OCR Text |
Show I fHP TOllIf!Wl! OTTOWWP TWELVE DETECTIVE STORIE ! AiLll ilMlLvb By ARTHUR STRINGER j "" Convritrht. hv thft AToPlnr Kfiu'smnpr Svnri r t a ' . . ' "That tapioca." g-R-spM Sloan, as lie saw me siu::is thou1. Then ho stopped. He stood g-piiia down at the floor for :l I watched him as he knelt down and Vent la.k the fir.uers th.at looked as : thou;-r!i they had been made of dirty wax. 1 waiehel him as lie took the rd:c Fear, stained with blood, from their clutch. He kiu'ii there for another moment, apparently appar-ently deep in thought. The.i he looked aho;:t the room. "Where is he?" he finally asked. Doyle was helping to hold me up as T pot to my feet. A solitary .sruin of (,11'iora rolled toward the lip of the overturned over-turned hath.P,:. 1 watched it as it came to n stop against the white enamel edgo of metal. "He's there." T whispered, pointing toward to-ward the grain of tapioca. Nay WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE Rvmal special apent and operative for the Jewelers' Protective JiW, Vett- York, writes these stories for tho information of Winkle frd fc'alaml. t0 prov 10 him lhilt although appearances wore often 'nh r "he always loved him. Inihny was dismissed from a hospital, 51 J, was training because she let Anselo Parento, a younj? Italian who Jhia sweetheiut and wounded himseli, escape. She later learns that yl a com thief. A sroup of diamond thUnes hiul been eluding the w 111 ohleet lesson for them, Inspector Sloan f the alliance Rave " ,m fo'o of' stealing the Blue rear, third biggest diamond in America, -v- 'kirn Orosset. he was then to bo arrested bv two of Sloan's men, 1 sent to Jail and immediately released by Sloan. J'ulniv ehloro- j 'r-Tet, and then found a masked man in the safe she went to for J miY Terrified, she ran back to iSrosset'a room, to lind one of the 2 , Vnt to arrest her bonding" over him. Orosset was dead. Ualmv, I rA at having killed him, is hurried away to Sloan's office, hi the ' ''"""the man she saw in the safe escapes. Sloan pulls wires to pro- but of course she is under obligations to Sloan, whom she dis- I ": SVeoea to Toosey Attrill, a stool pigeon for the. alliance, for sym- Tiosev is out. As K;ilmy turns away a note drops at her feet. It I "Viu no kill men Grosset, they inak trick for you, I know a frend." j 5 then sent to Detroit to find out who stole the Swartzdorp Star. coat whieTi ho wore In total disregard of the season. Then he entered a humble-looking M'ortii-y, where he purchased a pint of barrel molasses. This molasses ho care-luhy care-luhy spread out on his squaro yard of J anton tlannel, explaining to the slightly slight-ly mystified sliopkeepcr that he'd discovered dis-covered a new and efficient cure for lumbago. Then he folded his square of 1 flannel together, rolled it up, and tucked I It under his arm. Since I'd entered that same store to make due observation of these movements, move-ments, I found It necessary to excuse my presence there bv aVso making a purcnase; so, with my mind otherwise occupied, I stared at an open carton of pearl tapioca, and I said I wanted ten pounds of tapioca. This was duly) welgTied out for me, put In a brown paper bag, and tied up, with Nuttv, in tho meantime, shuffling- out once more' to the open. That tapioca made a much larger and a much more cumbersome parcel than I had expected. But there was nothing to do but carry it away, once it had been done up and paid for. And I reached the street aizaul just in time to behold Xutty Coombs carefullv wrapping wrap-ping the paving stone up in his sheet of yellow-tinted paper and as carefulv tying it with the bit of string which he'd carried away from the shop. Then he s'huffled on northward again until he had passed Forty-second street for three blocks, turning westward again until Fie came to Lexington avenue, where, for some purpose I couldn't fat hum, he suddenly dipped into the postnffice substation just back of the Grand Central station. He was in and out of that office before be-fore I could even catch up with him. What happened there, what message he gave out or received, I had no means of