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Show - Ptif " " " " " IS by OCTAVUS ROY COHEN THE STORY FROM THE BEGINNING Antoinette Peyton, senior at the University of Marland, resents Pater-son Pater-son Thayer's attentions to Ivy Welch, seventeen-year-old coed, and there is a stormy scene, the tension being increased by Max Vernon, another student, reproaching Ivy tor "breaking a date" with him. Thayer and Vernon Ver-non threaten each other. Larry Welch, Ivy's brother, professor at the university, uni-versity, is appealed to by Tony to end his sister's friendship with Thayer. Welch and Tony Peyton are In love. Tony tells him she is married to Thayer, but is his wife only in name. Larry determines to end Thayer's association with Ivy. Tony persuades him to wait until she has appealed to her husband. She does so. visiting him at a fraternity house. Tony ends her visit to Thayer and departs. Vernon leaves the house almost immediately immedi-ately afterwards. Welch's appeal to Ivy to end her affair with Thayer is fruitless. He determines to see Thayer. He does so, and after he leaves, Carmicino, frat house Janitor, finds Thayer dead, stabbed in the throat. karat. Great invention; feller don't always have to be running around hunting, toothpicks when he's got one of these. Look !" He touched a spring and a wicked little blade leaped out at Randolph Fiske. That gentleman gave a perceptible jump. "It it's very very remarkable," he murmured. Hanvey reattached the toothpick to the chain. The banker was staring star-ing and wondering . . . and then the opaque eyes of Jim Hanvey were raised slowly until they met the gaze of the banker. Hanvey spoke. "I am kind of funny-looking, ain't I, Mr. Fiske?" Mr. Randolph Fiske was completely com-pletely stripped of the poise upon which he prided himself. He did not answer, but picked up the slightly soiled card which lay on his desk. "You are James H. Hanvey?" "Uh-huh. In person. Largely, I might say." "You're the man the B. P. A. sent down here to investigate the robbery?" "Yes." Mr. Fiske was getting himself under control. He sought refuge in frankness. "1 imagine my actions have been exceedingly discourteous. Mr. Hanvey. Han-vey. I apologize and only wish to explain that you somewhat startled me. You see, you are not not exactly ex-actly the sort of detective about which I've read." "I wish I was," breathed Hanvey Han-vey ecstatically. "Gosh! I love mystery mys-tery stories. Them fellers sure are CHAPTER V . 6 ;fi town of Marland spread like from the foot of the hill !ch stand the. buildings of the '"lity. Oak street, some three Jjrom the University, Is the 'shopping center. of Marland. 3j street carries, the traffic ('.It runs east and west. At fcur corners which mark the fiction of Oak and Archer itre two gas filling stations ;B'o drug stores. The latter, r, open on Oak street, and '0 1 one of them, one door from Ulrner, facing ' Archer street Jonist of Oak, Is the snug little sC5tone home of the Marland - il bank. Marland National bears an B.'je reputation. It Is small but i, and on its roster of dl-'Tl dl-'Tl one will find names which Jreat weight even in the city ""uarter million which exists " miles away. It is spoken of lly by natives of Marland, jndolph Fiske, its president, jr-al power In the community. morning the morning of w'llrd Randolph Fiske sat at hk In the office which was "President Private." He tall, well-proportioned man, liryht years of age, whose hair f.d the gray of his bank He had a fine, broad fore- nd iron-gray brows from be-(which be-(which a pair of keen eyes In a manner which gave an )iion of unimpeachable efli- Kvas gazing attentively at a jt of pasteboard. There was wg on' its surface printing, jjj'bosslng. It said simply: 7lj James H. Hanvey e'llnkere' Protective Ass'n. iske's eye roved to a yellow larm which had arrived two in previously from New York. from headquarters of the Hiss' Protective association and -y explicit. best operntive arrives Mar-&orning Mar-&orning May Third." eliti'lske heaved a sign of relief repared to shift a very great to the shoulders of another ae professionally equipped ji' such burdens. He looked "Miss Seward. ' w Mr. Unnvey In, please." e Seward put out a bony hand trembled In protest. ly, Mr. Fiske not that alp'he the terrible person who Miie that card." i frowned. T'm't understand, Miss Seward, helan Is a great detective." oiire'8 a mistake, Mr. Fiske. erson couldn't detect any-jdE.I'm any-jdE.I'm very sure of that. Just ittt-itll you see him." Mm vanished In triumph, and ph Fiske stared after her. In the world. . . ?" Then tiled. At least she had pre-1(iim pre-1(iim for a somewhat uncouth Probably a squat gentle- ith a brown derby, square- rloes, a checkered vest and a I worth of chewing tobacco, fhow these detective chaps al 1 Irosscri so thai there was no lilng their profession. Rnn-iuFlske Rnn-iuFlske saw the door swing 1 Iriien It closed and Mr. Fiske J nidercd Inarticulate. i Ilanvcy was everything In 'jrh which one Is quite sure jtive should not he. Ills two v;il and sixty pounds of avoir-jr avoir-jr was distributed with heavily silc effect ; It wabbled when Ijj ved . . . and lie seemed to (jVlth vast reluctance. lilt was Iho head which rose triple chins that Ulled Han ""Fiske with awe. The face uge i) ml round and utterly Monless. Itandoph Fiske was ""lire that never before In his