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Show Jgled with greed for a moment before he answered. an-swered. , - "Well, I've got the drop on you, bo I can afford J to be magnanimous. What is your yarn about fifteen thousand dollars?" "I'll spin no yarns while that cannon is smil- I ing in my face. I tell you, the money's in the job. And there is nobody on earth, outside of old Shipley and myself, who knows how to get at it. If you want to hear the plan, you can take the pistol out of this drawer and lay it alongside of your own on the counter there, out of reach. Otherwise you can count mo out of it altogether." The burglar looked at Sharley's figure, pondered pond-ered for a moment, and, without taking his eyes I off the other, walked around the desk. Opening the drawer in front of Sharley, he removed the pistol. "Allow me!" he remarked, passing his hand i over Sharley's pockets. Finding no weapon upon the bookkeeper's person, ho walked to the counter indicated by Sharley and deposited the two pistols. pis-tols. He then stationed himself midway between Sharley and the counter. Sharley lowered his voice to an intense whis- I per. "First, you must understand that I must be kept in the clear on this. On the discovery that j " the money is gone, if there is not perfect evi- I denco to the contrary, I will most certainly be nabbed as the thief, because no one but the president pres-ident of the firm and myself knows where the money is. For my part, you will be taking no more risks than if you had got only the fifteen hundred. You agree to that?" "Yes! Go on." "Then this is the chance I've been waiting I for," whispered Sharley hoarsely, in uncontrolled agitation. "I'll tell you why I called that d Dowd a fool awhile ago. The head of the firm has always been afraid of banks, and has kept the net earnings of several years right under that fellow's nose, and Dowd kept blissfully at work pocketing what daily collections he could and trying to keep the books so queered that no one would catch the discrepancies. The fool could have skipped with the whole pile and settled down to a quiet and independent leisure. Still, the man is in other respects clever. "Though I have never seen him, I have been employed to straighten out books that he has queered no less than six different times in the last five years. I've never known him to make a bobble before. The fake entries in his books have always figured out in the balance, so that the firms he has buncoed could grin and bear their loss without prejudice to their customers, and so were able to continue in business. "But here he has blundered in his books. There was a bill of $650 paid to the house two weeks before Dowd absconded. It came by mail, it is supposed. Dowd issued no receipt for it. Neither did he make any entry in the books. Now, two firms claim to have paid up their accounts, ac-counts, both of which aggregated ?G50. And be-t be-t sides laying himself open to exposure, Dowd has jeopardized the trade of the two best customers of the house. "The company is willing to stand the loss of the $650, besides numerous smaller ones, provided provid-ed Dowd will furnish the information as to who paid the amount. If ho refuses, the old man is going to put $500 on his head." "Oh, let' us! Jones & Dock paid the money," said the burglar, half involuntarily. "Get on trail of that $15,000, will you?" he added, angrily. "I thought you could tell mo about it," smiled Sharley, "judging by tha.t yellow stain on the tip of your ring finger. They use a peculiar ink here that is very hard to get off one's fingers. Well, Mr. Dowd, about the $15,000. Each evening before be-fore he closed the safe, you remember, the old man would bring a cigar box down from his pri- vate office. The box was a large one and was supposed to contain Havanas of a superb quality, with which he would regale favorite customers. Indeed, there was a layer or two of cigars on top. "But beneath these the old fellow stowed away all cash profits, after converting them into bills of large denomination. No one dared to touch the clgarB, for the old man was jealous of them as well he might be. One clerk was discharged for pilfering one cigar from the box." Sharley lowered his voice still more and pointed a trembling trembl-ing finger toward the safe. "That box is still there." The burglar's eyes sparkled with fierce brightness. bright-ness. He made a movement toward the safe. "Wait till we finish our plan," urged the auditor audi-tor sharply. "The door of the safe must show damage in order that suspicion will not turn to me. This window must be tampered with, too' I don't want to run my head into a noose." "Go ahead. We agreed on that. We can tend to the 'damage' later." "All right. By the way, you are sure that Jones & Dock paid the $650?" t "Yes, and if you need it, there's a list of the other collections that fail to appear in the books," and the burglar produced a paper from his pock-etbook. pock-etbook. "Now get out that box. The old fool never gave me the combination. I admire his sagacity in giving it to you." He could not forego fore-go the sarcasm, though he was trembling with eagerness. Sharley leaned over and spun the combination of the safe. The heavy bolts clinked and Sharley jerked open the door. "Here it is. And we will smoke one of the major's cigars to his better health." "D his cigars. Show me what's underneath under-neath and be quick about it. If Dick Dowd was a fool, he is one no longer. You can have the cigars, the rest in mine. Hand it over, Mr.. Sharley!" Shar-ley!" Sharley's lips straightened. He scraped aside the top layer of cigars and drew out a silver-plated silver-plated Colt's that nestled snugly underneath. "Kindly put up your hands as high as you can conveniently, Mr. Dowd, and 'oblige' me by not moving for a moment Did I not expressly state that the money had been in the box? It was taken to the First National this morning and this little trifle took its place." While speaking Sharley had moved slowly around the desk. Seeing his purpose, Dowd suddenly sud-denly brought down his right hand in a swinging half circle, aiming a blow which, had it landed, would have put the Colt's out of reach. Though Sharley evaded the blow, his aim was lost for a moment. Instantly the burglar sprang toward the counter where lay the two revolvers. Sharley Shar-ley employed an old schoolboy trick that has served many a man after schoolboy days are over. As his adversary sprang, he thrust his foot between the man's legs, and the burglar came to the floor with a terrible crash. Sharley stepped to the counter and pocketed the revolvers. "Don't be ill natured. After favoring me with the information about the $650 which, by the way, will assist me out of a bad tangle I had thought better of you. Kindly step with me to the front door till an officer happens along. You first, please." The burglar arose and led the way with sullen obedience. New York Telegraph. |