The Washington herald., 1921-02-13
THROUGH DOUBLE DOORS

Your question is easily answer
ed" declared Harvey Hunt, looking
up with a sigh of satisfaction from
the plate which few moments be-
fore had contained a generous por-
tton Of liver, smothered in onions.
Ihe stock in trade Of the success
ful detective is observation and in
depreciation. It's exactly the same
in any other profession, DeKyne
The physician observes and inter
prets symptoms which mean nothing
TO you. The skilled machinist lis
tens TO sounds in your automobile
that merely confuse you, and tells
you what and where the trouble is.
The mariner looks at the sky and
sees in il weather changes which
are concealed from you.
Likewise the detective looks
largely for trihes~which mean moth
ing TO you, but which, read in con-
nectiOn with many other trihes as
well as the main features Of the
case, enable him constantly to mar
row his search down to the one pos
sible criminal. There was, for in
stance, the case of Grant V. Swoyer.
who was convicted OF theft by his
! leather suspenders."
, Leather suspenders?- echoed De
kyne. looking up from his ice cream
in surprise
Yes" said the criminal inves.
tigator. 1t was one Of my fathers
cases.
There had been an annoying and
puzzling series of robberies at the
old subtreasury. Every once in q
while when they checked up on the
gold in the vaults they would find
IL a. bar short. There was a double
puzzle in them. How was the gold
gotten out Of the vault? And hav-
ing been taken from the vault. how
was it gotten out of the building,
Several times employees with heavy
packages had been stopped by the
door guard, but without result
The first secret service man as.
signed to the case couldn't figure
out either, and he let the trail gel
cold while he subjected the private
lives OF the employees to Close
scrutiny. But il it was an insid,
job, the thief was cOncealing hi'
loot and not spending it None o.
the employees was living beyond hi!
means. No more gold disappeared
for a while. and finally the sesrcl
was dropped Then, a couple o
months later another bar was miss
ing. Dad was sent up from Wash
tngton to try his hand at it.
He made a thorough examination
OF the vault. There were no wesk
spots in it II was entered by d
double door. The outside was solid
steel. Three or four officials knew
I the combination. 1t was closed only
at night The inside door was sim
'Iply a heavy grating. Nobody but
, the superintendent himself had tho
combination to that. Also, the su.
perintendent himself did not have
the combination to the outer doc
The inner grating was opened and
the vault entered only in the pres
ence of witnesses who stood back
too far to spot the combination
while il was being twirled.
But Dad figured it out that a mai
; with a long wire hook might reach
through the grating and pull Z
small bar to him under the door.
But who was the thief? L
might be any Of a dozen men wnC
might for a few moments during
. the day stand unobserSed before tn,
grating You see the vault en-
] Z
was not often used. 1t wouldn't dc
to keep a watch That would scare
the thief of. and the object was tC
catch him. Likewise the institution
Of a Search of the employees as they
left the building would be a sigma
to him to cease operations.
Then. one hot day, while dad was
incoming around pondering over thC
problem. he noticed Grant SwOyeri
leather suspenders. and noting NJ
others wore them, he read in them
the answer"
How" asked DeEyne. as thC
criminal investigator ended his mar.
ratiVe thus abruptly.
Why" asked Harvey Hunt IL
surprise, cant you see"
Can you see?