, 1923-03-14

"An over7" he gasped. What do
you mean?"
II know it is against the DOCTORS
orders to excite you.7 she answered,
but 1 cannot stand tbs dreadful sus
pense any longer. There is a man
waiting downstairs who can explain
all. / will bring him up now"
In a few minutes she returned. fol-
lowed by a tall, broad s%houldered man,
with kindly brown eyes and streaks
OF gray in his thick. dark hair. He
smiled down ~reassur!ngly at Forres
ter as the glrl introduced him.
This she announced. happily. lis
Keith Marten. whom l call the 'invis
he detective Mr.. Marten was in the
Government Secret Service for many
years. and has had his own investi-
Gat.ve service for m time.
You probably noticed that he ma
jor.ty Of the men v.ct,mized by his
supposed band of e~xtortioners We're
prominent in banking circles. That
constituted a direct assault upon the
banking fraternity.
"While people outside of banking
circles did not know Of It. THU per,
6t1AAlOh was kIdludllN hLAlAk aAA6 vi
an actual financial panic. When It
was rumored that a banker had given
up a large sum to this supposed so
ciety. or his murder was reported. n
mild run resulted at the hank with
which he was associated.
'1f there had been only one or two
cases this would have had little effect.
but as numerous banks were brought
A,t. a. ~.-43-- 49,
to spread this fear and the germs OF
a panic were insidious'y gripping fin
ancial circles.
The Midland Bankers Assoc'a-
ton Mr.. Marten to solve the
riddle OF the Friends of the Poor
and the secret toll which they were
imposing upon bankers. Mr.. Marten
has been the invisible detective. work
ing behind the scenes in this case.
Just how he accomplished his great
work I shall leave to Mr.. Marten to
tell YOU
your story will certainly interest
me" declared Forester, elated at the
thought that Mary Sturtevant had
been working in q good cause. Il
had about lost faith In detectives"
"There are many nb'e detectives ''
replied Marten. "You made your
hrst mistake in not going to a high
class detective ngency.
Unlike police detectives. I do not
Immediately ascribe a crime to the low
er criminal classes. Know that
criminal tendencies extend upward
through every stratum of society. My
first effort. therefore is to place the
possible social standing OF the Grim
inal. and thus learn approximately
where TO look for him.
I'm the present instance I took all
tho available data and analysed the
situation. Two points impressed me
at once. one. that for approximately
a year not a single clue had bee dis
covered. Second. the enormous
amount OF money which had been ex-
torted. This had reached the sum OF
nearly a quarter OF a million dollarsl'
IT considered those points, said
Forester, but they gave mo no
clue"
"Ah. because you lacked two
things returned Marten. "E,xperi-
enoe and the outside viewpoint.
Now. in analayzinE the first point.
l seriously doubted the existence OF
a group OF men as implied by the
name Friends OF the Poor When
n gang is operating Il is difficult to
hold the men together. To have at.
tempted to split so vast al amount
among a number OF ordinary Grim
inals would surely have led to dis
sensions and exposure.
Then. in considering this second
point by itself. I saw hat we had TO
Zeal with no ordinary criminal. It
was a vast sum. and the ordinary
criminal type does not think in such
large figures.
Tho result OF this analysis gave
me two clues. first, that we prob
ably had TO deal with not mor han
: one man; and second, that this man
was a much higher typo than the
common Indicator.