Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-11-08
The Mystery of the Red Flame

local force, sat Mt a desk in n Nroon
filled with tobacco smoke. lie recog
nized Barnes through the haze.
Hello" he cried, 'in trouble?"
The old man smiled grimly.
That's n fine way to greet an ol,
friend he retorted.
Kelly laughed.
You fellows nre all the same. Yol
nmbast the regular police and call us {
! bunch of boobs, but when you get n nu
you cant crack YOU bring it here. Nov
own up. Isn't that the truth?'
| The blue eyes of the veteran invcsti
gator danced merrily.
We'll, it's not exactly that way
but"
'But you've come hero to ask my
help interrupted the chief.
Yes" confessed Barnes, 1--WE have.
That put Kelly in excellent humor.
lie pulled ont box of cigars and in
sisted upon each of us taking one before
he would talk business. After they had
been lighted and the smoke in the room
had become more dense he exclaimed:
Now fire away--I'm at your
service and IN go the limit. -
Barnes put the case to him in Il very
few words He explained all that had
hen done and said that it was eX-
trcmcly important that he should find
the house with Il door that had Il latch
which could be opened with this partic
ular key.
"Wc're having hundred keys
made. he concluded. "and we can fur
nish your men with these keys"
Kelly looked at the old man with un-
disguised admiratiOn
Say" he said. finally. "thc KEY
business is a new stunt TO me. I've
never heard Of pulling oft anything like
that before.
"But can YOU help usf'
"Nou bet we can. This town is di-
vidcd into fifty police districts and I'll
nut two men in each district on the
case at once. Thcy'' tackle all the un
occupied houses They know 'rm all
right And after that, if necessary,
theyll try cvc"v door of every house in
this b'oomin town.
IF YOU do thing. do it right.
That's my motto. And we'll get results
for you or I'll eat my shirt.
In little over an hour the keys had
been made and delivered 10 the ire
prcssihlN Kelly. He got into telephone
communication with each of the dis
tricts and by sundown that evening the
keys had been Delivered. Barnes whs
plcaSnd when of the prrparationS had
been concluded and so was | We felt
so well satisfied with ourselves that we
went to see Il musical comedy Ihat
night
CAN work and no play makes Jack
n dull boy quoted the veteran. we
need the relaxation and it may help to
brush the rohwcbS out Of our heads.
We reached the office bright and
early the next morning, and tried 10
piece together the various odds and
ends of the case. 1t must have been
10 o'clock when the telephone rang and
the CHEEKY voice Of Chief Kelly was
heard at the other end Of the wire.
ITS all right. old fellow he called
to Barnes. "Wc've located the house
YOU want. It's at the very edge of the
city line, at the beginning Of the Bur
lington pike. Hammond. one of my
best men, is there now, and he'll wait
until You come and turn the business
over to you.
Barnes was profuse in his thanks and
in few minutes we were in an auto
mobile and on our way to the suspected
house Curiously enough it was on the
way tn Hedgcwatcr and about half way
to that place. The structure proved
to be an old fashioned dwelling which
looked as if il might have been once
the home of wealthy man. 1t had
terraccd front and the yard was over
grown with weeds and grass. 1t was
built on Colonial lines with a quaint
front door and green shutters. There
was an iron knocker on the door and the
thing breathed the atmosphere of 1916.
But the whole business was rapidly go