The Ogden standard. [volume], February 16, 1920, LAST EDITION - 4 P.M., Image 8

About The Ogden standard. [volume] (Ogden City, Utah) 1913-1920

Image provided by: University of Utah, Marriott Library

                
H'i 1 'I
Hj ' : Copyright, 1919, by The Wheeler Syndicato, Inc. r I
,, MANY OF THE MAJOR OPERATIONS OF THE WORLD WAR HAVE NEVER BEEN WRITTEN MANY OF THEM
j HAVE NEVER EVEN BEEN HINTED AT FOR THE REASON THAT THEY WERE UNDERTAKEN BY THE SECRET OP-
' ERATIVES OF THE DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS OF THE GOVERNMENT.
j,. ' FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS A FORCE INCLUDING HUNDREDS OF MEN AND WOMEN HAS BEEN WORKING DAY
I'M AND NIGHT, ROUNDING UP THE ENEMIES WITHIN JUST AS THE GOVERNMENTAL AGENTS ARE ALWAYS KEPT
ji BUSY BY THE FORCES OF THE UNDERWORLD WHO CONSIDER UNCLE SAM FAIR PREY. SMUGGLERS, COUNTER-
Ij FEITERS, MAIL THIEVES AND MOONSHINERS NEVER APPEAR TO TIRE OF TRYING TO GET MONEY WITHOUT WORK-
ING FOR IT.
I ' XL "Lost $ 1 00,000 ! "
It'
(" mmj STOPPED on my way hero to
ll 1 night and laid in ' a supply of
ji A something that I don't often use
Ei chewing gum," said Bill Qulnn, for
. mcrly of the Secret Service, as he
, settled back comfortably to enjoy an
i 1 evening's chat. "There are some pro-
'cssional reformers who maintain that
; the great American habit of silently
t working the jaws over a. wad of chew
er ing gum is harmful in the extreme, but
r," i f you'lT look into, the matter you'll
,1nd that agitators' of that type want
1 ou to cut out nil habits except those
!j ahleh tlicy arc addicted to.
"Personally, I'm not a habitual wor
I shipper at the shrine of. the great god
,' 'loom, but there's no uas denying the
! fac t that it dot soothe one's nerves j
J I occasionally. Incidentally. It has other J
i I , lises as Elmer Allison discovered not
V cry long ago." . ,
'Yes?" T inquired, sensing the fact
!j that Qulnn had a story up liis sleeve
, ' and was only awaiting the opportunity!
to spring it. "Didn't you mention a
Post Office ciise in which a wad of gum j
, 1' "play?d a prominent role?"
f, t 'Tliat's the one," said the former
; j Government operative, casing his
; wounded ley "Into a less cramped por,l- ;
"tibn. "Here, have si' couple of sticks
f , just to get the. proper atmosphere and
, I'll see if I" can recall the details."
j j For some reason Jat's hurd to de-
11 fine Qulnn went on, aucr ne nau ;
' peeled two of the dtm-cniored sticks ,
i and commenced work on" thorn crooks
' In general and "amateur crooks in par-
J titular seem to regard the United
' States mails as particularly easy prey.
Possibly they figure that, as millions of
j dollars are handled bjr the Post Office
M department every year, a little here
1 1 and there won't b? missed. Hut if thpy
knew the high qirrcoiitnae of mail rob-
1 1 borics that are solved they" wouldn't b?
M so keen to tackle the gamy.
!; , Lifting valuables, once t'y have
Jj j t 'passed into the han5? L" -,
t postman, is a comparatively easy urlnv-
, 1 to-commit. There are dozens of ways
l of doing it methods which range all
. I thc way' from limbing; letters out of a
,(' -post-box with a piece of string and a
l'J I -hair-pin, to holding up the mail-car in
i ,a deserted portion of a railroad track.
