Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1922-09-08

laughed, good-humoredly. "Gumberts
is coming out day after tomorrow. is
be? That'll be Friday. HIM! l think
that I'd better bring Fell out here the
same day, if | can make it. ] proba-
bly, won't see Gumberts until then
I'm not working in with him and he
doesn't know me yet-but I'll try and
get out here on Friday with Fell. Now,
I'll have to beat it in a hurry. Any
message to send?"
mot me-" was the answer.
Craucpt scarcely knew how he de-
parted, until he found himself scram-
bling back through the underbrush on
the Ledanois place.
He rushed into the house, found the
fire had died down beyond all danger,
and swiftly removed the few things
they had taken from the car. Carry
ing these, he stumbled back to Where
he had hidden the automobile. BE
scarcely dared to think, scarcely dared
to congratulate himself on the luck
that had befallen him, until he found
himself in his own a once more, and
with open throttle sweeping out
through the twilight toward Paradis
and Houma beyond. A whirlwind Of
mad exultation was seething within
characterization as sudden and ire
mendous as the past weeks had been
uneventful and dragging.
Gramont, In common with many
others, had heard much indefinite
rumor of an underground lottery game
that was being worked among the ne
groes of the state and the Chinese vii
lagos along the gulf coast. And now
he knew definitely.
Lotteries have never died out In
Louisiana since the brave old days of
the government-ordained CANDLES.
laws and ordinances to the contrary.
No laws can make the yellow man and
the black man forego the get-rich-
the Pacific coast lotteries obtain and
will obtain wherever there Is a China
town. In Louisiana the days of the
grand lottery have never been forgot
ten. The last two years Of high
wages had made every negro wealthy,
comparatively speaking. The lottery
mongers would naturally find them a
ripe harvest for the picking. And who
would gravitate to this harvest field
If not the great Gumberts, the un-
caught Memphis Izzy, the promoter
who had neve been "mugged!"
Here. at n stroke, stumbling on
rhe thing by sheer blind accident, Gra-
mont had located the nucleus of the
whole business!
Gradually his brain cooled to the
realization Of what work lay before
him. He was through Paradis, almost
without seeing the town, and switched
on his lights as he took the highway
TO Houma. Sober reflection seized
MIN. Not only was this crowd of
crooks working a lottery, but they
were also managing a stupendous
thievery of automobiles, in which cars
were looted by wholesale! And the man
at the head of it all, the man above
Memphis Izzy and his crooks. was
joachim Fell of New Orleans.
Did Lucie Ledanois dream such a
thing? No. GramOnt dismissed the
question at once. Fell was not an IN
usual type of man. There were many
Jachin Fells throughout the country.
he reflected. Men who applied their
brains to crooked work, who kept
themselves above any actual share in
the work, and who proited hugely By
tribute money from every crook in
every crime.
To the communities in which they
lived such men were patterns of all
that wealthy gentlemen should be. Sell
dom, except perhaps in gossip of the
underworld, was their connection with
crime ever suspected. And-this
thought was SOLDERING to Gramont-
neve did they come within danger of
retributiOn at the hands of the law.
Their ramifications extended too far
into politics; and the governors of
some Southern states have unlimited
powers of pardon.
This is a big day !" reflected Ora
mont, dismissing the sinister sugges-
ton of this last thought. "A big day!
What it will lead to, / don't know.
Not the least of it is the financial end
of 1.-THE oil seepage! That little
iridescent trickle of oil on the water
means that money worries are over,
both for me and for Lucie. I'm sorry
that l am mixed up with Fell; I've
enough money of my own to drill at
least one good well. and one is all
we'll need to bring in oil on that place.
Well, We'll see what turns upi Ny
first job is to make sure Hammond is
safe, and to relieve his mind. I'll have
to leave him in Jail. / suppose"
Why did Fell want to "get some
thing on Hammond? To this there
was no anSwer.
He drove to Houma to find the town
abuzz with excitement, for the news
of the sheriff's murder had stirred the
place wildly. Proceeding straight to
the courthouse, Gramont encountered
Ben Chacherre as he was leaving the