knowing. All I could see was that he was striking determinedly on again. I short ened the distance that stood between us, .lugging my unwieldly package pack-age of tapioca first on one arm and then on the other. But all the while I kept that uncouth old figure plainly in sight. When he came to Fifth avenue ave-nue he seemed to hesitate. He turned , irresolutely northward, crossed to the west side of the avenue, and doubled back southward again. ; The first thing that came to my nrjtice was Toosey Attrill herself as she ran out to the middle of the pavement where the traffic policeman stood. I saw her run back to the sidewalk, glance hurriedly hur-riedly over her shoulder down the avenue ave-nue as she ran, and turn, still running, into tho side street. There I saw her snatch what must have been a hatpin from her head and with it stab the back tires of a. harmless looking taxicab, standing close beside the curb. I had no chance to give much thought to this, for at almost the same time I caught sight of Sloan himself, in a department de-partment car driven by Doyle, coming from the direction of Madison avenue. At the same time that this car shuddered shud-dered down to almost a standstill, to keep from colliding with the line shutting shut-ting up Fifth avenue, I called out to Sloan as he stood up in his seat, staring star-ing ahead of him. In the excitement, in fact. I d clutched my bag of tapioca so tightly that my finger had gone through the paper. And I suppose it was more an unwilled reaction than a conscious effort, ef-fort, but to attract my chief's attention something prompted me to gather a handful of that tapioca which had dribbled drib-bled through the hole, and fling it straight at Sloan's abstracted figure as he swept past me. Hfi saw me. I felt sure, but he saw ed look over his shoulder, and again continued con-tinued southward. A minute later I saw him suddenly swerve and step briskly in through the doorway of Brentano's. 1 went after him, without a moment's hesitation, for, once under cover, 1 knew he could find it easier either to unburden himself of his Blue Pear or throw me completely off the trail. I saw my friend Shag turning carelessly care-lessly down the stairway that led to the periodical room in the basement. And 1 just as carelessly followed him down to that basement. I knew, in fact, that I was worrying him. Yet it was several minutes before he actually ventured to lift his eye and look directly at me. My face, of course, meant nothing to him. and I knew, or rather I felt without really looking at him, that he was once more browsing over his pile of weeklies. What, I asked myself, was I to do? At the tirst suspicious move my natty-figured natty-figured friend would seek safety in flight, and the more he realized the source and nature of that pursuit the more frantic he would make his flight. There seemed to be little promise of help coming to me. And I couldn't stand there all day with my nose buried in a magazine, pretending to be engrossed in a page of print where I wasn't actually conscious of a single word confronting me. My difficulty was solved by Shag Few-ster Few-ster himself, for, after having apparently apparent-ly sized up the situation to his satisfaction, satisfac-tion, and having concluded that the dowdy young woman with the paper bag under her arm was no longer worthy of his passing suspicions, he gave a valedictory valedic-tory touch to his lengthy period of inaction in-action by leisurely purchasing and paying pay-ing for a copy of The Masses, and moved Jauntily off toward the stairway, mounted to the' main floor of the crowded bookshop, book-shop, and pushed his unhurrying way toward the street. I did the same, not more than twenty paces behind him. Yet as I did so something some-thing quite unlooked for happened to me. Before I reached that street door I came face to face with my Winkle, with Winkfred Ealand himself. He had an open book in his hand, and he raised his eyes from the page in front of him to stare directly into my somewhat some-what startled face. His jaw and the book dropped at one and the same time, and he