Evening star., 1922-05-06

Start your plaincIothes men out and
send some one here, quick. to release
U.S. We are locked in a room in the
fourth or fifth house from the corner
| house. The Gay Cat is still uncon-
scious, Jameson is groggy and have
| bad scalp wound. They are trying
to beat in our barricade. Hurry"
I think ! shall never get straight
In my mind the fearfu! five minutes
that followed. the battering at the
door, the oaths, the scuff1e outside, the
crash as the sofa, bureau, table and
chairs all yielded at once-and my
relief when I saw the square set.
honest face of OConnor and half a
dozen plain clothes men holding the
yeggs. who would certainly have muir
dered us this time to protect their
pal in his getaway. The fact is l
didn't think straight until we were
halfway uptown, speeding toward the
railroad freight yards in O'Connor's s
! car. The fresh air at last revived
me. and 1 began to forget my cuts
and bruises in the renewed excite
ment. n
We entered the yards carefully. ac-
companied by several of the rail-
roads detectives. who met US with
couple of police dogs. Skulking in
! the shadow under the high embank
ment that separated the yards with
their interminable lines of full and
empty cars on one side and the San
Juan hill district of New York up
on the bluff on the other side, we
came upon a party of three men who
were waiting to catch the midnight
"side-door Pullman"-the fast freight
out of New York.
The fight was brief, for we out
numbered them more than three to
pair of steel bracelets on the thin
man. who seemed to be leader of
the party
ITS all up. Pitts slim." he ground
out from his set teeth.
One of our men flashed his bulls
eye on the three prisoners. l caught
myself as in dream.
Pitts Slim was Maloney. the detec-
tive.
An hour later, at headquarters, aft
er the pedigrees had been taken, the
"mugging" done, and the jewels found
on the three yeggs checked off from
the list of the Branford pearls, leav-
ing a few thousand dollars worth un-
accounted for, O'Connor led the way
into his private Office. There were
Mrs. Branford and Blake, waiting.
Maloney sullenly refused to look at
his former employer, as Blake rushed
over and grasped kennedy's hand,
asking. eagerly: How did you do II,
Kennedy? This is the last thing l ex-
pected."
Craig said nothing. but slowly open
ed now crumpled envelope. which
contained an untoned print of pho
tograph. He laid it on the. desk.
There is your yeggman-aI work" !"
he said.
We bent over to look. 1t was a
photograph of Maloney in the act OF
putting something in the little wall
safe in Mrs. Branford's room. In a
flash it dawned on me-the quick
shutter camera, the wire connected
with the wall safe. Craig's hint to
Maloney that If some of the jewels
were found hidden in likely place In
the house. it would furnish the last
link in the chain against her. Ma
loney's eager acceptance of the sug-
gestion, and his visit to Montclair.
during which Craig had had &ard
work to avoid him.
"Pitts-Slim. alias Maloney," added
Kennedy. turning to Blake, your
shrewdest private detective. was
posing in two characters at once very
successfully. He was your trusted
agent in possession of the most valu-
a BILE secrets of your clients, at the
same time engineering all the rob-
berries that you thought were fakes.
and then working up the evidence in
, eliminating the victims themselves.
He got into the Branford house with
a skeleton key, and killed the maid.
The picture shows him putting this
shield shaped brooch in the safe this
afternoon-here's the brooch. And all
this time he was the leader of the
most dangerous band of yeggmen in
the country"
Mrs. Branford," exclaimed Blake.
advancing and bowling most pro-
foundly. Il trust that you understand