A Fin lor a Clew
By an Ex-Operative of the Secret Service
Capt. Dickson Illustrates a De
tective’s “Nose for Details.”
HAT do I consider
the most important
thing to notice when
first investigating a
crime?
Capt. Dickson, a
retired secret serv
ice officer, had re
peated the words of
my question.
After some moments of thought, he
replied:
“Well, from my own experience, it
has become a fixed conviction with me
that no crime is ever committed
where the criminal fails to leave be
hind some clew that, if it is only found
and its worth appreciated, will in
variably lead to the detection of the
culprit.
"I have a case in mind, a post-office
robbery. It happened when I was con
nected with that department, before I
was transferred to the broader field of
the secret service. I will never forget
the village where it occurred. It was
a town of some .100 or 400 souls in the
Green mountains. It had only one
hotel, and in the three weeks that I
was detained there, I almost de
stroyed my digestion endeavoring to
support life on its abominable fare. I
believe that I felt a keener satisfac
tion in the royal meal I secured at
Boston, on my return to Washington,
than I did in capturing the author of
the robbery.
"The post-office safe had been
tapped for a large quantity of stamps,
about $500 in money and a brand new
money-order book. This last item
gave importance to the case, because
a book of money-order blanks in the
hands of a clever crook can cause the
government more trouble than a ses
sion of congress.
“The safe was a crude iron affair
which was fastened by means of a
clumsy brass key. The key was too
large and too heavy to be lugged about,
and after the safe was locked it was
hid away in a corner of the cash
drawer. A peculiar circumstance of
the robbery was that the safe had
been found locked and the key was in
its place of concealment. The cul
prits had possessed an intimate
knowledge of the habits of the post
master and his assistant. Miss Lundy,
a young lady of fine appearance and
charming personality.
“Mason, the postmaster, had a
theory that two tramps had committed
the theft. He said that two suspicious
characters had come into the office the
afternoon before the robbery and had
bought five two-cent stamps. He con
sidered this a suspicious circumstance,
as he said that persons of their type
always bought stamped envelopes—no
more than they needed at the time—
and that they always mailed their let
ters before leaving the office, address
ing them with the dilapidated pen
maintained by the postmaster at all
country offices for victims who have
no alternative than to use it. At the
back of the building, a window-glass
had been broken out, and Mason espe
cially directed my attention to it, as
he said it must have been by this
means that the robbers gained en
trance to the building. All of the
doors had been securely locked.
I made a minute examination of the
premises, and the only thing I found
was a small steel pin with a green
glass head. It was in a crack of the
floor immediately in front of the rifled
safe. Without attracting attention, I
secured the pin and stuck it beneath
the lapel of my coat. I thought it
might prove of value. It did. It was
the key to the situation.
“My examination showed that the
robbers had entered the post-office
through the front door, and that the
broken window was merely a blind or
else it had been broken by accident.
I didn't take much stock in this last
theory, but put the window down as a
deliberate effort to muddy the water.
There were two doors, a front and a
back one. The rear one was kept
locked and the key to it hung on a
nail in the office. Only Mason and
Miss Lundy had keys to the front
door.
“it was not so easy to trace Mason
and the young lady on that evening.
After some considerable work I
learned that neither of them had been
at home the early part of that par
ticular evening. No one knew where
they had been nar what they had done
during this period. Mason had left his
home and Miss Lundy her boarding
house early after supper on that
night on the pretext of taking a walk.
Mason had returned sometime after
midnight. The hour of Miss Lundy’s
return was uncertain.
“Already sorely puzzled over the evi-j
dence which was accumulating, one
morning, upon arising, I was more
than ever mystified by finding a slip
of paper under the door of my room.
In a sprawling, unnatural hand, four
words were written upon it
Mason robbed ihe safe.
“When I visited the postofiice, I no
ticed that Mason was pale and hag
gard and he was as nervous as a
caged leopard. ,
"When I w'ent to the hotel at noon,
I found a tiny note on the table in my
room. It was a dainty, perfumed bit
of paper, just the kind that refined
young ladies employ in their polite
correspondence. I jumped to the con
clusion that it must be a further mes
sage of the same character as the
morning’s note. It was, but there was
a decided conflict in the news it con
tained. In a cramped, disguised writ
ing, evidently a woman's, were five
words:
Miss Lundy is the robber.
