The Press., 1916-12-21
A Puzzling
 Case Setting a Detective to Catch a Detective.
By ETHEL HOLMES

II ~
 
 They say a woman can't keep a se- cret I can testify to the fact that one woman I have known could keep a secret so well that she guided me, Q detective with reputation for shrewd- ness, to the detection of the real crim- inal, I having been set upon her to expose her. And this she did without revealing to me the fact that she knew him to be the man I should have been after.
 One day I was directed by my chief | to call upon the president of the Third
 National bank. did so, and he said | to me:
 "Mr. Williams, we have a woman in our employ whom we suspect of em-
 bezzling our funds. The case is a sin gular one, and I must give it to you
 so far as 1t has already developed. There Is a mystery connected with it
 which is very puzzling.
 We had in our employ man whom we esteemed very highly. One day he failed to turn up at the usual time for | the days work Ills wife was tele- | phoned to know if he was ill., She re- piled that she was about to telephone | the bank for information concerning him. He had not come home the day before nor during the night. She was | terribly worried for fear that some thing had happened to him.
 "The person among our employees who had last seen the man-Walter Pixley-said that Pixley had told him that he was going to see a man who owed him hundred dollars. He had | hurried away from the bank to catch | his creditor at his office before the close of business hours. We learned from Mrs. Pixley the name of the | debtor and sent a man to him for in formation concerning her husband The party said that Pixley had visited his office in company with yelled wo- man, who had waited for him with out. The money had been paid him. and he had been seen to go away with the woman.
 "This information communicated to Mrs. Pixley threw her into mysteries.
 "The next phase of the case was the report of one of our bookkeepers that funds were missing from the bank. My informant, MT. Carter, told me that he had suspected Pixley for some time. and as soon as Pixley disappeared Car ter had made an examination of cer- tain books kept by Pixley and had fallen upon proof that he was a de- faulter. Carter is an expert ac- countant. I have always had great faith in him. He brought me his proofs of Pixley's guilt, which I examined, and, although Pixley had been doing all he could to render the accounts confusing, Carter convinced me that he was a defaulter. #-...- "Now come to the third act of the drama. Mrs. Pixley, who had undoubt- edly been deserted by her husband for | another woman, came to me and beg ged for some employment in the bank She claimed that as a girl she had at tended a commercial college and had studied bookkeeping. I pitied her and gave her the position made vacant by her husband.
 ''The end of my story and the point at which wish you to take it up is a report this morning from Carter that more funds are being taken from the bank and that he suspects Mrs. Pixley of being the thief. You see from what have told you that the case is a very complicated one. While do not pro- pose to lay out course of action for you, would suggest that you watch Mrs. Pixley. This of course you can not do in the bank. You can only do it outside of the bank
 confessed to the president that the matter did look rather puzzling. Had Pixley not deserted his wife for anoth- CT woman I would have suspected that MT. and Mrs. Pixley were in league to rob the bank. And yet. Pixley having done so, 1t did not seem likely that Mrs. Pixley would work on the same ground as he. told the president that would first find out something about Mrs. Pixley. When I had done that I would proceed to the next step in the premises.
 sent a party to Mrs. Pixley's home to sell her something, to draw her into conversation and to ask her at what institution she had studied bookkeep- ing. My emissary returned to me with the information that Mrs. Pixley had looked at the questioner concerned. but had given the Merton Business college as the place where she had received instruction. I at once went to the Merton college and asked to see rec ord of the students. The maiden name of Mrs. Pixley did not appear as hay ing been a pupil there. and MT. Merton declared that at the time Mrs. Pixley claimed to have been there he did not receive women students
 So far so good. I had nailed Mrs PfXley in lie. This tended to confirm me in considering her as guilty. But why she should steal from the same bank as her husband was puzzle The only reason I could think of was that she was enabled through sympa thy to secure place there. which she could not do elsewhere.
 Another complication bothered me Mrs. Pixley was reported by her fellow employees to be a pretty good book keeper. She must have received some training in this respect, but why should she have lied as to the school where she had studied?
 I made no progress after mailing the lie upon Mrs. Pixley and at last deter mined to make her acquaintance and by pretending as friend. or to be smitten with her, to get the secret from her. Under pretense of being bank examiner I became familiar with the employees. she among the number. treated her with difference and sym pathy. One day when she was leaving the bank after business hours joined her and walked with her. Passing restaurant, told her that was going | in to take lonely dinner. Would she | help me out with her company? She l consented, and, selecting table in a