Evening star., 1922-02-12
BY THE CLOCK
IN AMSEY looked at his watch.
- and reassured as to the hour,
offered his cigarette case to
tho man sitting opposite him


tho man sitting opposite him
ut the restaurant table.
'onIy eight o'clock" he said;
twenty minutes before we need
start for the theater. We can drink
our coffee comfortably, and not gulp
It,"
He motioned to the waiter. Give
me the check"
Picking up the slip. he glanced over
1t and laid down a twenty-dollar bill.
Hatton. with whom he was dining.
reached over quickly and took the
money before the waiter could do SO.
Holding it under the light Of the six
shaded electro lamp on the table. he
scrutinized 1t carefully.
. That's all right He handed 1t
to the astonished waiter; and then to
the equally astonished Ramsey he
addressed q word of caution.
Better look sharp. IL you have
occasion to take any OF those In
change" he advised. New York IL
being flooded just now with . won
derfully clever counterfeit of the
Ce0STdl ScscENS hote'
: series 1890
Really" Ramsey did not questien n
the correctness of the Information;
for Hatton was. he knew. an impor-
tant official in the secret service
bureau of the Treasury Department
at Washington.
Yes" A worried frown creased
- ;, -
been working on the case for the past
three weeks. and I may add conf
dentially"-with a chagrined smile
I'VE haven't been able to dig up even
the ghost of clue
. From his pocketbook he took out
a speciman of the counterfeit and
spread II on the table between them.
of engraving. you see" he pointed
out. Tho only noticeable discrep-
ancy is a slight blurrins Of the lines
in the portrait Of Cleveland here on
the face of the bill. Any Of us would
swear 1t is the work Of old Jimmy
Swope; all the earmarks Of the old
master are on that plate"
And why not he?" asked Ramsey
Hatton shrugged his shoulders
'Swope has been dead and in his
grave for over six months"
Perhaps some disciple. then. some
Elisha who inherited his mantle:"
y y y
"No." Hatton shook his head.
"Swope's old gang is pretty
well broken up, and all Of them &C.
counted for. Acting on the theory
You mention. we did pick up a fell
low the other day-never really one
"f the crowd. but a. sort Of hanger
on or gO-between-in the hope Of
sweating something out of him. But
1T hasn't worked.
about the only suspicious circum-
stance we have been able to fssten on
him is that. although he has no
money and apparently no friends, he
has retained Haywood Achison as his
counsel
Ramsey leaned quickly forward.
"Achison does not often indulge in
philanthropic whims.'' he said.
Hardly" ~Hatton laughed signifi-
cantly. "Still. in a way. there's a
plausible explanation for it in this
case. He says that White. this little
rat we've got. years ago gave him
some valuable information in regard
to the Conover murder. You don't
remember that, maybe. but It was
the sensation of it's day. and the ac-
quittal of young Dave Conover prac-
tically made Atchison. So it's not
unreasonable that he should now
come to Whites assistance"
The secret service operative paused
to pour himself a second cup Of
coffee.
There's another angle, too" ne
resumed, where Atchison comes into
this affair. In fact. when we hrst
started in we were very hopeful that
he might be able to give us our lead
You see, he defended swope on his
last trial, making it SO plain the old
man was too i'll to conduct any oper-
a,ions. or even direct them, that he
got off. We thought at the time II
was pure camouf1age. but guess
there was something to it after ALL
ANYWAY, 1t wasn't more than month
later that the old fellow died.
"He made Atchiscn his executor
he had considerable property that he
left to be distributed among various
charitable institutions-so naturally
we thought. when this thing came up,
that Atchison. having been in his
confidence, might be able to throw
some light on the situation"
"A reasonable enough conclusion
Ramsey said. But nothing came OF
it?"
Hatton gave a little gesture of de-
feat. Nothing. Atchison told us all
he knew. but it didn't amount to any
thing-mostly old stuff. He said that
when he took charge of Swope's af-
fairs he had a very thorough search
made for any plates or counterfeit
ing outfits that might have been in
the old mans possession, but not a
trace of anything of the kind could
be found. and he was satisfied that
Swope must either have destroyed or
disposed of them"
"Atchison himself is an interesting
study. don't you think?" Ramsey OBJ
served casually.
"A prince" declared Hatton with
quick enthusiasm. glad apparently to
turn from the discussion of his
fiasco. HE was just leaving his Of
foe the day we called, and nothing
would do but that we must let him
have dinner at his bungalow. Some