The Washington times., 1919-09-28

up' would draw police and chance pedestrians as we
The master criminal understood at once that it would not
do to place his barage in such fashion that police and
pedestrians, in running toward the excitement would
pass the warehouse being robbed So the neghbOrhoOd
had to be planned and the exact probable location Of each
policeman determined at 2:30 each night
Then the spot for the "holdup' was chosen The
hodup itself had to be reahearsed for the screams Of
the woman must be heard at just the proper moment
when the first commoon caused by the fire had subsidized
and the shots Of the masqueradng oOpads must be heard
at time Immediately after the fire wagons had drawn
into the place, else they would be drowned out
8iscaleulaton in any one Of these plans would have
spelled disaster for the robbers working within the ware
house The entire Of the daring robbery proves
how carefully and with what attention minute detail
the plans Of the master criminal were made
When the watehmans employers took him to task for
leaving his post attend the FIRE he stouty maintained
that the fire had not drawn him away that under no
cumstanees would he have left his building to watch
blaze or take part in quenching it But a in
distress different thing, he added he heard the
screams of the who being robbed heard the
shots and could do nothing else than go her assistance
That why he absent from his post and gave the
robbers opportunity to loot the upper loft
'Ah said the police, ''we will investigate that fire
and the street hOld-up too
They verified their suspicious that the fire had
Deen uellDefdIely SeI-Juey IOuu Lue cdlS WHICH the
oil had been carried onto the floor where the flames
first SEEN Then they to the hospital where the
young who had been the victim of the foopads had
been taken.
But she no longer there. She had recovered from
her fright and hysera almost before the ambulance
rived with her. and after few questions by the night
superintendent she had thanked the intenes for their
kindness to her and departed insisting that she well
able to go her home in the axcab which she asked be
summoned for her The taxi driver was found but he
could only report that his passenger had been driven to
uptown subway station where she had discharged him.
Temarng that she would reach her home quicker via the
underground railway.
Now the whole plot perfectly plain the detec.
ves the hand that had carried it out The whole
affair bore plainly the signature Of the master criminal
No but he could have invented and staged such an
effective emotional barrage with which to protect his
robbery Of the silk loft He alone would have under
stood that the best way to divert attention Of citizens
and police alike would be to arouse their excitement
their emotOns-by giving them fire or a street robbery
with woman the victim to pay attention tO-and
none but he would have been efficient as to give them
both these incentives TO excitement During the fire and
the search for the assaans of the young woman neither
police nor citizens nor the night watchman remembered
the unmatched warehouse lofts noticed the fast work
ing gang Of men busy loading crates Of silks lowered
from the uppermOst floors in the tallest warehouse.
Eventually the rich silks which those stolen cases con-
tanned products Of the prOudest looms In reYVng France
will find their way into the fashionable gowns Of maids