“Frankly, I didn’t know what to
think. Suspicion and these mysteri
ous notes pointed to the postmaster
and his handsome assistant. The let
ters were written by different persons,
and it was easy to imagine that Ma
son and the young lady had robbed
the safe and that each of them had
been seen by a different person as
they left the building; that these per
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//iLQ/fEJM GmrK "
sons were a woman and a man and
that they had taken the pains to ad
vise me of what they had seen by
means of the brief, unsigned notes.
"The situation puzzled me more
than ever and I didn’t fall asleep until
late that night, having tossed away
many restless hours upon the instru
ment of torture which did service for
a bed in the stuffy room of the ho
tel. Involuntarily, next morning, I
as soon as my eyes opened. It was
there, a third note, on the same pa
per, in the same hand and of the
same purport as that of the morning
before. The only change was in the
wording of it.
Why don’t you arrest Mason? He
robbed the postofflce. Ask him if he
didn't break the window-glass. He
won’t deny it.
"1 worried through the morning
somehow, never trusting myself to
show up at the post-office. At noon 1
was forced to go back to the hotel, as
it was the only place of public enter
tainment in the village. I headed
straight for my room, expecting to
find a fourth note on the table. I was
not disappointed, for there it was, as
big as life, the exact counterpart of
the day before:
Miss .Lundy is the robber.
"More than ever puzzled, I strolled
over to the postoffice after lunch. Ma
son was there and alone. Miss Lun
dy had not returned from her dinner.
The postmaster’s face was piteous to
behold. He shrank from me as I greet
ed him and put his hands over his
face. His hands shook like a man’s
with the palsy. Before I could find a
seat he arose and went into his pri
vate office, beckoning me to follow.
“I seated myself and watched with
patience while he strode back and
forth across the limited space of the
office. Suddenly he stopped squarely
before me, and bracing himself with
a painful effort, blurted out a jumble
of words, confessing that he had
robbed the safe. I was struck all of
a heap, but never for an instant did
I believe him. There was something
about the very language of his Inco
herent confession and his manner in
making it that told me that Mason
was not the thief.
" ‘What more do you want?’ Mason
breathed. 1 did it, I tell you. and I
shall be convicted of it. I can’t re
store the stamps and the money-order
book because I have destroyed them,
but here is the money, every penny of
it.’
“He threw a roll of bills in my lap
and continued:
“ ‘My confession is sufficient to con
vict upon. I will repeat it in court
and I want you to arrest me and get
me away from here just as soon as
you can.’
“Just at this juncture the depot
agent entered the office with a tele
gram for me. It was a cipher mes
sage from the department. Taking
out my code book, I translated it in a
moment and the contents of it, in the
light of Mason’s confession, was noth
ing less than unnerving.
“Without a word I wrote the mes
sage out and passed it over to Mason:
Money orders being passed Waco and
other Texas towns.
“ ’What does it. mean?’ he cried.
“Before I could answer him. Miss
Lundy came into the office. With a
woman's intuition, she saw that some
thing was wrong. A look of terror,
which smote me to the heart, swept
over her face. She sprang forward
anrl stepped between Mason and me,
who stood staring at each other like
wrooden images.
“ 'Oh, Capt. Dickson,’ she sobbed,
‘don’t you believe him. He didn’t have
a thing to do with it. I did it myself.
The money is in my trunk. I have
burned the stamps and the money-or
der book.’
“ ‘She didn’t do it, Capt. Dickson,’
ranted Mason like a man demented.
'She knows nothing about it. I alone
am guilty and she is merely trying to
save me from prison; she is my af
fianced bride.’
“ ‘Hold on there,’ I cautioned, ‘you
are a pair of sentimental young inno
cents, and while I am willing to give
you my blessing, although it is a bit
out of my line, I am not going to be
lieve a word either of you say about
this robbery and don’t either of you
dare to breathe a word of such
absurd nonsense to any one
else. I know that neither of
you robbed the safe and you
couldn't convince me of it if you talked
a thousand years and produced the
charred remains of that money-order
book itself. Dry your eyes, Miss
Lundy; shake yourself together, Ma
son, and let’s get down to serious talk
and clear this thing up. See here,’ I
continued, producing the four notes
that had been left at my room, ‘honor
bright, now, you wrote these notes,
didn’t you?’
“I didn’t stay to hear more but beat
out of the office as if the furies were
at my back instead of two lovers hap
py beyond expression in the knowl
edge that their doubts were unfounded
and that there was happiness still re
maining for them. I wasn’t going to
take chances on their being disturbed,
so I took possession on the porch be
t'Qfe the post-office door to head off any
persons who might feel inclined to in
uude upon their privacy.