moved forward, automatically, and with wonder in his eyes, as though he were making ready to speak to me. But ho stopped short, stunned, I suppose, at the discovery that 1 myself had given no promise of stopping short. I had other things, naturally, to take up my attention at that particular moment, things too important to be overlooked. I knew I could never explain. I knew It was useless even to try. He must have seen that barricaded look which fell over my face like a fire shutter being be-ing pulled"(1own across a shop front. Or , perhaps he interpreted it as a look of actual ac-tual hostility. At anv rate I could eee : his eyes narrow and his face harden, al- though bv this time he was actually say- j J ing something to me. What it was I i don't know to this day, just as I can't ! remember what I murmured back to him. I j For Shag Fewster had passed out into the open street by this time, and I felt! that my one hope of happiness in life lay in not losing sight of that jauntily moving yet elusive figure. To fellow Shag was not so easy this time, for he was moving eastward at a brisk rate, with the resolute stride of a man who had suddenly remembered an overlooked errand. Before long I saw Shag Fewster turn 1 sharply to the left and step hurriedly down a flight of basement stairs. At the same time that he ua doing this 1 was loosening tho snaps in my holster pocket and dropping my automatic in mv all but empty Lapioca bag. The-e I shook it about until I was able to close my fingers on the heavy butt of the gun, hidden behind be-hind its covering of crumpled brown paper. noticed, as I went hurrying down those time-scarred basement steps, that' they led ir.-to what was plainly a. plumber's shop. In I he shop itself, where Sha stood with hack to me. J could see three white enamel bathtubs leaning against the wall, 0110, larger than the other, on , its side, together with a crated lricd-bowl lricd-bowl and a further litter of galvanized piping. Besides this T saw a sandy-haired and big-boned Irishman in dungaree, placidly filing a brass fitting in a bench-vjee. bench-vjee. "Say, can you do a quick job for me?" I heard Shag ask the shop-owner. "Whn t kind of a job"" inquired the apathetic man with the file. ' Soldering a cracked walor pipe," was the prompt reply. "Where?" "Thre- blocks over," and Shag nodded off-handedly toward the Fast river. "Nope," was the none-too-encouragc-ingr reply. "I gotta stick to this shop!" "Good night, then." he facet iously observed, ob-served, a-s he swung about toward me and the open door. He ignored me as though T hadn't been th re. "Wait!" I said. I tried to say it calmly, hut there was a shake in my voice which I couldn't control. con-trol. "Why?" asked my enemy. A gray shade passed over-, his fact; like a cloud over a field of wheat stubble. And a a I saw it I Wiumed myself to bo wary, very wan'. "Because you're tho mm who picked up my pocket book in Brentano's," I announced, an-nounced, I knew that I could put a bullet singing and rending through his body, tearing triumphant ly through bone and flesh. But I clearly wasn't compounded of the stuff of which heroines were made. I didn't have the courage. I was too cowardly. All I could ao was to play for time. .Time. I kept telling myself, was the one thing 1 wanted, time above, everything every-thing else. For I vas still hoping a-iist hope that Doyle or W ilk ins or Sloan himself would follow up that tenuous paper-chase trail of mine and in some way come to my deliverance before it was too late. "Say, what're you pipe-dream in' about, anvwajy?" demanded my studious-eyed enemy. "You know what I mean!" I cried out, only too glad of the promise of an argument. argu-ment. "That purse is there in the side pocket of your coat, and you can't denv it!" "Say, what's this dame driviri' at?" inquired in-quired tho man with the filo in his hand. Shag regarded him with a quick and anxious eve. "You're not goin' to fall for any song-and-dance like that, are you?" lie demanded. de-manded. "Then let him show what he's got In his pocket!" I exulted, for I could still see the teiltale protuberance