New Britain herald., 1924-09-12

tally termed it a serpent, which was close enough to the truth.
 John Duck said very frankly that he was engaged in research work, term which covers multitude of sins and said nothing further. The gilded deities caused Thornton to class the man as a heather.
 Upon the day following the evening whereupon Thornton wiped the red smear from his hand, Mrs. Thornton departed upon a visit to her cousin, who lived in Brooklyn. Thornton accompanied his, wife to the subway and then returned home. On the way he purchased a paper, As he was nearing his house he encountered John Duck, was greeted with a polite smile and bow and passed on.
 With the afternoon before him, Bxby Thornton settled down to peruse his news paper. The first thing that struck his eye was the account of body found in the street near his own house that same morn ing The body was that of Chinaman, whose throat had been cut.
 My Lord!' exclaimed Thornton. Then then that was what"
 A jangle of the doorbell completed his sentence. The thin jangle came from up stairs. Knowing that he was alone in the house, Thornton rose and went to the door. He found a messenger boy, who queried pertly whether he were John Duck,
 No" said Thornton. Hes out. You can leave any message with me-
 Got bundle. The boy produced a small, soft parcel wrapped in butcher s paper. Fifty cents collect, Sign here. Aint it hell how everybody sends things collect SOS it'll get delivered sure! Thanks"
 THORNTON went indoors with the bun l dle. laid it aside and resumed his paper He wanted to discover more about that dead Chinaman, and he did. He discovered the unpleasant fact that approximately two square feet of skin had been removed from the back of the yellow man, either before or after the latter's throat had been cut The identity of the victim was unknown.
 This is devil of business!' reflected Bixby Thornton He had dealt much witt yellow men in his work with the narcotics squad. even knew a smattering of thei tongue. Yet it hardly seems possible tha John Duck could have actually
 He paused as his eye fell upon the pack age. What vas in that bundle? Could i be possible that John Duck was engage' in some illicit traffic? Narcotics com manded huge prices, of course; any yellov man would be in position to sell opium morphine without trouble. The package va tied with string. carelessiy.
 Thornton took up the package, turned over He started; upon the brown pape he beheld the three ideographs: ''Pu- kan ching" which means, substantially, "un clean" Temptation seized upon him, sus picion soaded him. With spoken determi nation he broke the string and opened it.
 From it he took small roll of huma skin recently 6eshed. There could be n mistake
 Thornton went to the telephone and calle certain captain of detectives whom he kne very well.
 Fifteen minutes later the police office sat in Thornton study, inspecting the pie' of skin and listening to the story. He di not speak until Thornton had finished; the he mparted some information.
 We know who the murdered man was, he said revolving cigar between his lip He was identified today as Tan Toc one of the joss house men down in China town His scalp showed cicatrices of o burns
 "Ah!" e1calimed Thornton eagerly. u Tsoist priest:''
 Exactly" From his pocket the ofie produced newspaper clipping. Here an advertisement one of the boys turned
 obviously it has some bearing on the cas