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Show : CVt i Pis- Vhr "AS Adventurers Club "The Bundle on the Boat' By FLO ID GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter. IT'S a strange and gruesome story I'm going to tell you today about as old a tale as ever a man ran across in the course oR his day's work. Anthony A. Mafle of Elizabeth, N. J., is the man to whom this adventure happened and it's just about the most ticklish piece of business he ever engaged in in his whole life. Curiosity got him into it. That's a trait most adventurers have. They say curiosity killed a cat once. Well-I'll bet it's killed a heck of a lot of people, too. People who started to look into something that looked a bit strange and found it to be not only strange, but dangerous. That's what happened to Tony Maffe. Tony was working work-ing as a quartermaster on a ferry boat that runs between Staten Island and Elizabethport when, on June 10, 1923, bis curiosity was aroused by one of the passengers. That curiosity almost cost him his life. As a matter of fact, it did cost one man his life. But that wasn't any of Tony's fault. He only did his duty. It was about a quarter of eleven at night. The ferry was docked on the Staten Island side, waiting for the trolley car that would bring another load of passengers. Tony was standing on the upper deck, waiting for the signal to get going. Down by the ferry gates a taxi pulled up to a stop, and he watched it idly as a man got out and began unloading a heavy, awkward looking bundle. Furtive Filipino's Bundle Arouses Tony's Suspicions. Tony's interest quickened when he saw that bundle. It was a huge package, and from the way the man carried it, it must have weighed a hundred pounds or more. Then, too, there was something some-thing furtive about the man that carried it. He was a Filipino, judging from his appearance, and there was a look of apprehension of slyness on his pinched face as he paid the driver and moved toward the ticket office. Tony had a hunch that something was wrong with that guy, and, on the spur of the moment, he decided to investigate. in-vestigate. He ran down the stairs to the lower deck, walked ashore and went into the ticket office. He got there just as the man reached the window, walked up behind him and took a closer look at his package. There was a spot of blood on it! Still, Tony couldn't swear there was anything wrong with that bundle. It might contain nothing more damning than a hundred pounds or so of meat from a butcher shop. That would account for the spot of blood. Wouldn't he look foolish if he made a fuss and then that package turned out to be ' The Filipino Lifted Tony Off His Feet. nothing more than a bunch of beefsteaks for some restaurant across the river? No Tony couldn't prove anything. But just the same, he determined to keep his eye on Mr. Filipino. Stranger Is Carrying a Wrapped-up Body. As the man boarded the boat, Tony followed. Going through the ladies cabin, he moved up behind him and felt the package. His fingers closed on something round. He couldn't be sure of it, but it seemed to him that the round object had hair on it. "Anyway " says Tony, "I knew darn well it wasn't a cabbage or a coconut. I went up to the captain and told him what I thought that that fellow had a wrapped-up body that he was getting ready to throw overboard." The captain told Tony to go back and watch that bird, and he himself phoned for the police. By the time Tony got down on deck again, the Filipino had the bundle on the rail, waiting for his chance to toss it into the river. "I'd rather have waited until the police came," he says, "but there wasn 1 time The Filipino was beginning to look nervous, and I was afraid he d throw the bundle over the side without waiting for the boat to get under way. So I walked slowly over to the rail at a point a few feet away and began edging toward him." Davey Jones' Locker Loomed for Tony. A foot at a time, Tony moved up on his man. He didn't dare be in too much of a hurry about it, lest the man notice him and drop his bundle. The water was deep at that spot, and the Lfdle was weighted, it might take a lot of diving to get it up again On the other hand, if it weren't weighted, it migt float away t 2 darkness and never be fonnri 3 m ine He edged up until he was within a foot of the man Then he reached out, grasped the package and pulled it off If! lit"?' n thi nejtt1..instant. e Filipino turned on Tony, off Us feet' arUnd the kDeeS' and ,ifted him Cops Find It Was a Case of Jealous Murder. Then, just as the police came running out thrnntrh tv, The cops opened up that package and found-just what Tony thought they would. It was a woman's body, doubled up hfce a jackkmfe and tied with ropes. Her body wa, TsUll Tony was a witness at the Filipino's trial r:i u to the chair. There he got the story ot thl ZV hat Sent him Filipino and the girl were - had given the girl a diamond engagement rtal anrMh? iPpino ing the engagement, had refused to giv Tit back fT'i break' the Filipino killed the girl, and he was trying J get rid of t?TJ' when Tony caught him. 5 gei na 01 body C-WNU Service. |