there over his hipbone. "What've you got in that pocket, anyway?" any-way?" demanded the man in the dungarees. dun-garees. "What difference does that make to you?" challenged Shag, with one hand groping behind his hip. "This dame looks straight to me," retorted re-torted the shopkeeper by -the way of 1 explanation. "And you don't!" He was., still remarkably impersonal about it all. But at the same moment that Shag started to back away I realized real-ized that the shopkeeper was with me. He threw his file down on the workbench, work-bench, making that trivial movement a strangely final one. Then he advanced slowly toward the other man, with an eager and calculating look in his keen blue eyes. And minute by minute, I knew, time was slipping away. "What's in - that pocket?" demanded my brawny advocate. Still more time might have been taken up had not Shag made a movement as though to circle about for the door. That resulted in a startlingly sudden dive and clinch and collision which converted a metal-littered basement shop into a place ' of tumult. Those two oddly interlocked ; bodies stamped and swayed and stum- , bled about the uneven floor. I could hear short grunts, heavy gasps, throaty ' sounds, of animal-like angtr but still I' was afraid to do anything. I could see the two bodies go over, with a thud t and the man in the dungarees was on top. "You would, would you?" he panted. ! His gasping words of indignation were 1 cut short by two double sounds, so close j together 'that one seemed merely an echo ; of the other. I saw the thick figure in j the dungarees suddenly draw up, tense, 1 and then relax an then draw up again, J in a quavering convulsion that died in j midair and let him subside limply back , on the still-prostrate Shag Fewster, j whose right hand, I noticed, was a bright i red. . j I had my own automatic in my hand, but still I was afraid. I was so afraid that I stumbled forward on my knees, with my face not three feet away from Shag's frightened eyes as he twisted and writhed and tried to unburden himself of that limp and loathsome weight which was dripping its scarlet warmth on our hands. I brought the paner-covered automatic which I ill held in mv hand blindly down on Shag's head, with its plaintively blinking eyes and: ludicrously gaping mouth. Then I sat staring at him. with a little sob of terror, wondering why he didn't -move, wondering whv he lay as still as the other huddled figure which had half fallen away from him. Then a sharper terror ,yhot through me, for I saw that the plaintively blinking eyes had once more opened, and thtj hand from which the heavy police revolver with the sawed-off sawed-off barrel had fallen was groping listlessly about the broken flooring. And I knew that life was sweet, that life was worth fighting for, and that nothing but my own strength and cunning, since I was too craven for the other wav. could save me. So I fiung myself on Shag Fewster, still stunned from that blow, with a second sort of blind fury. I roiled him over, and over still again, until he lay opposite the long enamel bathtub that leaned on its side against the wall. Then, exerting all mv strength, I let that huge mass of white-lined iron fall top-down on the uneven flooring, cupping under its weight the sodden and huddled figure of my enemy. en-emy. I sat for what seemed a long time on its iron bottom, staring dizzily down at a hand that looked as though it had been made of soiled wax, a hand protruding from the sleeve of a dungaree slip-coat. Clutched in that hand I could see something some-thing that flashed back the light from its countless facets of tenderest azure. And I was staring at it, with foolish little sobs of exhaustion, as Doyle and Sloan himself came puffing and tumbling down the basement stairway, with their foreheads fore-heads wet, and a policeman in brass buttons but-tons behind them. I ij TEN POUNDS OF TAPIOCA. . ., r.,,r.v t-egin with the tapioca. '-:n in fact with something much j ..." an.l much lucre important, j ", ..... something was Shag Kew-f Kew-f C'li Funston, who'd taken ' .uight call a high dive from his "..