Evening star., 1924-12-15

(tOntlnueu from 1tSleiNdS y soldi.)
got down on the floor beside him.
He had one of the stubby fingers of
he childish hand on paragraph in
a newspaper. This briefly stated that
5000 liters of high grade gasoline had
vanished in some mysterious fashion,
during the night, from one of the
hig containers in New Jersey be-
longing to the Standard OIL 60.
That's 4 curious thing" said |.
1T IS curious thing" Dan agreed.
Somebody gets away from the tinan-
cfal district -.ith over 5000 kilos
weight of gold-and on the same
night some o.. else gets away with
1000 lters of gasoline. What do you
know about it. som"
Seems to he craze for weight =
lifting sprung up"
Looks like it, he murmurcd. "Now,
here's another funny story
He pointed to another paragraph
tucked away on the same page. This
reported the abstraction of large
amount Of catables from q big pro-
vision store. also in New Jersey. dur
in the night. hut here gold dollars
had been left to pay for the goods
taken away.
YOU'RE not connecting those two
things up with the Wall street af-
fair. are YOU, Dam?
lie took out his watch.
ITS now 20 minutes 10 g." he said
calmly. we can be over beyond
Newark inside the hour with my road
Ster, if you'll drive. Well see if the
things do connect up"
At the gasoline station We got
little information. Nobody could tell
how the fue! had been taken. The
station had been closed on the sun
laf in, -,
of a watchmau. the manager inform
I'd us, and the watChman had sworn
he knew nothing about it
Did the watchman by any chance
confess to having fallen asleep"
asked the manager.
He swore he hadn't" said that of
fetal. but | expect he did. If lie
didn't, he's in league with the crooks
and the police have got him
stop a bit" Dan Lamont inter
posed " You're perfectly certain that
the gasoline has been stolen? Isn't
1t possible that some mechanical de
vice in the tank has failed. that the
oil has slipped back to supply"
I'VE thought of that" said the man
ager. "and the mechanism has been
thoroughly overhauled. But there
isn't any doubt that the outlet pipe
was opened in the night and the gas
oline taken away"
The watchman is unshaken in his
statement that he did not fall
asleep?" l asked.
"Oh. yes. He's fixed on that-hut
he might be lying. don't YOU see? He's
supposed to be awake all night, and
to make his rounds at definite inter
walls If he had fallen asleep, he
wouldn't like to confess it,
where has he been taken to- ask
cd Dan.
Hes at the local station.
Right" said Dan. Let's go there
Jimmy"
The watchman was an elderly
Irishman, and just the type one would
expect to find at the job. He was stub
born to begin with and refused to
talk at all. 1t was the merest chance
that Dan addressed me by my sur
name, and at that the old boys at
titude changed.
Are We Mr.. Boon, the fyin' mani
he ask ed.
That's me-" l admitted, unless
there's another of the name
But are We the Mr.. Boon that has
the works out at the top end av Long
1sland?"
That's me-"
We'll. we've got a son av mine
workin' for ye-name av McCiinty.''
"McGinty your SOM" said I. We'll.
he's a good fellow, Mr.. McGinty, and
one of my best mechanics"
"Ye make me proud to her it. sorr,
said the old man. He swears by you
so he does"
After that, everything was easy.
The old man admitted that he'd fallen
asleep about l o'clock in the morning
hut that he didn't understand how it
happened. We pointed out to him
that 1t would be better to confess to
having fallen asleep rather than
p leave the idea that he was in league
with the gang that had emptied the
tank. He then said he had been sound
asleep between l and 3 in the morn
ing. We questioned him closely, and
began to have little doubt that he
was the victim to the same dope that
had put Wall street to sleep. He had
not heard of the bank robberies We
loft old McGinty with the assurance
that he was not to blame in any way.
and that there was every prospect of
speedy release if only he'd be frank
TO the questioning of the detective.
in charge of the case.
Dan and ] spoke to the officer in
charge OF the district. and got a
promise from him that he would put
the idea to the investigator who had
the matter in hand.
ITS just as well that you've got
that out of the old man." said the
police officer. TT seems to me that
we're on the way to saving two of
our best men"
Flows that?'
You'll have heard that Schom-
bergs Stores were broken into about
this MORNING."
Yes To find out what we can
about that is part of our business over
here"
We'll, you can hardly call the af-