New-York tribune., 1920-08-29

that the police detectives could So
much as raise suspicion of. Then
her father offered reward and
gave his story to the newspa pers
There was talk Of the white slave
trade and the "po.son needle"
Her case had been discussed that
morning in the operatives room OF
The Babbing Bureau, but Barney
had heard only one authoritative re.
mark upon it, and that had been
repeated as Babbing's diagnosis
"When a girl buys a book and d
box of chocolates she's going on a
railroad journey. This poison
needle talk is all bunk!'
Barney said "Somerville" to the
conductor and gave him SIS and did
rot even count the change.
The man in the Panama hat did
not disengage himself from his
newspapers until the car had almost
emptied itself at Plainfeld. Then
he began to make preparations for
his arrival at the next station
which the conductor had announced
as Findellen-and Barney, watch
ing him, took his own paper UP
again, to shield himself behind it
in case the man should glance at
him in passing.
The train had stopped before he
dared look around, and when he
reached the car platform his man
had already disappeared in the sta
ton.
He entered the waiting room and
found it empty. He screened him.
self behind the empty stove to spy
through the open doorway, and he
saw his man cranking a little tour
ing car in which woman sat at the
steering wheel.
An automobile presented an un-
expected difficulty to failing. 1t
moved from the square of the door
frame. He hurried to the door. The
machine was already disappearing
up the street that led straight from
the station into the hills behind
Findellen. He pulled down the peak
of his cap and started after it des-
perately.
Crossing the road, he crossed the
cars trail in the paste of red Jer-
sey mud that remained from the
mornings rain, and three of the
wheels had left smooth tracks
where the car had turned and the
fourth had imprinted the indented
pattern of a corrugated shoe de-
signed to prevent skidding. Barney
slowed his pace to study it. He
drew a dollar watch from his trou-
ser pocket and found it to be 6:O5
He put his cap back from his fore
head thoughtfully and turned along
the main street-away from the trail
OF the automobile--to find hard
ware store. He could not follow q
track in the mud after dark. He
had to have lantern.
At 7 o'clock, with little electric
lamp in his pocket, he was climbing
the hill road behind Findellen
munching crackers and cheese that
he had bought from a grocery store
and keeping an occasional eye on
the corrugations of the automobile
track, to make sure that it was still
with him. The road slanted oblique-
ly up the side of ridge that was
too steep to be cleared for farming
and Barney could see nothing but
bushes, trees and underground.
At the top of the hill the road
paused at the turn to show him a
panorama of the flats in which Fin
dellen and the railroad lay, under
an evening mist.
He turned his back on it and
came over the crest Of the hill to
see the valley to which the road was
leading. To Barney it was merely
goose pastures" as Hudson Street
calls the green pastures.
There could be no doubt that the
man in the Panama hat was a crook,
concealing himself from the police.
That was the only reason why he
should live in such place.