-,, had come to the surface ' .' si souUi of Lonsaere square. QHiown looked good to Shag Fsw-,. Fsw-,. bn-'-ig pulled off a highly ... story job in Kvunsion, 1 '" jied of ivMt his circle usually deep heel. ' And in the Vroch which he moved in a lordly r 1 1 nv friends eager to sliare I :ur- spirit cf revelry. J - - iii vv world was rot exactly : Wined it. For nearly two I i,d been watched, day by oay I "Zt oV l.our. At any tune of any , 1 T ,uy he could have been rounded . I . ( ir-siwctor iiloan had ordered V J There as a suspicion in 01-"Bj 01-"Bj 'minds iha' Shag had fiienda who 1 ' " worth Knowins:. "? -'.-hi have disturbed the light-hearted i ;.. .n Dip midilie west to know that 3 - .klEss blonde who called herself r o...i:e vyas something moie than -.'i'.i.itua of the Forty-ninth street on, : T.ere he had been duly intro-"'vflj intro-"'vflj io her by a sallow faced dancing fr'or the fair Foinice was none urn Toosey Attrill, the Alliance -:;tori, who not orly enjoyed din-; din-; .tim-inr with ".Mh. Funston of !r.: . ; Citv," but combined a clear head 1 il: a Kdatelv tempered allurement of I knew all this quite well, for , ... or.ee a day Toosey repoited to me nc as the end of the second ;i2:-. irew "car Tcosey's reports were j be more intimate. Q'you s'pose that Hoosier mutt . to Imnd no last night?" Toosey r:r.' . demanded of me, after she'd slipped "';"' " , up to my rooms lor instructions. i ,'.rtenoive tc ?ay we was sure made a.:.- r.nier and oufhtta get spheed!" what did you teii him'.'" 1 asked .ined a window to blow out some of IV;.'.- ;rkish citraret smoke with which 'r ' . was fumigating my furniture. 2v..;: 1 m used to high livin', and , .nin' up wit' no genTman who can't r lie way I was started!' But V,.".,7 ' didn't stand for no call down. 'Child.' - i 'there's money goin' bad in this . .yours waitin' for soirebody to haul Curate Sam himself, who pushed In through the swinging doors under the wire sign. I realized that I wasn't togged out for entering any such place without at onco arousing suspicion. So I turned back to the tobacconist, asked for the use of his phone and promptly called up the Alliance officers. i I had the satisfaction of knowing, two minutes later, that Wilkins was speeding , toward mo in a taxi. Yet, fast as Wif- kins traveled, I had to buy three other I magazines before Sloan's "strongarm" I worker strolled indolently into the store where I stood waiting for him. In another an-other two minutes, however, he was just as indolently strolling across the street and pushing his way in through the ever-welcoming swinging doors. Not thirty seconds after he had done so a closed car swung up to tire curb, At the same moment that it came to a stop the side door of the saloon opened and two men stepped nimbly out. They lost no time in crossing the sidewalk and tumbling into that waiting car, which was under way again before they could have been settled in their seats. But hurried as their transit had been it gave me time enough to see that, the two fugitives fugi-tives were tilg Fewster and Curate Sam. And I iniew, as I made for the open, that those two worthier were in some way acting together. But to follow fol-low them was already out of the question. So I waited a precious five minutes for Wilkins to emerge. When he came out he did so at the heels of a thick-shouldered thick-shouldered youth who looked like a dance-hall bouncer out of a job. I could see at a glance that Wilkins, for some reason or other, was intent on shadowing shadow-ing this well-muscled individual, so I managed, apparently by accident, to swing in for a minute or two beside my intent-eyed confederate. "This man w-as talking to those two in there, before they ducked," he explained to me out of a corner of his mouth. "So I'm going to trail him a-nd see what turns up." "Phone what vou pick up to the office," of-fice," I told him as I edged away, for I could see that he preferred being alone at that particular time. And there was nothing for me to do but strike westward west-ward again and comb back and forth across the city. Twice I telephoned for Toosey Attrill and failed to lind her. Twice, too, 1 called up the alliance offices in the hope of some report from Wilkins. But no message had come in from him. So I took up my rounds once more, dropping In at every point where I knew an alll- r: . And I'm sur goin' to do some haul-y'.r- : Tneri I says to him: "Hully gee, -r Funston, you ain't tryin' to tell me iT. Uix-man?' Wothin' so crude,' he . 