' i "But getting away with It Is. as our
! j Yiddish friends say, something else
1 ' again. j
, j The annals of the Postal Inspection j
Service are filled with Incidents which '
J ! , indicate that the High Cost of Living
; ' is down around zero compared to the
I High Cost of. Crime, when said crime
I is aimed at the mails. There arc scores
. . I of men in Atlanta, Leavenworth and
1 other Federal prisons whose advice
' would be to' try murder, forgery or
i arson rather than attempt to earn a
j ' dishonest living, by stealing valuable
J I letters.
I -'The majbrity of persons realize that
' ' It- pays to register their money and
insure their' packages because, once
this precaution has been attended to.
; the Government exercises, special care
I in the handling of these ami makes it
I extremely dlilicult for crooks to got
1 anywhere near them. If a registered
I : JoJ-tcr disappears there is a efean-cut
I ' 1 -tj-jill of signed receipts to follow and
I ! "somebody has to bear the burden of the
I ' loss. But oven with those precautions,
I j the Registered Section is looted every
I How and then.
I ..One of the'b'.ggest cases of this kind
; on record was that which occurred in
I 1 i Columbus when letters with an aggre-
l;! I grite value of $100,000 .just vanished
I j into thin air.' Of course, they didn't
I 1 all disnppsar at one time, but that made
II j ' It all the more mysterious because the
y Wefts were "spread out over- a period
V i of some five or -six weeks and they
I' yont on Jusl 3l4 regularly as clock-
1 work, in srpitc of the precautions to the
lii contrary.
I ' - Bin Sum Vanishes.
I The first of the losses, as I recall it,
It was a shlpmenfof JIO.UOO in large bills
j. sent, by Chicago bank to a financial
I i concern in Columbus. When working
I': on that single cjisc. of course, the
I officials of the Department were moro
I or less in the dork as to the precise
l i!ut that the disappearance had taken
IPjace. In -p!te of the fact that there I
were the ujfliaUslgned slips .indicating
( that the packagehad been received at
the Columbus Post Office. But clerks
! who are lit a hurry sometimes sign
. receipts without being any too careful
; to check up the letters or packages to
i '' whiri they refer a highly roprehen-
2 Sible practice, hut one which Is the
outgrowth of the shortage of help on
j th pnrt of the Department. It Is quite
j (, within the bounds of possibility, for
j example, for, the package to have been
abPtracted from the Chicago ofTioe with
out the lods being discovered until
r, Columbus ' checked up on the mail
, ' whlcli was duo there.
; But, a. week or ten days later, came
u tho second of the mysterious disap-
r pcarances another envelope containing
bills of large denomination, this time
! 1 enroule from Pittsburgh to Columbus,
t Whep a third lo&s occurred tho follow-
J i ing fortnight, the headquarters of the
jj Postal Ipfipectlon Pervlce In "Washlng-
I j ton became distinctly excited and every
I man who could be spared w;ns turned
I lwise in an effort to solve the problem.
I f Orders were" given to sliadow all the
I employees who had access to the rcgls-
I , lered mall with a view to discovering
Ij j whether they had made any. change In
I j their personal habits, whether they
I l had displayed an unusual amount of
I i money wlthlti the past month or
I) i whether their family had shown signs
i nf exceptional prosperity.
It was while the Chief was waiting
for these reports that Elmer Allison
blew into "Washington unexpectedly
and strolled into the room in the big
grey-stone tower of what was then the
Post Office Department Building with '
the news that ho had solved the "poison
pen case" in Kansas City and was
ready to tackle something else.
Allison's Little Joke.
The Chief, to put it mildly, was sur
prised and inquired why in the name
of the seven hinges of Hades Allison
hadn't made his report directly to tho
office by mall.
"That was a p-etty important case.
Chief." IClmer replied, "and I didn't want
to take any chancijs of the findings
I being lost in the registered mail."
I Then, grinning, he. continued: "Uudor-
stand you've been having a bit of
trouble out in Columbus?"
! "Wlio told you about that?" growled
j the Chief.
! ""Oh, you can't keep things like that
i under vour hat even' if you do succeed
I in keeping them out of the pnp?rs."
retorted Allison. little bird tipped
me off to it three weeks ago and "
"And you determined to leap back here
as soon as you could so that you would
be assigned to the orfse, eh?"