"After some time they called to me.
Between the two of them they ex
plained everything. They had long
been lovers and. with the aversion that
lovers have for the clattering of vil
lage gossips’ merciless tongues, they
had succeeded in keeping their attach
ment a secret. They had been en
gaged for some time, and it was their
custom to meet at the home of a kind
ly old widow lady of an evening, she
alone knowing of their engagement.
On the night of the robbery they had
spent the evening together at the wid
ow’s.
“She and Mason had left the wid
ow’s about ten o’clock and Mason had
left her at the gate. After leaving her,
Mason had taken a long stroll and,
about midnight, had passed the post
office in returning to his home. As he
approached the building he had seen
a lady leaving it, closing and locking
the door after her.
“Next morning, when he opened
the safe he discovered tlie robbery.
His suspicion of Miss Lundy had then
come upon him.
"It was a pretty tangle. The lovers
had straightened it out to their own
satisfaction and, while I knew that
neither of them had any guilty knowl
edge of the deed, I was far from being
satisfied and felt that my work had
just begun.
“With my suspicion of Mason set at
rest, I could confide more fully in him,
so 1 set out with two clews, the wom
an visitor that Mason had seen and
the pin with the glass head. There
were many women in the village that
fitted the description in a general way
ar.d that was a hard clew to follow, so
I fell back upon the pin. There were
none of the kind for sale in the village
nor had there ever been, so I knew
that the pin must be an imported one.
This was some progress, but I was
still far from shore.
“I don’t know that I would ever have
run the thief to earth if it hadn’t
chanced that I met a lady one after
noon who wore a flower pinned upon
her breast. A glance showed me that
the pin which held it was the twin
brother to the one I had found. The
lady, I learned, had been in the vil
lage some four or five months, teach
ing a dancing school with great suc
cess. No one knew where she came
f*om.
“It was an easy matter to clear up
the robbery after this. She was an
old timer in criminal deeds and as
slick a crook as ever wore petticoats.
She had easily learned the careless
methods of the post-office and, when
she deemed the occasion ripe, had se
lected a skeleton key from her stock
and pulled off the robbery, a neat job
except for Mason’s untimely appear
ance upon the scene. She had most
of the stamps in her possession, but
she had sent the money-order book to
her husband, who was then operat
ing in the profitable field of the south
west.
“How about the lover*, did you
say? They were married in due time
and I had the pleasure of officiating
as best man."
(Copyright, 1903, by W. G. Chapman.)
(Copyright in Great Britain.)
Some tropical daisies measure a foot
in circumference.
INADEQUATE.
I
Doctor Monk—Did those mustard
plasters that I left seem to relieve the
pains in your chest to any consider
able degree?
Ostrich—Well, no; I can’t say that
they have; but (apologetically) I’ve
eaten only jive of them!
Piecing Out the Prayer.
Of curious prayers a writer says; “I
have heard a layman utter this petition
during the prayer: ‘O, Lord, be thou
with us in our upsittings an our down
risings’—a variant of the text in the
psalms. ‘Thou knowest my downsit
tings and mine uprisings.’ A minister
occasionally introduced a Latin sen
tence into his prayer, and forthwith
proceeded to translate it. Another min
ister in his early days experienced con
siderable difficulty with the long prayer
before the sermon. In nonconformist
churches this usually occupies a quar
ter of an hour, hut long before this pe
riod had been reached he was wound
up. On one occasion, while in this di
lemma, he startled his hearers with the
words: ‘And now, O Lord, I will re
late unto thee a little anecdote!’’’
The Entire Family.
Grand Pop used it for Rheumatism.
Dad for Cuts, Sprains and Bruises,
Mammy for Burns, Scalds and Aches.
Sis for Catarrh and Chilblains. I use
it for everything, and it never disap- 1
points any of us. It surely yanks any
old pain out by the roots.
Hunt’s Lightning Oil is what I am
telling you about.
And It Was Overruled.
Judge Hoar and Gen. Butler were
opponents in a case of a new trial. Gen.
Butler quoted: "Eye for eye, skin for
skin, tooth for tooth, yea, all that a
man hath, will be give for his life.” To
which Judge Hoar replied: "Yes, the
devil quoted that once before in a mo
tion for a new trial.”
