The Holly chieftain., 1917-03-09

l
means"
He angrily dabbed both thumbs up
on the pad and printed them upon the
square OF paper. Through . glass
Haggerty very carefully compared the
impression with the treasured photo
graph. His brows bent. All this wori
for nothing. Haggerty was bitterly
disappointed. The thumb prints were
identical in none of the essential de
tails. And yet the irail ended in this
house.
-Mason!" exclaimed Crawford.
HaGgerty dashed to the window. oui
Of 1t and down the IRE escape. He
had the Irishman's Unborn courage and
pride Of strength. H6 never used pow
der when he could use his hands. Only
the murderer. fleeing. knew the deadly
accuracy OF his aim. Then. he was
better dead than alive: ont Of reach Of
the bullyTagging sttorhsys, dodderins
insanity experts. tender Judges and
purblind Juries. Haggefty wanted Mr..
Mason alive. II was . matter Of pride.
aside from the seven thousand dollars
In rewards.
Crawford. Forbes and the girl
pressed about the window: but all
they saw was Haggerty. vanishing out
Of the alley-way. They waited, tense
with excitement Only Forbes knew
what It was about, but 1t never oc-
cured to him to explain.
Pistol shots. 1t was only an officiaI
warning for policemen in the vicinity
to be ON the lookout for q running
man, anyone who looked suspicious.
The trio remained by the window
for full quarter Of an hour. without
exchanging a word. scarcely moving.
Presently they saw Haggerty enter
the alley-way. He climbed the fire ee-
cape and stepped into the room. He
wore saturnine expression.
Well. he slipped me: but that's
nothing. He'll never get out of tn
city. But I'm an ornament t. tn Of.
fee. For six months I've been SO in
terested In watching you that never
gave anybody else a thought"
what has he done?" cried Craw-
ford. why. the man has been with
me for ten years, constantly. faithful
as dog. Twice in Mesopotamia he
saved my life. What the deuce will l
do without him?"
He's tn man who stole tn Armi-
tage emeralds. tn Hollister pearls an
tn Norris rubies."
Crawford made desrairing gesture.
1t was SO incomprehensible. What
proof have you"
Haggerty dryly indicated the win
dow. He saw what was coming. He
knew that II l wasn't satisfied with
your thumbprints l might think Of
his"
Good God!" Crawford struck his
forehead. "And am the cause Of It'll"
"Huh?" said Haggerty. startled.
Crawford pointed toward the safes.
Haggerty nodded appreciatively, ran
his glance over the safes and nodded
again. IF man could only see two
ways at once!" he mourned. half hu-
morously, half seriously,
HE was mad!"
"Mebbe. But listen here. At tn
Armitage case there was thumb
print on an idol; at tn HOLSTERS, on
piece o. jade; at tn Morris. on a
minachure. You gave mummy t. tn
museum. On th' headpiece l accident
ally discovered tn same print. TIL
guy that did all this fine work was
fond O. queer things. Th' thumbprint
on tn mummy case wiped out every
body but you. An when learned tn
thing, why, thought all had t. do
was t put tn darbies on you an mo-
tor to klink. But tn rest of you didn't
fit in. somehow. You had me guessing.
Why, l found out that your banker
has pay roll Of three thousand q
month that you give away t tn poor.
All this mystery about detectives is
bosh. There amt any mystery; it's
only addition an subtraction. Well,
couldn't add tn theft an tn safe.
blowing an that pay roll. an get tn
| sum needed. held OF tn thumb.
print till now, an there's where fall
down."
"My fault! Why, am almost sas
guilty as he Is. He used to watch me