"You guessed It. Chief. I wanted a
try at the Columbus affair and I was
afraid I wouldn't get it unless I put the
matter personally up to you. How
"bout it?"
"As it hnppins, you lost rbnut two
days of valuable lime in coming here,
instead of wiring f-r further instruc
tions from Kansas CItv," the Chief told
h:tr. "I hadt intended taking you off
that anonymous letter casn bv noon
tomorrow, whether you'd finished it up
r not, for tins i a far more important
detail. Somebodv's gotten away with
M0.000 so far and there's no "
Tho Porr F.t-c j
"Pirdon me. sir. lvit here's a wire
wheh has Jut arrived from Rogers, in
Columbus. Thought you'd like to see it ,
at once." and th? Chief's secretary laid '
a yellow slip face upward on his desk.
Allison, .who was watching closely, saw '
a demonstration of the reason why
official Washington maintained that the
Chief of the Postal Inspection Service '
had the best "poker face" in the cap
ftnl. Not a muscle In ' hiiTeountenanee
changed as he read the telegram and
then glanced up at Allison, continuing
his sentence precisely where he had ;
been interrupted: j
"Itcason to suppose that the thief is !
croing to stop there. This wire from !
Rogers, the postmaster at Columbus, i
announces the loss of a fourth package j
of bills. Fifty thousand this timo.
That's the biggest yet and it' brines
the totjil deficit up to 5100.000. Rogers !
says that the banks are demanding" in
stant action and threatening to take
tho case to headquarters, which means
that it'll be rpread all over "the papers.
Congrers wll) start an investlgaton,
some of us will lose our official "heads
and. in tht mix-up, tho man who's re
sponsible for the losses will probably
make a clean get-away."
Then, with a glance at the clock
which faced his desk, "There's a train
for Columbus In twenty minutes, Alli
son. Can you make it?"
"It's less than ten minutes to the
station," replied the operative. "That
gives me plenty of leeway."
"Well, move and move fast," snapped
the Chief. 'I'll wire Columbus that,
you've been given complete charge of
the case: but try to keep it away from
the papers as long as you can. The
Department lias come in for enough
criticism lately without complicating
the issue from Ihe inside. Good luck."
And Allison was out of the door almost
before he had finished .peaking.
Allison Roaches Columbus.
Allison reached Columbus that flight,
but purposely delayed reporting for
work Mntil the following morning. In
the first place there was no telling
how long the case would run and he
roll that it was the part of wisdom
to get all the rest he could in order
to start fresh. The "poison pen" puzzle
hadn't been exactly easy to solve and
his vWt to Washington, though brief.
had been sutllciently Ions; for him to ab
sorb some of the nervous excitement
which permeated the Department
Then, too, he figured that Postmaster
Rogers would be worn out by another
day of worry and that both' of them
would be;the Ivnter for a night's undisturbed-sloop.
Xlne o'clock the next morning, how- i
ever, saw him sealed in one of tho '
comfortable clnilrs which adorned the I
Postmaster's private office. Rogers, who j
did not put in an appearance until ten. I
rhowed plainly the results of tho strain 1
under which he was laboring, for ho
was a political appointee who had been
in olllce only a comparatively short
time, a man vwhose temperament re
sented the attacks launched by the op
position and who felt that publication
of tho facts connected with the lost
i $100,000 would spell ruin, both to his
own hopes and those of the local or
ganization. " Allison found that tho Chief had wired
an announcement of his coming the day
I before and that Rogers was almost
pitifully relieved to know that the case
was- in the hands of the man who had
solved nearly a score of tho problems
which had arisen In the Service during
th(v pngt few years.
"How much Co you know about tho
' case?" Inquired the postmaster.
i "Only what I learned indirectly and
from what the Chief told me," was
I Allison's reply. "I understand that ap
proximately 5100,000 is missing from
I this post office" (here Rogers lnstinc
j lively winced as he thought o the
criticism which this announcement
would cause if it were made outside the
office), "but I havent't any of the de
tails." V
No Clues in Sight.
