The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-09-28

she had studied?
1 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 a bank
examiner / 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 u
restaurant, told her that was going
| in to take lonely dinner. Would she
help me out with her company? She
consented, and, selecting table In a
corner where we could converse with
out being overheard by others. we diRed
together.
| l commiserated with her at having
such a husband, expressing wonder
that any man should desert so charm
| ing a woman. She seemed to feel very
bitterly toward him, but, Of course. II
she were thief as well as he. it
might be a part Of her game to feign
! this. l asked her If she suspected who
| was the woman with whom her huS-
band had gone away, and she said she
! felt sure of the person. / got nothing
| out of her. but was impressed with
the belief that there was good deal
| in her, whether for good or for evil.
though l did not feel that it was for
| evil After dinner l escorted her to
| her home and left her at the door, at
| the same time receiving an invitation
to call upon her
Despite all my efforts I found moth
ing to implicate Mrs. Pixley, and there
was no evidence at the bank to prove
that she was purloining its funds,
though the president had put Carter
on the watch for this. After time
Carter said that, whatever was her
way of taking money, it was so sub
tie that it was beyond his penetration.
However, the cash on hand was con-
stantly deficient, and Carter suggest
ed that Mrs. Pixley be simply dis
charged without any reason being CIV
en- her The president communicated
this to me, and l suggested that he
put the matter off. l had become con-
WINGED that Mrs. Pixley had a secret.
was steadily gaining her confidence,
and l hoped in time she would let
out something. To this he assented.
A couple of days after this I re-
ceived a note from Mrs. Pixley, as fol-
lows:
Dear Mr.. Detective-You are on tho
wrong track in shadowing me. Conceal
yourself under the steps leading I'D to
the bank tomorrow night Cor. rather. the
next morning) at 1 o'clock and wait till
I come. M. d. P.
I cannot tell why, but was not so
much astonished at this as might be
expected. was certainly rejoiced, be-
cause l knew important developments
were to come. At the appointed time
l went to the bank and waited in the
shadow Of the steps. Ten minutes
later Mrs. Pixley went up the steps.
Joined her. She tapped at the door,
and 1t was opened by the Waterman.
We went in behind the counters. Mrs.
Pixley opened safe, took out some
heavy account book, which l laid on a
high desk for her.
How is it that you can come here
at such time and open this safe?" L
asked her.
1.-The Waterman is in my secret. 1
am allowed the combination of this
safe, which contains only books"
And here began the revelation. am
something Of an accountant, this being
one reason why l was put on the job.
Mrs. Pixley spent two hours with me
over set of books, showing me that
Carterhad manipulated them to conceal
certain populations. And the entries
bearing upon them were so dovetailed
into certain entries in set Of books
that had been kept by her husband as
to make it appear that Pixley was the
defaulter. And l could not see how
Pixley could have shown that he was
innocent in the matter. l looked aside
at Mrs. Pixley and asked:
"How about the woman with whom
your husband decamped?"
Was the NelleQ WOIudu WHO went
with him to collect the money owed
him, but l didn't go away with him.
One day he discovered how Mr.. Carter,
to conceal his populations. had manipu-
lated these books. He came home so
broken down that /, fearing he would
make poor showing under an inves-
tigation, concocted this plan whereby
l might have an opportunity to study
out the problem for him. The watch
man, Callahan, has always been my
husbands friend and at the risk of
losing his job has admitted me here at
dead of night. l have had an expert
accountant with me at times. and to-
gether we have unraveled this conspir-
acy and can make showing such as 1
have given you"
"Where did you get your knowledge
Of bookkeeping?"
81 studied it after my husband left.
The person you sent to find out about
that caught me unawares. But at the
time ! did not know she came from
you"
Mrs. Pixley," l said admiringly, TAX