Evening star., 1918-04-14
4 No Mystery Il

final three or four oar strokes. heavy
fat-bottomed skin had glided IN. rum
ming her nose up on the sand, and the
man at the oars Strengthened his back
and caught his oars in the 1artner
oarlocks. He arose and stepped stin-
ly out of the boat and bent to pull
the craft still farther upon the shore,
but a dozen hands did this for him.
The stern of the boat was in the black
shadow cast by the cabin OF Shag-
bark's boat, but the full glow OF the
torches fell on something stretched
across the seats of the skin: and that
something was the dripping body OF a
dead man!
Like flame through dry grass the
word spread through the crowd: Ben
Bratman-its his body-drowned him.
self"
In an instant Shagbark Jones was
forgotten. AS il pushed from behind.
the crowd moved forward, crowding
around the skiff. For moment Shag-
bark held the bottle of Shagbark oil
aloft; then he lowered his arm and
stood idly looking down upon the sklr.
He touched one of the torches. swing
ing il outward few inches. and the
light showed two more men IN the
stern of the skiff, and smaller, light
er skiff floating behind held by a rope
AS the light fell on them| the two men
were arising from their seat, preparing
to come forward Shagbark held the
torch so they could see where they
were stepping. He knew there would
be no dealing in Shagbark oil that
night. Death has greater interest
than anatomy.
The shock had come to Galendale this
very morning and was still fresh news.
having been increased by the three col
umns in the local evening paper. About
Q in the morning the rumor-soon at
tested-spread through the town. Ben
Bratman for six years town treasurer,
was short in his accounts and had
skipped out" 1t was said that he was
short $4,000 This amount grew as the
day heightened: the evening paper stated
that his books were being examined and
that it was known he was short $4,000.
How much more the shortage might be
would be known in time. Seemingly Ben
Bratman had planned his flight we'll, the
paper said The police were using every
effort to trace him, but thus far had no
news of him.
: Shagbark had read the newspaper ac-
count carefully, for If there was a trace
of mystery, ne meant to make use of it.
1t was not vain1y he called himself the
Mystery Man, for 1t was known up and
down the big river that the old faker,
Shagbark Jones, could solve mysteries.
Where local police and imported detec-
tives failed Shagbark had succeeded.
Although, like the charlatan he was. he
wrapped his shrewd detective work in
vertise himself that he might sell more
Shagbark Oil and Shagbark Liniment.
there was no question that he had the
detective mind and he was always alert
for opportunities. A mystery solved
was a better advertisement for his nos
trums than were q hundred cures.
The Ben Bratman case was. however,
no mystery. He had stolen the money
that was beyond doubt-and he had fled.
Nothing in Shagbark'S mystery-solving
system had to do with seeking those who
fed.
Ben Bratman had gambled little. the
newspaper said 1t was not known how
much of the stolen funds had gone in
this way. Many young fellows in the
town played a mild poker game, and 1t
had not been known that Bratman had
ever lost or won much; II he played
stiff game. he had played it with other
than his usual opponents.
Other than this, the newspaper could
offer no particular light on any extrava-
gances of Ben Bratman. He drank a
little whisky. and this looked bad in a
prohibition town. but was by no means
an unusual matter. The newspaper said
in so many words: But this is not as
unusual as most of our citizens imag gine."
Ben Bratman dressed neatly, but not
extravagantly: the newspaper said: "In
his neat back he was well known fig
ure on our streets" The conclusion
drawn was that Ben Bratman had prob
ably lost more at cards and dice than
was generally known, and that his losses
had extended over a long time. Perhaps.
the paper suggested. he had gambled
in grain.
Ben Bratman had lived cheaply enough.
having room at Mrs. Calway's board
ing house. The night of his disappear
ance-last night-he had come in about
10 o'clock. and after taking big drink
of ice water from the silver pitcher on
the table in the dining room, beside
which Mrs. Galway was sewing, he had
gone to his room. That was the last
seen of him. The discovery of his de-
falcation had been made about in the
morning. and easily, because his last
thefts had been crudely hidden on his
books. They were apparent almost at
glance. A discovery made by the jani-
tor of the town hall probably hastened
the final discovery by an hour or two.
He had found the door of the treasurer's
safe standing open.
If anything had been needed to arouse