"Xolther have we. unfortunately," was
the answer. "If we had a few more
we might have been able to prevent the
last theft. You know about that, of
course?"
"The S50.000? Vcs. The Chief told
me that you had wired."
"Well, that incident is typical or the
other three.' Banks in various parts
of the country ha.vc been sending
rather large sums of money through
the mails to their correspondents here.
There's nothing unusual in that at this
time of the j'ear. But within the past
five or six weeks there have been four
packages or. author. ,lnrg envelopes
of money which have failed to be ac
counted for. They ranged all tho way
from ?10.000. the first loss, to the $50,
000 which dlrappearod within the past
few days. I purposely delayed wiring
Washington until wo could make a
tin -rough search of tho whole place,
going over the Registry Room with , a
tine tooth comb "
"Thus warning every man in it that
he w-f nir,,- suspicion," muttered
I
BUT UNCLE SAM'S ARM IS LONG AND HIS MEMORY RETENTIVE. SOONER OR LATER HE NAILS THE MAN
WHO BREAKS HIS LAWS, THOUGH IT OFTEN ENTAIi-S MONTHS OF WORK AND FEATS OF DETECTIVE GENIU3 (
WHICH FAR OUTSTRIP THOSE OF FICTION.
THOUGH WRITTEN IN NARRATIVE FORM, THE ARTICLES IN THIS SERIES ARE ALL BASED ON FACT FACTS,
IN MANY CASES, AVAILABLE ONLY SINCE THE CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES. NAMES AND LOCATIONS HAVE HAD TO
BE ALTERED, BUT A FULL REPORT OF EACH CASE WOULD BE FOUND IN THE ARCHIVES OF THE DIFFERENT DE.
PARTMENTS IF THEY WERE THROWN OPEN TO PUBLIC INSPECTION. FOR THESE ARE BUT A FEW OF THE IN.
STANCES IN WHICH THE LONG ARM OF UNCLE SAM HAS REACHED TO SEIZE THE MEN WHO BREAK HIS LAWS.
Few Results Shown.
"So, only one or two of the highest
personal friends of mine whom I could
trust to keep silent. I didn't care to
swear out search warrants foe the resi
dences of all the people who work here
arid that's what it would have meant,
if they had raised any objection. In
their cases the Investigation was con
fined to inquiries concerning their ex
penditures in the neighborhood, unex
pected prosperity and the like."
"With what result?" j
"None at all. From all appearances j
there isn't a soul in this building who ;
had hud tqn cents moro during tho
past six weeks than ho possessed in !
j any like period for two years back." j
"Did Boyd or any of the other De-
partment operatives ask to see tho
plans of tho post office?" inquired Alli
son, taking another tack.
"The what?"
"The plana of the post office the
blueprint prepared at tho timo that tho
building was erected."
"Xo why should they?"
f "1 thought they might have been in
terested in it, that's nil." was Allison's
answer, but anyone who know him
i would have noted thut his tone was
just a trifle too nonchalant to, be en
tirely truthful. '
"By tho way." added tho operative,
'might i See it?" '
"The blueprint?"
- "Yos. You will probably find it in the
' safe. If you'll have someone look it up,
I'll be back in half an hour to examine
There, spread upon the desk, was the
missing blueprint, creased and dusty
from disuse.
"First timo you over saw this, ch?"
Allison inquired of the postmaster.
"The first lime I even knew It was
there," admitted that official. "How'd
you know where to find it?"
'T didn't but there's an ironclad rule
of the Department that plans of this
nature are to be kept under lock and
key for Just such emergencies as this.
But I guess your predecessor was too
busy to worry you with details.".
Rogers grunted- It was aji open
Kccrot that the postmaster who had
preceded him had not been any too
friendly to his successor.
Allison did not pursue the subject
but sprend. tho plan upon an unoccu
pied table so that he could examine it
With care.
