Evening star., 1922-07-20
hands with Mr.. Burke

prosperous looking man whom ne
brought up to our apartment one
evening.
The formalities were quickly over.
.Mr. Burke and l are old friends" ex-
planned O'Connor. I'VE try TO worn
together when we can. and very ofteh
the city department can give the gov
! crnment service lift; and then again
it's the other way, as it was IN the
trunk murder mystery. Show Pro1.
Kennedy the queer Tom
Burke drew wallet out of ms
pocket and from it slowly and deiip-
crately selected a crisp, yellow -oask
ed hundred dollar bill. He lald II na.
on the table before us. DlasonaiiS
across its face from the upper LETT TO
the right hand corner EXTENDED wv
parallel scorings in indelibie INK.
Not being initiated into the secrets ns
of the gentle art OF sno'ins sssins M
queer" otherwise known as passins
counterfeit money, l suppose my ques-
1ioning look betrayed me.
"A counterfeit. Walter, eApialn.. -.
Kennedy. That's what they do Win
bills when they wish to preserve 'nem ,,d
AS records in the secret service anu
Vet render them valuelesS
Without a word Burke handed heh
redy a pocket magnifying glass anu
Kennedy carefully studied the pii''
lie was about to say something wnen
Eurke opened his capacious wallet
again and laid down Bank OF Ens
land five-pound note which hao pee"
similarly treated. .,a
Again Kennedy looked through tne
glass with growing amazement wiz
ten on his face, but before ne coulu
say anything Burke laid down an
press money order on the lnterha
1ional Express Company.
Il say" exclaimed Kennsdy; pur,,nS panS
down the glass, stop! no" '
more of these are there?
Burke smiled That's all, ne re-
Piled, "but it's not the worst. o,
Not the worst? Good heavens, man
next You'll tell me that the govern,
ment is counterfeiting it's own notes.
How much of this stluff DO you sup
pose has been put into circuiation
Burke chewed pencil thoughtfulW,
totted down some figures on a PieS go
of paper and thought some more. u
course. l can't say eXactly, put ~
hints l have received here ana there .
should think that 4 safe oct woulo
he that some one, has cashed IN up
ward of half million uoii"''
already" .,,o.,s
"Whew." whistled Kennedy. thar
going some. And / suppose it is an
salted away in some portable 1olnt;
What an inventory it must pe-soOu
bills. gold, diamonds and 1e"e,rS'
This is a stake worth playing for"
VS." broke in OConnor. but
from my standpoint-professi l
mean-the case is even worse .na a,
that It's rot the counteTle@i.s @ a,I
bnther us. We understand That. an
right. But" and he leaned forward
earnestly and brought his fist down
hard on the table with resounolns
Irish oath. 1.-The finger-print system.
the infallible fngsr-print sss.en, or,ad nd
gone to pieces. We've just imported
this new portrait parle' fresh rom
Paris and London, invented by heT
'rilIon, and all that sort OF thins, II
has gone to pieces, too. IT'S hne ns
either scientific or unscientific crimi-
nal catching to rely on There-"hat
do YOU know about that?
.YonH have to tell ne ths ssnase sae,s nfs1 rour
<lisease until 1 know the symptoms.
"Ir's like this" explained Burke. the
detective in him showing now "4th
no effort at concealment. man an
Englishman, apparently, went INTO d
months ago and asked to have some
English bank notes exchanged Tor
American money. After he had gone
away the cashier began to get sus-
picious. He thought there was some
thing phoney in the feel of the notes.
Under the glass he noticed thae the
little curl on the e Of the Five was
missing. It's the protective marx.
The water mark was quite equal 70
that of the genuine-mayPe oettel.
Hold that note up TO the lisht anu SEC
for yourself.
well, the next day, down to the
custom house, where my once rs. d
man came who runs swell gampilnS
house uptown. He lald ten oranu
new bills on my desk. An English-
man had been betting on the wheel.
He didn't seem to care about winning
and he cashed in each time with
a new one-hundred-dollar bill. VI
course, he didn't care about winning
He cared about the change-that was
his winning. The bill on the taole
is one OF the original ten, though
since then scores have been put INTO
circulation. / made up my mind that
1t was the same Enshshman IN oo'h
cases.
Then within week in walked
the manager of the Mozambique Ho-
tel He had been stung with the FAKE
international Express money i;o,sH order
same Englishman, too, l believe
And you have no trace of hlm!
asked Kennedy eagerly.
we had him under arrest once-we
thought A general alarm was sent
ont. of course, to all the banks and
banking houses. But the man was TOO
clever TO turn up in that way again.
In one gambling joint which women
freauent a good deal 2 classy dame,
who might have been duchess or
and always paid with hundred-dollar
bills. Now, you know women are not
good losers Besides, the hundred
dollar bill story had not got around
among the gambling houses. This
ioint thought it worth taking a
chance, so they called me up on the
phone. extracted promise that Ia
play fair and keep OConnor from
raiding them, but wouldn't l please
| come up and look over the dame OF
the yellow bills? OF course. / made
jump at it. Sure enough, they were
the same counterfeits. / could tell
because the silk threads were drawn
in with colored silk. But instead OF
/ making an arrest I decided to trail
| the lady.
Now, here comes the strange part
of it. Let me see this must have
been over two months ago. I follow
ed her out to a suburban town, River
wood along the hudson. and to
swell country he overlooking the
river. private .rive. stone gate.
hedges, old trees. and all that sort OF
thing. A sporty-lDoking Englishman
met her at the gate with one Of
those big imported touring cars and
they took spin.
"I waited a day or so. but nothing
more happened, and 1 began to get
anxious. Perhaps was bit hasty.
hnyhow, 1 watched my chance and
made an arrest of both of them. when
ping expedition. You should have
heard the Englishman swear. I didn't
know such language was possible.
But in his pocket we found twenty
more of those hundred-dollar bills
that was all. Do you think he owned
up? Not a bit of it. He swore he
had picked the notes UP in a pocket
,ta l., vAR IA