, in
a legible and penmanlike manner, and
evidently by the same hand and pen.
By the end of the third day Of my
Investigations, I had hit upon clue.
Joseph Sullivan, the superintendent,
had employed two engineers whose
names were George and Henry Book.
George was young man, married,
and living in cottage on the leased
property, near the well. Henry, his
brother, was single, and lived with
George and his wife. They were both
employed on the same well as pump
ers. George who was employed on
the day watch, was considered very
good engineer and a reliable man,
while his younger brother, Henry,
though known to be competent and en-
ergetic, was not nearly so reliable.
He had been found asleep while on
duty by Superintendent Sullivan on
various occasions, for which he was
several times reprimanded, and finally
discharged from the service. 1t was
subsequent to his discharge that Mr.
Ackert had received the first of the
anonymous letters.
In addition to the attempt to destroy
property or, at any rate, to the drain
ing off of Mr.. Ackert's tank, there had
been the theft of oil well tools and
other material on the Ackert and adj
jacent leases. This corroborated the
supposition that the perpetrator Of
these acts was familiar with that por-
ton Of the oil territory. In fact, every
thing pointed to Henry Book as the
guilty man.
Being familiar with the manner in
which oil leases were operated, I
donned the suit Of an Oil driller, con-
sisting of oyeralls spattered over with
sand pumpings, which gives the wear
or the general appearance Of bill
poster. Thus equipped, I set forth
on a cold night in February, the ther-
mometer at the time standing below
zero. My objective was the pumping
house of we'll where I knew George
Book would be on duty until midnight,
when he would retire, to be succeeded
by the man who had taken the posi-
ton formerly held by his brother,
Henry.
Before making my way from Oil
City to the Ackert property, visited
a meat market in the town, where
asked for five cents worth Of liver.
"There's a pet cat that seems to
have adopted me-" I explained to the
meat market owner "She stays round
my place and cries for food regularly
at meal times, and SO I guess it's up
to me to see that she gets it,
Having planked down my nickel, l
received the chunk Of liver which
the proprietor cut off and wrapped up
in a piece of paper. I took it around
the corner, where I made further IN
roads into it with my jackknife. A
small slice I placed in the hollow OF
my right hand. I then cut thin
piece and spread it on the back OF the
same hand, which I afterward tightly
bandaged with piece of Whlto mus
lin. The liver soiled the tightly
drawn bandage, which gave the ap-
pearance Of a wound extremely in
famed and sore. I then tied two hand
kerchiefs together and improvlsed
sling in which I could put my right
hand at the right time. SO equipped L