'o me; I'm a suite-renter, and wit' rii y?rr o rib I can woik this town i ten-hundred-dollar haul!' 'You'll iTTr1 "uwi?e me up on what this game o' IU - huntin" means,' I told him. And 1 wasn't goin' to be gun-3hy, that 1 hn:i up. .'.two of us, he laid out to me, could IL ', ' tut s;t;,.e-huntin' game on Riverside - to a fhii'-h, and llien move on to i ft m turn the trick there, for a j v.:eks ami then swing down to j -.cl phia and lake in Brooklyn on our ' a minute," I interrupted. "Am , . r.OHfand that you've actually ' 10 w with Shag Fewster to-right, to-right, or the next right, on this t p.lir.f,- coup?" it ali amends on you and the in-? in-? V'M Tomrey' placid retort. "But "' oiio thing I ain't goin' to do, for Mnan or the whole Alliance, 'tats many tiie mutt!" it this isn't Shag Fcwster's usual line ' in, trie'1 t0 explain, puzzled a i that sudden new realignment of Does he suspect ai ything? Aro ''," nt in some way giving us ? "Is wn medicine?" . sure!" was Toosey's retort and Loldship'll just about new bo -" w 1 t0 hls hreakfast at the announced. "And in half an TON ie hittin' the av-noo. -i, ia,n"ou!'cod as I proceeded to mj hat, "ni jUbt fjllc,w alons anJ ,,'' ui cnaperon our gcod friend " hour later I was following Shag ' o'n Fifth avenue. " dapper and debonair figure Kaze m a shop window, I Just tinsered a half block behind s plate glass studied tho newer "hen lie turned back to size up Pnonally striking ehopper as she ' -'it I J". her setkvn or-cabriolet, I Point to be Interested in quite -tohi ' &t me times I drew up yss.tou?" other umea 1 iassed ''has did a peculiar and ciuite 0 thing. He stopped suddenly f corner, and. before crossing . looked studiously to the east Just as studiously to the west. . ,i 'topped again, and something movement promptly aroused ''n, though look as I might I "eth. ?r P 01,0 for whom he might " ijhi v, chlng and ,lona t0 w-hom t',: M,fc,,f,TPMoIy signaling. 1 tth his swagger of self-con-"e moved down the avenue, o i'iJg ,n for a moment before noow where a line of pedes-f pedes-f myself had tarried a moment U'iiS throuSh the plate glass. " ' beinn' 1 noticed as I came up t ,8C,d t0 the fin Starr & uo Jewelers, whose display on -on was startling. For there, : ,i ,, 1 Plaque of black velvet, U 'a ry oblong diamond of ex-4 ex-4 cnsidrU,The upper Portion of it In, ind if bly narrower than the 'P the M, ?tone itself. as it flashed U VKmrnlnS light from its count-'Jn't count-'Jn't tiS of tho most delicato sky-!.,.;, sky-!.,.;, ,V,at diamond. I knew at a ckvin,,;! BluC! Fear itself the Blue A anJ T y recovered bv its rightful 'j ;. "" now, with all its strange ad-H ad-H j er' enthroned on Its regal-'!. regal-'!. qu,J r tho passing world to kI arP'iare,ntlj'' h,! tired of respecta- ! ea,Jn 'u'0 minutes' time he had i' '? m d off the avenue and was ;,! - sou-h Korditl byways. Then he 'V! i-j again, and still once more ,. "timi Was walking more rapidly ".' r., ' a,nd- s though led by some ;t dr,uh",emberec1 mission. 'im " ?? this vanished when I "tadenly cross the street and , , into the side door of a mueh-A. mueh-A. it tJman saloon. 1 ducked for ' ''"re ii raove. stopping into an east '1 "flrtlv was Partly a confection- isem.a tobacconist's and partly a .""Is emporium. , bought a motion picture mag-i mag-i j :'ont d bchind the unclean vin- ') 'r"ntched I 'caught sight of still !'