The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1916-04-03
appeared to have an effect almost

really a Kerrison? l don't believe
IL; you haven't the look. Stol
this absurd nonsense and tell me-
who you are and what you are
here fort"
1t is uncertain how long Jen
Sen might have stood there In
silence had not chance come to his
rescue with the sound of a com
motion outside. Evidently more
visitors were arriving.
1t was in June that the Nation
al Northern bank, one of the larg
est single repositories of gold IL
the United States, made a most
astounding discovery.
II does not matter how the dis.
covery was made, but the facts oi
the case were that the bank found
in it's vault 20 bags of double
eagles-every coin a clever coun.
terfeit.
The spurious double eagles
were, to all outside appearances
perfect. The weight was invari-
ably exact, the ring true. Experts
declared the centers of the coins
to consist of composition, the
exact nature of which the govern
ment has never seen fit to dis
close. This much is known, how
ever, that one of the elements in
this comosition was a rare metal,
obtained as a byproduct to secure
radium. This center, with its
thin coating of gold. made a coin
so difficult of detection that large
amounts had gained circulation
before they were detected.
On the sixth day of July, Chief
Hike of the United States secret
service called in all his operatives
who were working on the case
and distributed them within a
certain distance of each other in
a double line across the center of
the United StaE5 from coast to
coast. One section of this line
had orders to move steadily south,
the other north.
Alan Jensen was a unit in the
line of secret service men raking
the country toward the north.
Journeying thru northern Ver-
mont, Jensen had stopped one
night in an isolated camp of
French-Canadian charcole burn
ers. Here he found another
stranger, i'll and delirious, being
cared for by these men; they de-
clared the sick man had stumbled
into the hut one evening a week
had thrown gold coins
right and left and stridently de-
manded that they produce that
bundle of furs for the bank and
let him be on his way" There
was also more babbling nonsense
the charcoal burners did not un-
and did not remember.
Knowing that banks do not or
deal in furs, Jensen ask
ed to see some Of the gold coins
tossed about by the sick man in
his delirium. Splitting coin
with an axe, Jensen discovered the
interior to consist of base white
metal.
This could mean much, or moth
ing, as Jensen realized. The sick
man might be only an honest fur
trader, innocently having some
of the counterfeit coin in his pos
session. Yet it offered lead
worth following, and Jensen vol
to sit up with the sick
man through the night, hoping
definite might be piec-
ed together from his rawlings.
1t was a strange mixture of
sense and nonsense that Jensen
listened to through the long night,
Toward morning the man appear
ed to become more rational, and
Jensen thought he gathered that
his name was Tom Springvale,
that he was on his way to Lake
Lucann, Quebec, where he would
strike Trail No. 1 at the head of
the lake, at Yellow portage: but
must obtain the package at the
Little Babos camp and must re-
turn to New York without 1e-
lay" These seemed to be in
structions the sick man had re-
ceived. At times he referred to
Trail No. 1" as Dead Mans
Trail"
Jensen remembered Tom
Springvale who had played quar-
terback on the eleven at Harvard
but that chap was senior while
Jensen was freshman, and he
had known him but slightly. III
ness and a beard had so altered
this mans features that he could
not say whether 1t was the same
Springvale or not. He seemed to
remember that the Springvale he
had known became an engineer CT
some kind. -,..,
This man had an odd, livid seal
running diagonally from his right
temple to the left side Of his
mouth, as II from a sabre cut oil
something of that sort. The
Springvale Jensen remembered
had no such scar as this on. his
face during his college days.
At dawn, Springvale died.
There was absolutely nothin In
the travellers pack to identify him
further. But as Jensen happened
to- glance beneath the bunk where
the stranger had died his eye. IVA,
caught by a bit of white paper
Picking this up, he read:9
~