The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1932-09-09

'Glad to give You the facts, but they
are meager, thus far" was the ready
reply. "At about three o'clock, Big
gers, one of our two town night watch
men, saw an auto come in from the
east, and he supposed 1t was merely
a belated tourists car passing
through, as quite possibly it was. A
little later he saw the car standing In
the street opposite the bank, and a
man had the hood open and appeared
to be doing something to the motor.
The next time he walked his beat,
which was about an hour later, the
auto was gone and the bank was a
wreck"
''And he had heard nothing in the
meantime?" Markham queried.
"Not a sound; and neither did any
one else, so far as we can learn. An
explosion that ought to have aroused
everybody within the town limits
didn't arouse anybody"
1T was the Waterman who discov-
cred the robberyY
Eyes. Passing the bank on his later
rounds he found broken glass all over
the sidewalk 1.-THE front windows had
been blown out. He gave the alarm
and came and called me. could
hardly believe my eyes when I saw
what had been done. The interior Of
the building is complete wreck,
showing that an enormous charge Of
explosive must have been used. Even
the concrete walls are shattered"
"This auto that the Waterman saw"
Markham went on; "has there been
any effort made to trace it?"
ave have done what we could.
Nothing definite has come Of 1t. The
roads are full Of cars coming and 60
ing at all hours of the day and night.
We couldn't very well authorize indis-
criminate arrests on mere suspicion.
All we could do was to try to trace
car which had, presumably, passed
through Perthdale at certain hour
Of the night. Such a car has been
found and traced, but the occupants,
three business men of Louisville, on
their way to look at western mine,
were able to give a perfectly clean
bill Of health"
"Yeu say this ear fitted the watch
mans description" lands put in.
"Where was it seen 1ast?" IN
'.At Terre Haute-passing through
at about seven this morning. The
three men had breakfast there, and
that is where they were questioned.
AS 1 say, they produced clean bill
Of health and had the documents to
show for it."
''You got this by wire?"
"Over long distance, from the sher-
if. He said the men laughed and in
vited him to search them and their
car. Said they hadn't robbed bank,
yet, but they might need to before
they got through with their mining
venture"
AS they left the bankers house,
Markham said, "Well, what do you
think, Owen? Are we on the trail Of
your black box?"
'.rhere isn't the slightest doubt, in
my mind. Waliy. Eve simply invented
a new horror, and these scoundrels,
whoever they are, are using it. God
only knows what they'll do next"
'What about this Terre Haute clew
which seems to be no clew at ALP"
I've been thinking about that.
While Mr.. Stockdale was talking 1t
struck me all at once that those three
men might have been running bold
bluff. 1t would be the cleverest way
Of throwing everybody off the track"
That's So" Markham acquiesced:
and then, abruptly, Are you good for
an all-night drive, Owen?"
Anything to get action"
"All right; we'll go. It's long
chance, but it seems to be about the
only one. We can take turns driving
and manage bit Of sleep that way.
1t will probably prove a wild-goose
chase, but we'll make it."
Accordingly, half an hour later, the
blue car took the road again, follow
ing the trail to the westward. Driv-
ing and sleeping by turns they reached
Terre Haute early in the morning and
Markham ordered all the morning pa
pers. When they came, they both
went through them painstakingly. and
found nothing. If the Perthdale ex-
plot had been repeated elsewhere, the
news had not reached the press wires.
Rather leaves us up in the air,
doesn't it?" Markham remarked. "As-
Stunning that the three men we have
traced this far are the Perthdale bank
wreckers-and that's stretching the
probabilities good bit-we don't know
which way they went from here I
suppose there is nothing for 1t but to
wait until the lightning strikes again
somewhere"
"With the weapon they've got, the
bandits who are using 1t won't stop
with the looting Of single country
town bank"
"You still think they have your
black box?"
.'There can't be a doubt, in the
light of what we learned In Perth