The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-11-12
The. The.G@tDEl9:zEEAH4ER
 Rohah Burce Op,.NEA eLm
@ lo3s NEA SeNiee, Inc.

They reached the Ranelegh apart ments = a big, square building of yellow brick, looking like thousand other city apartment houses all over the land. Larry rang for the janitor, they displayed their credentials, and the janitor informed them that suite g had been engaged by two men some months ago. The men had been out more than they had been in, it seemed; whole weeks would pass during which they never came near the place. Sunday evening, however, they had arrived and talk en possession-apparently accompa- nied by two other men = and 24 hours later they had disappeared again. As far as the janitor knew, they had not since returned.
 Somewhat unwillingly, the jani- tor led them up to the apartment and opened the door with his pass key. The agents found themselves in a perfectly ordinary six-room furnished apartment, and they tm- mediately set to work to search it from one end to the other. The men who had occupied the place had done little or nothing, evidently, to soften the bleakness of the ordinary suite of this kind. They had added no furniture, no decorations of any kind; aside from vague untidiness, there was noth- ing to indicate that anyone had ever occupied the place. There were a few tins of food in the cup board in the kitchen; the beds were rumpled, and two plush cushions on the living room couch were mussed, while blanket lay over the back of the couch, as if some one had bedded himself there for a night.
 Several empty bottles stood on a living room table, and few glasses with stale highball dregs in them Ashtrays were filled with cigaret butts. Sofled towels hung on the rack in the bathroom; there were a few unwashed plates on the din- ing room table; a few newspapers had been dropped on the floor here and there, and a detective story magazine lay in corner of the living room.
 Peters and LaRocco were busy with their f1ngerprints apparatus, collecting prints from the glasses and bottles. Gunderson was me- thodically going through drawers and cupboards and finding nothing worth a second glance. Matthews was busy in the kitchen. Larry Glenn stood in the living room, looking slowly about him for some clew, however slight, that would shed some light on the sudden move the occupants of the apart ment had made.
 I Over in the corner there was little table bearing a telephone. Larry strolled over and stood frowning down at the instrument. He bent and picked up a phone book, and riffled through the pages with care, looking for scrubbed numbers, hotels, checkmarkS-any- thing. The quest was useless. The book seemed as new and untouched as the day it came from the printers.
 He laid it down and glanced about him. Then he saw what he was after. On the tan wallpaper close to the door frame, three fet from the telephone stand, was something scrubbed in pencil. He bent closer to look at it. Someone, apparently. had written a phone number on the wall: Midlothian 326.
 Matthews came into the room and Larry called him. He came over and looked at the number, which Larry was copying into a notebook.
 That's not a Chicago exchange" said Matthews.
 "No?"
 "No. Anyhow, all Chicago num- bers would have four numerals"
 Larry gave the number another scrutiny. That's been written re- >.---As-- !" t-~ --ss a~~>., r~-, t-u