"If you'll be good enough to lock that
door, Postmaster," ho directed, "I'll
show you something else about your
building that you didn't know. But I
don't want anybody ejso coming in
while we're discussing it."
The Government's Precaution.
Puzzled, but feeling that the Govern
ment detective oujrht to be allowed to
handle things In his own way, Rogers
turned the key. in tho lock and came
over to tho table where Allison stood.
"Do you see that little square marked
with a white star and tho letter 'J"?"
asked Rimer.
"Yes, what is it?"
"What is ths largo room next to it?"
countered the operative.
help us in the sllsntest. How did the
thief get the mail containing tho money
out of the building? You know the
system that maintains in tho Registry
Room? It's practically impossible for
a shoot of paper to be. taken out of
there, particularly when we arc on
guard, as wc arc now."
A Lonq Wait.
"That's true," Allison admitted, "but
it's been my experience that problems
which appear the most puzzling arc,
after all, the simplest of explanation.
You remember the Philadelphia mint
robbery tho one that Drummond solved
in less than .six11 hours? This may
prove to bo just ns easy." N
There Allison was wrong, dead wrong
as lie had to admit some ton tdays
later when, worn with tho strain of
citting for hours at a time witli his
eyes glued to the ventilator which
masked tho opening totlio lookout, he
finally eama. to tho conclusion that
something would have to be done to
speed things up.' It was true that no
new robberies had occurred In the
meantime, but neither had any of tho
old ones been punished. The lost
$100,000 was still lost: though the De
partment, with tho aid of the Treasury
officials, had scon that the banks were
reimbursed. '
"The decoy letter," thought Allison,
"Is probably the oldest dodge in the
world. But, who knows, it may work
again In this case provided wo stage
manage it sufficiently carefully."
With the assistance of the cashier of
i.ne of the local banks, Elmer arranged
"He Clasped the Handcuffs on tho Clerk's AYrists."
Allison.
"What was that?" Rogers inquired.
"Nothing nothing at all. Just talk
ing to myself. Far from a good habit,
but don't mind it. I've got sonic queer
ones. You didn't find anythinsr, of
course?" ' "
"In tho building? Xo, not a tiling.
But I thought it best to make a thor
ough cloan-up here before I bothered
Washington with a report."
"What about the men who've been
working on the :asc up to this time?" !
"Xot one of them has been able to
turn up anything that could be digni-
fied by tho term clue, as 1 believe you
detectives call It." j
"Yes, that's the right word," agreed
the operative. "At least all members
of the Detective-Story-Writers' Union !
omploy it frequently enough to make
it fit the case. What lines have Boyd
and the other men here been follow
ing?" "At my suggestion they made a care
ful examination into the private lives '
of all employees of the Post Office, In- j
eluding myself," Rogers answered, a
bit pompqusly. "I did not intend to
evade the slightest responsibility in the
matter, so I turned over my bank book,
tho key to my safe-deposit vault and
even allowed them to search my house
from cellar to garrot.-"
"Was this procedure followed with
respect to all the other employees in
the buildings?"
it," said Allison. "Meanwhile, I'll talk
to Boyd and the other men already on
the ground and soo if I can dig any
thing'out of what they've discovered." .
Othor Operatives Helpless.
But Boyd and his associates were just
jus relieved as Rogers had been to find
that the case had been placed in Alli
son's hands. Four weeks and more of
steady work had left thenr precisely
where they had commenced "several
miles back of that point," as one of
them admitted. "for three more stunts
have been pulled oiT right under our
eyes." The personal as well ns the
official record of every man and woman
ip the Columbus post office hud been
gone over with a microscope, without
tho slightest result. If the germ of dis
honesty was present, it was certain well
hidden.
'We'll try another and more powerful
lens." Allison stated, as he turned back
to the Postmaster's private office- "By
the way. Boyd, have you or any of
your men boen in tho Service more
than four years?"
"Xo. I don't think any of us has.
What has that go to do with it?"
