New-York tribune., 1920-08-29

T<HIs was a warm, humid after

Square was at once hot and
noisy and crowded, so that the very
air seemed to be stifled and perspir-
ing, as if it were painting with up
roar and exhausted by the persecu-
tions of haste.
Barney was standing in the op-
pressive shade of the World Build
ing, with some limp newspapers un-
der his arm-disguised in an old
suit Of clothes that he had outgrown
and cap that he had once discard
-perfunctorily making show Of
seeking customers, and vacantly
watching the faces that passed. He
was supposed to be on the lookout
for a suspect who had escaped the
surveillance of the Babbing Bureau
in Brooklyn, and he had been wait
ing so for several days at the Bridge
entrance for the purpose of picking
UP the mans trail again if he should
happen by.
A passerby aroused him by offer
ing him nickel for a newspaper,
and glanced at the front page with
a hand still held out for change.
Barney yawned as he counted the
three cents into the open palm. The
fingers closed on the money, but the
hand did not move. Barney, sur
prised, looked up from the hand to
the owner Of it. The man was read
ing headlines so intently that he
was unconscious of all else, and he
was blinking at what he read, with
his lips pressed together in some
sort of instructive effort to conceal
any betrayal of the excitement that
showed in his eyes.
1t did not take him more than
two or three "bats" of the eyelid-
as Barney would have said-to
gather the meaning of the head
lines. Then he hastily folded up the
paper, thrust his change into his
pocket and hurried away with the
air of having picked up something
that he wished to examine in secret.
And Barney, after one blank mo-
ment of staring hesitation, followed
him hypnotically.
Those headlines announced, as
Barney knew, that the father of
Elizabeth Baxter had offered a re-
ward of $4,000 to any one who
could discover what had become of
her. And Barney had suddenly
found himself with what detectives
call "a hunch." He could not have
explained it. He could not have de-
Tended it. But into his empty
brain, on the instant that he had
seen the mans expression, there had
come a conviction that this respec-
table-looking stranger had a guilty
knowledge Of the Baxter case.
Of the dozen innocent explana-
tions of the mans manner he could
not have combated one. And he did
not know enough about the case to
Judge what possible connection this
fellow might have with it. He was
not even sufficiently conscious of
his mental operations to ask him.
self whether he ought to leave his
post at the Bridge to follow such a
vague scent. He followed it as un-
reasoningly as an animal that is
carried away by an instinct.
And once having abandoned him.
self to it he was possessed by it to
the exclusion of everything else
He went along Nassau Street, look.
ing anywhere except at the Panama
hat and blue serge shoulders that
nc followed, but he did not see
anything except these; the rest was
IN his eyes, but not in his mind
and he had the large, idle, disin
terested stare of an operative who
is failing.
He turned down Broadway in
this manner. expecting to see his
man enter an office building, anc
ready to close up on him so that
he might not lose him at an eleva-
tor. At Liberty Street he followed
across Broadway and saw his
quarry making toward the water