Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1920-07-16

could not seem to believe his eyes.
Empty--the safe was empty! The
diamonds were gone-gone! Gone
and these poor fools were driving an
empty safe to the Master Spider
and another poor fool with dropped
jaw, was staring, gaping like an i'm
beetle, into one! And then, grip
upon himself again. he laughed low,
grimly. unpleasantly. with the
Hawks compliments" He had sent a
bill like that once to MacVightie in
SCribed-"With the Hawks compli-
ments!" This was very neat. very
clever of-somebody. OF somebody
who must have known what the Wire
Devils were up to tonight! There
would be no debut in the minds of the
Wire Devils, who would have heard
of that little episode with MacVightie,
but that the Hawk had again fore
stalled them, and left them a ten dol
lar counterfeit bill in exchange for
twenty thousand dollars worth of I'M
set diamonds. Only it was this some
body, and not he, the Hawk, who was
twenty thousand dollars the richer for
it.'
He reached in, picked up the bill to
put 1T in his pocket-and suddenly
laid 1t back again, and closed and
locked the safe. Why deprive the
| Master Spider of little joy: and, be-
sides. it would carry a message not
perhaps so erroneous after all-for, in
flash, logically. indisputably, appar-
emily impossible tho ii appeared TO be
on the surface, he knew who that
somebody was. The shelving of the
theft to the Hawks shoulders would
have defeated its own object unless
the theft were committed and discov-
cred on this particular division of the
railroad where the Hawk and, Incl
dentally, his supposed gang OF des-
peradoes were known to be operating
The messenger certainly had not been
in a drugged condition when he went
on duty, and since it was only rea-
sonable to assume that he would have
satisfied himself everything was all
right at that time, it was evident. as
he had given no alarm, that the con-
tents of the safe had been intact
when he took charge-whether as q
thru" man in New York, or at the
eastern terminus of the road, or at
the last divisional point--it did not
matter which. The robbery, then,
had been committed while the mes
senGer was present in the car-and it
had been committed on this division.
The safe had not been forced, it
showed not the slightest sign of vio-
lence--it had been opened on the
combination. Some one then, an ex-
pert safeworker, in the first stages of
the messengers drugged condition,
had happened into the car just ahead
of him, the Hawk, and had done ex-
actly what he, the Hawk, had intend
ed to do?
NO" said the Hawk mo, guess
not" He was wriggling noiselessly
backward, and his feet We're hanging
out now over the end of the wagon.
observation-disclosures like that don't
happen-not very often." The Hawk S
head and shoulders were still under
the tarpaulin, but his feet now could
just feel the ground beneath them. II
guess" said the Hawk, as he sudden
ly withdrew his head, and, crouching
low, ran a few steps with the wagon,
then dropped full length in the road.
Il guess it's-the thirf pat"
The wagon disappeared in the
darkness. The Hawk rose, and, turn
ing, broke into run back along the
road.
He had been longer in the wagon
than he had thought--it took him ten
minutes to regain the railroad tracks.
Here, without pause, still running,
he kept on along the right of way
but there was a hard twist to his
lips, and the clenching of his fists
was not wholly due to runners