"Xot a thing in tho world, as far a3
your ability is concerned, but thoro Is
one point that cveryono of you over
looked because you never heard of it.
I'm going to try It out myself now and
I'll let you know what develops."
With that Allison turned and saun
tered back into Rogers' office. '
"That's the why. that's the Registry
Room'. "
"Precisely. And, concealed in tho
wall in a spot known only to persons
familiar with this blueprint, is a tiny
closet, or 'look-out'. That's what the
1 means and that's the reason, that
there's a strict rule about guarding
plans of this nature very carefully."
"You mcaji to say that a place has
been provided for supervision of the
Registry Division a room from which
the clerks can be watched without their
knowledge?"
"Exactly and such a precaution has
ben taken in practically every post
office of any size in the country. Only
the older men in the Service know
about it, which is the reason that
neither Boyd or any of Ills men asked
to see this set of plans. The next step
is to find the key to tho lookout and
start in on a very monotonous spell of
watchful waiting. You have the bunch
of master keys, of courso?"
"Yes, they're in the safe where the
plans was kept. Just a moment and
I'll get them."
When Rogers produced the collection
of keys, Allison ran hurriedly over them
and selected one which bore, on the
handle, a small six-pointed star corre
sponding to, tho mark on the blueprint.
"Want to go up with me and Investi
gate the secret chamber?" ho Inquired, j
"I certainly do," agreed Pogers. "But j
thero's one point whero tills room won't '
to have a dummy package of money
forwarded by mail from Xew York. Jt
was supposed to contain $35,000 in cash
and all the formalities were complied
with precisely as if thirty-five thousand-dollar
bills were really inside the
envelope, instead of as many sheets of
j blank paper, carefully arranged.
On the morning of the day the en
velope was due to reach Columbus, Al
lison look up his position close to the
grill In the lookout, his eyes strained
to catch tho slightest suspicious move
I ment below. Hour after hour passed
uneventfully until, almost immediately
below him, he saw a man drop some
thing on tho floor. Two envelopes had
slipped from his hands and ho stooped
to pick them up that was all.
The First Clue.
, But what carried a thrill to the oper
ative in the lookout was the fact that
J one of the envelopes was tho dummy
sent from Xew York and that, when
the man straightened up, ho had only i
ono of the two In his hands. The
dummy had disappeared!
Allison rubbed his eyes and looked
again. Xo, ho was right The postal
clerk had, In some manner, disposed of
the on velopo supposed to contain $35,000
and he was going about his work in
precisely tho same way as before
"Walt a minute," Allison argued to
himself. -There's something missing
besides tho envelope! What is It?"'
A moment later ho had tho clue to
:a t
tho whole affair tho jaws of the CIV f
which Allison had previously and tnZ '5
consciously noted were always hard at V
work- on n wad of gum now wcro nt T
rest lor the first time since the opr
ative had entered the lookout! Th
chewing gum and the dummy 'packtt
had disappeared at the same lime'
It didn't take Elmer more than thlrti
seconds to reach Rogers' office and hi
entered with the startling annonnrC.
ment that "an envelope containing $3-,.
000 had just disappeared from tht
Registry Room."
"What?" demanded the Postmaster
"How do you know? I haven't rccclvcl
any report of It."
"Xo, and you probably wouldn't f0,
some time," Elmer retorted. 'But u
happen."? that I saw it dlsappar,"
"Then you know where It is?"
"I can lay my hands on it and pro!,.
ably the rest of the missing moncy
'Insido of one minute. Let's pay a -visit
to the Registry Room."
Before entering the section, however
Allison took the precaution of po-stir?
men at both of the doors.
"After J'm'lnslde." he directed, "don't
allow anyone to leave on any prclest
whatever. And stand ready for troub'i
in case it develops. Come in, Mr.
Rogers." 9
Tho Showdown. "
Once In the room devoted to thi
handling of registered mail. Allison
made directly for the desk under thi
lookout. Tho occupant regarded thtfr
j approach with interest but, apparently,
without a trace of anxiety.