-eet 2. approaching along the i'i' -a "hen I caught my breath, ance "stool" to be holding out. But I found nothing to reward my search. It was three hours later that I stumbled stum-bled across Toosey in that unsavory terpsichorean subcellar known as the Fatima Cabaret. "T hate to Interfere with your little amusement," I somewhat acidly announced, an-nounced, after I'd given Toosey the high-s'"ii high-s'"ii to emerge from that ill-smelling 'den of urban night crawlers, "but we've got a case on our hands that Isn't quite settled the way the office wants it settled." set-tled." "Keep vour mit on. Balmy," was Toosey's lazy-toned retort, "Keep your mit on! I've got a date here wit' a gink called Chick Eberts. And it's not two hours since Chick was powwowln' wit that man Pareto." . "Fareto''" I echoed, wondering In what wav my olive-skinned friend from Italy could be connected with Shag Fewster and his intrigues. , . , , , . "Chick spotted me crulsm round wit our friend Shag, and he naturally fell for me bein' one o' that inner circle. bo it's up to me to pump Chick before Shag can put him wise. And as tilings loon he's soon goin' to give me an earful. "Then don't forget that we ve got Curate Sam to reckon with as well, i warned her. a "Then " announced Toosey, after a moment or two of thoughtful silence "that Riverside coup is nolhin but a blind' And I'd like to know just where I'm goin' to get off at!" "You can't get off at all," I explained to Toosev. "I want you to stick to your friend Fewster, and stick him to tho last gasp. Get the information we need whether it's going to come from him or from Chick Eberts. For there s something some-thing bigger going to break than we've got any idea of. And it's up to us, Toosey, to find out .what that some- 'h"Tra've said it!" agreed the pert-faced pert-faced Toosey. as she suddenly turned, looked over her shoulder and gave me tho code sign to fade away. r a thick-shouldered youth had turned n to the flamboyant entrance of 1 1.e Fatima! and I knew front Toosey s face that it was none other than her g ink A, id T aiso knew, as I brushed casually past lm on that dimly lighted stairway stair-way that it was tho same man whom Wi kins had shadowed from the East Side saloon where Shag Fewster and Curate Sam had conferred earlier m the day. Before I was out of bed the next morning morn-ing I had my desk phone in my hand and wfs sending out little earner ' P'feons of inquiry into different parts of the city Wilkins, I found, hart duly reported to the. All ance office that Chick Eberts had been h, coherence with one N-utty Coombs After that conference, however, Wilkins fv d lost the trail of both his quarries. Toosey Attrill, on the other hand, had as yei w'as.'m fadT hurriedly bolting the last of mv bed-tray breakfast ien Toosey herself appeared on the scene. She w as ot altogether triumphant She had both dined and danced with Cluck, it was tri e, bit Chick had not been lavish In lis tail, announced Toosey as she sat watching watch-ing me lacing my gun-holster. It bun-, "lose to mv body, where three snaps in n v Vast front concealed the opening through which my right hand could at any moment be thrust to clutch the stock '"'some harness that," observed tlie ap-preciaTive ap-preciaTive Toosey. as I dropped a dowdj hl-ick skirt over my head, for that morii-h morii-h 'g I'd decided, it would pay to appear in v plainest apparel. And as 1 fuusned d cs' m' I ins ructed Toosey to do what si e could to follow up the elusive Chick evnlaiirng that I myself was off to the S-?un..r - aerrcm- lrSs-Ertyw:ru:,ngteni San a decrepit old till Unporwho now preferred keeping within tne la. Yet mv search, T felt, was not al.o-,.?'rer al.o-,.?'rer wasted, for once I had come within ' tr ktns distance of that p.cturesque figure I found Nutty to be making h s way up toward the heart of the city, where panhandlers are customarily tabooed agression was to enter a rat er mcdanclioly-looking Third avenue ave-nue dry soods store, where bo P'''-'hased a square vard of Canton flanne His second was to pick up from bes de he curb a small payuig stone. about the me w-ithout quite knowing it, for even as Doyle threaded a path across the avenue ave-nue a tall and somber figure., emerging apparently from some doorway in the side street ahead, leaped Into the waiting wait-ing taxicab with the flattened tires, threw open the throttle, and started to speed away. There was at almost the same time the sharp double crack of two pistol shots, but I paid scant attention