Actual Facts.
For upwards of fifteen years Hunt’s
Cure has been sold under a strict guar
antee to cure any form of itching skin
troubles known. No matter the name
—less than one per cent, of the pur
chasers have requested their money
back. Why? It simply does the work.
Young America.
Dad—Do you know w’hat happens to
little boys that tell lies?
Tad—Yep. If they tell good ones,
they get away with it.—Cleveland
Leader. _
How Could He Tell?
Hirum—Was yer house damaged by
that there cyclone?
Ike—Dunno. I hain’t found it yit.
—Cleveland Leader.
AVenk. tVenry. Watery Eye*
Relieved by Murine Eye Remedy. Com
pounded by Experienced Physicians. Con
forms to Pure Food and Drug Laws. Mu
rine Doesn’t Smart; Soothes Eye Pain.
Try Murine in Your Eyes. At Druggists.
Travel expands the mind, but con
tracts the pocketbook.
BACKACHE IS KIDNEYACHE.
Usually There Are Other Troubles to
Prove It.
Pain In the back is pain in the kid
neys, in most cases, and it points to
the need of a spe
cial remedy to re
lieve and cure the
congestion or in
fiammation of the
kidneys that is in
terfering with their
work and causing
that pain that
makes you say:
"Oh, my back."
Thompson Wat
kins, profession?*
nurse, 420 N.
St PflTRnns PTan o
says: “For some time I was an
noyed with sharp twinges across the
small of my back and irregular pas
sages of the kidney secretions. Since
using Doan’s Kidney Pills I am free
from these troubles.”
Sold by all dealers. 60 cents a box.
Foster-Milburn Co., Buffalo, N. Y.
TURN ABOUT FAIR PLAY.
But Somehow Mrs. Newlywed Couldn’t
See the Point.
A young friend of mine, a Jolly, con
vivial sort of a chap, got married re
cently, and at the end of the first
week, upon receiving his salary of $20,
he went home, gave his wife $18, and
kept two for himself.
Of course, she thought that was love
ly, but to her astonishment at the
end of the second week he handed her
only two dollars, keeping $20 for him
self.
“Now, see here, John,” she said, in
dignantly, "how do you suppose I am
going to manage on two dollars a
week?”
“I don’t know, I am sure, my
dear,” he answered, sweetly. “I had
a terrible time of it last week, my
self.”
Gee, but wasn't he the mean old
thing!—Seattle Argus.
Beware of Ointments for Catarrh
that Contain Mercury,
as mercury will surely destroy the sense of smell
and completely derange the whole system when
entering It through the mucous surfaces. Such
articles should never be used except on prescrip
tions from reputable physicians, as the damage they
will do is ten fold to the good you can possibly de
rive from them. Hall's Catarrh Cure, manufactured
by F. J. Cheney & Co., Toledo, O.. contains no mer
cury. and Is taken Internally, acting directly upon
the blood and mucous surfaces of the system. In
buying Hall’s Catarrh Cure be sure you get the
genuine. It is taken internally and made In Toledo,
Ohio, by F. J. Cheney & Co. Testimonials free.
Sold by Druggists. Price. 75o. per bottle.
Take Hall’s Family Pills for constipation.
He Objected.
“Meeker tells me that he wants
handcuffs abolished.”
“Is Meeker interested in crimin
ology?”
"No; his wife is in the habit of cuff
ing him on the ear.”
A Bad Break.
“That was a bad break Dr. Green
made.”
“What was it?”
“He advised our traveling man to
give up work for a while and travel
for his health.”—Detroit Free Press.
A pessimist needs Garfield Tea, the Herb
laxative which regulates the liver, corrects
constipation and brings good health and
good spirits.
It is doubtful whether he should be
sent to jail for bigamy, or be compelled
to live with both of them.
Why Paint?
Natural roses are far more beautiful than arti
[ ficial ones, and though it may be fashionable for pale I
| (people to use the rouge pot, the results are more at
tractive and lasting, if you will follow the more]
| natural fashion and take Cardui.
Cardui enriches the blood, through the nervous]
system, the main connecting link of which, is in the
womanly organs, like the exchange board of a tele-1
phone line.
TAKE
CARDUI
The Woman’s Tonic
GH 156
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much for it. It helped me and also
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life. I advised her to take Cardui and
now she lias taken one bottle and it
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Try Cardui. It will help you.
Sold everywhere. Buy a bottle today.