"I'd like In ll'IVA thnt Inttn,. ....!
! fc contain $35,000 which you droppd
on the floor a few moments ago." Elmer
remarked in a quiet, almost conversa
tional, tone.
Except for a sudden start, the clerk
appeared the picture of innocence.
"What letter?'' he parried.
"You know what one!" snapped Al
lison. dropping his suave manner and
moving his hand significantly toward
his coat poeket. "Will you produce II-
or shall I?"
"I I don't know whnt you arc talk
ing about," stammered the clerk
"Xo?" Well, I'll show you!" and th
operative's hands Hashed forward anJ
there was a slight click as a pair ct
handcuffs snapped into place. 'Now, j
Mr. Rogers) you'll be good. enough to
watch me carefully as your evidene
will probably be needed in court. Ill f
show you asvsimple and clever a scheni -v
as I've over run across." I
With that, Allison dropped to thfl 1
floor, wbrmed his' Way YiniW the tab W l
desk, tugged at something for a moment
and then rose, holding fivo large enve
lopes in his hands!
There's your lost 5100,000," he ox
plained, "and a dummy packet of ?33, ;
000 to boot. Thought you could get
away with it Indefinitely, eh?" lie in
quired of the handcuffed clerk, "it
you'd stopped with the $100,000 as you'd
probably intended to do, you might j
have. But that extra letter turned tin
trick. Too bad it contained only blank
paper" and ho ripped the envelop!
open to prove his assertion. j
"But but I don't understand," fal- ;
tered Rogers. "How did this man flcrk
it right under our eyes?"
The Explanation.
"He didn't," declared Allison "il9
tried to work it right under mine, but 1
ho couldn't get away with IL The
plan was simplicity itself. He'd slip
an envelope, which ho knew containtd
a largo sum of money out of the pfie -as
it passed him ho hadn't signed for ,
them, so ho wasn't taking any sped1 1
risk drpp it on the floor, stoop over T
ajjd, If he wasn't being watched, attach
it to the bottom of his desk with a
wad of chewing gum. You boasted that
you went over tho room with a fin
tooth comb, but who would think 0.
looking on the under side of thl3 table
The Idea, of course, was that he'd waK
for the storm to blow over becaoft
tho letters could remain in their Iildins ;
places for months, if necessary an
then start on a lifo-Iong vacat!
with his spoils sis capital. But ho road
the error of over-capitalization and I
very much fear that ho'll put in at ka-t
ten years at Leavenworth or MorF-m- ;
town. But I'd like to bet Jic nevtf
chews another piece of gum!" (
c I
. ..hi I
"That." contalnucd guinn, -
tossed another pink wrapper into in i
waste-basket, "I consider the filnipi"1 t
and cleverest schomo to heat the Go F
ernment that I ever heard of bctt
even than Cochrane's plan in cona
tion with the robbery of tho PluUo" j
phla mint because it didn't neccss.
any outside preparation at all 1 j
1 xlght job. a piece of guui and there y
are. But you may be sure that wB' ri
ever an important letter dlsappw
nowadays ono of the first F
searched by the Postal Inspection opr
atives is the lower side of the af
and tobies. You can't get away w 1
trick twice in the same place, as UK
two. precious scoundrels, Yon Pj
and Boy-Ed, discovered when w . (
tried to worK the 'double code once
often." n'h'l
"The double coda?" I sked. DA
one was that?" - trii t '
"I doubt Jf you ever heard of K jj
Qulnn'a reply, as he arose and slrCkiX)i
himself, preparatory t0 MJ',nsJVn '
night. "It was one of the inst?n, ,j
which the Germans thought tho
an infallible secret and a cort'3,"fr' f 1
scholarly man in tho Xavy Depart 1
shot it full of holes, Just aUttW 1
chanced to have read some 01 , .
Vorno's romances, I'll toll J'oi C
It somotime." t.
"Tho Double Code" tho Twf'a ' L
"The Long Arm of Uuclo Sam ,
Will be Published Next SunW- k
Ij ' F