to them, for what impressed me at the moment was the discovery that the man who had leaped into the taxicab was Curate Sam himself. Nor could I stand there watching watch-ing the flight of Curate Sam westward along that side street before Sloan's pursuing pur-suing car. For already on the avenue, not fifty yards from where I stood, other and equally engrossing things were taking tak-ing place. Old Nutty Coombs had shuffled along southward. Before one of the shopfronts he came to a sudden stop, staring at an affair quite arresting enough to excuse his momentary curiosity. At the curb, within fifteen feet of where he stood, the morning crowds of Fifth avenue were being regaled with -the unusual spectacle of a fist-fight between two brawny figures fig-ures who struck with much of the spectacular spec-tacular adroitness of the prize ring itself it-self But it was not this fight that brought me suddenly across the avenue, with the i bag of tapioca still under my arm. It was the disco eery that Nutty Coombs had I come to a stop directly in front of the I plate-glass window of Scarr & Burton, ; the window which had held and sheltered . the Blue Pear itself. Y'et even before this discovery had ' made itself quite plain to me, the de-I de-I jected-eved old mrtn in tne greasy-looking overcoat had quietly unrolled a square of Canton flannel and pulled its two sticky leaves apart. Then, backing still closer against the plate glass, he had pressed this strange plaster against the window, using not his hands, but his body, for the purpose. All the while, in fact he seemed to be staring at that quick-moving fight about which a denser and ever-denser crowd was collecting. But in his right hand I could already seo a small square parcel wrapped in yellow paper And as he stood there ho calmly swung this hand forward and then back again, with a sharp understroke that was as undemonstrative as it was effective. The sound of that blow of a paper-wrapped paper-wrapped cobble stone against the plate-glass plate-glass window couldn't have been a loud I Sne. It failed, in fact, to reach my own ! ears, for tho syrup-covered square of i fiannel, clinging to the glass, both muf-' muf-' fled the report of the impact and limited I the area, of the breakage. But it had ' done its work. For tho next moment Nutty Coombs's long arm had slipped in through the broken glass, unnoticed and unchallenged. He caught up the Biue Pear from where it rested on its plaque of black velvet. Then, with a stroke of luck for which Nutty himself was piamly unprepared, he ambled on again down tho avenue, quito unobserved. Y et at the same moment that Toosey s Incredulous traftic policeman came shouldering shoul-dering through that euro-side ciowd where Chick Eberts and his companion were so boisterously trying to settle their little differences, a dapper fissure m a fawn fedora moved airily out to the center cen-ter of the sidewalk and managed to brush bv tho slower moving old man in t.te greasy overcoat. As he did so their hands' came together. It was only for a moment, but It was suf'iclent for their purpose. In tl'.e clear morning light I could distinctly see t.ie flash of a pale blue ob.ie.-t. with many "littering facets as Shag Fewster s hand c!osed on the coveted treasure. Tne next moment he had dropped it into the s.cie pocket of his close-fitting coat, and was sauntering on again. I knew it was my doty, whatever happened, to fohow that figure. . . . ., , And follow it I did, Willi mv b,g ba-of ba-of tapioca s'lill o:i my arm. Hut tnere was one thing I still remenr ered to d. s I threaded my way do-.Ml t.ie loss 'turbulent rra.'hes of that sunlit morning avenue 1 took pains to let a slow but -steady streum cf istt wb..e clobules rain down from toe er, -raved bottom of mv brown paper bay. praymg ail the whi'c that Sloan would be twtnst-!n twtnst-!n bak in the scene of the broKen w.n-rioV. w.n-rioV. ho;.ing against hope thnt he or Pm-ie or Toosev Attrill horse, f woud catch at the slender trail and m some wav succeed in following it up. U -t Twentv-ninth street Sn.r Fewster N ', to the east side of the avenue. |