Ad he seen a human conn-gjj conn-gjj so utterly devoid of Intel- . It was yes, by George! K the eyes! Round little eyes were as vacant and color- . the orbs of a lislt. f mass of llesh stood In the Ay. Fiske knew he was ng; he could tell that by the jutt a rather remarkable con-Vn con-Vn which appeared In the Vni'liood of .lini lianvey's pro-h pro-h tummy kept moving rhyth-V. rhyth-V. Randolph Fiske kept Ills lU'iiinteclly on that particular piths. It hung from a haw I ' watch chain and was slm- Fi nothing which the hanker "er before set eyes upon, it mg and slim and seemed to lie of gold. vi, without warning, the sl-was sl-was punctured by a sleepy, fi' voice. j, a toothpick, Mr. Fiske." MV The banker jerked him "'igother. "'h what's n tooth- Hanvey touched the trin-Tectlonately trin-Tectlonately and detached it his chain. "Swellest piece of I've got. A crook friend gave Die. It's solid gold eighteen alley through which you can pass into Oak street Day before yesterday yester-day the bank was free of customers custom-ers at two o'clock. We drew the curtains and shut the front doors." "Were they locked" "f'o. They never are. We have safety vaults In the basement and they are opeD until five o'clock. There has to be some way for clients to get into the building. We merely shut the doors and draw the curtains to keep our banking clients out" Fiske turned away, but Hanvey examined the door. He saw that it was equipped on the inside with a heavy spring lock. - He turned and followed the banker. Back In Fiske's office, the banker bank-er resumed his story. Hanvey lolled in a chair, apparently asleep. But occasionally his eyes uncurtained for a moment and he regarded the banker gravely before closing them again. "May first was a perfect day," said Fiske. "Warm and sunshiny and almost like summer. As 1 said, we shut the door and drew the curtains cur-tains at two o'clock sharp, so that the interior of the bank was effectually effec-tually concealed from anyone on the street At the same time everybody every-body went out to lunch except Miss Seward and myself. Miss Seward is my secretary. She was the one who brought you in here." "Oh 1" said Hanvey. And then "Nice young lady." There was no hint of humor In his heavy face, but Fiske chuckled delightedly. "Efficient and sour," he explained. ex-plained. "But mighty loyal." "I knew she must be something." "She was behind her desk and 1 had just gone out to speak with her. At about ten minutes after two o'clock the front door opened. I didn't think anything of it a box holder, most likely. The man " "Remember what he looked like?" "Only vaguely.' He was slim and quietfy dressed. He didn't look like a crook." "Crooks never do." "He walked straight up to the cage where I was talking to Miss Seward. First thing I knew about anything being wrong was when Miss Seward uttered a little shriek. I turned around and saw the man was pointing a gun at us. "The robber was polite, but very positive. He told us to back into the vault which we have on this floor. Then he saw me looking to ward the electric buttons which we have all over the places they are police signals and he warned me that if I made a move to touch one. he'd kill me. I believed him." "Wise man," murmured Jim. "He herded us into the safe and followed us. I noticed then for the first time that he carried a little black satchel. He stuffed it with all the currency we had in the safe about one hundred thousand dol lars and then started back into the bank. Of course, I knew he in-. tended locking Miss Seward and myself in. "This happened quickly but It didn't seem quick to us. Miss Seward Se-ward was crying, but he had warned her not to scream, and she didn't. The robber moved into the main part of the bank. And then ' He paused and Hanvey prompted. prompt-ed. "Then what?" "Harmon Burke came back from lunch. He's the cashier and teller. He came in the back way." "What happened when he came in?" "Plenty," said Fiske grimly "First tiling I knew of Burke's return re-turn was when he and the robber started shooting at each other." Hanvey made a chuckling noise with his lips. "This Burke must be a real fight-in' fight-in' piece of furniture." "He Is. Though I never suspected suspect-ed It before." "Is he here?" "Yes. They had him at the hospital hos-pital until yesterday evening. He was hit in the fleshy part of the leg. He came back this morning." Fiske touched the buzzer on his desk and Miss Seward answered the summons. "Ask Mr. Burke if he'd mind stepping step-ping In here." i A few seconds later the door opened and a figure entered, liar ' mon P.urke, having seen Hanvey en I ter the bank, exhibited no surprise ! at the grotesque appearance of the ! Gargantuan detective But Hanvey blinked several limes j Po this was the man who leaped into battle, with a hank robber! lie inspected the cashier with keen interest. I Harmon P.urke was a little bit of a man, scarcely more than five feet in height and of a weight whirl could not have been greater than n hundred pounds. He hn.d rovinc eves which seen.eil rather bright wrists of amazing r!iinr-s n! linm'a which seemed too large fui I. Is tji!y. i (TO EE CONTINUED.) "1 guess not. But can't you see how much easier it makes things?" "You say they don't lie to you?" "Well, the high class crooks don't. Only the bums.' "Good Lord I" Fiske leaned back in his chair and regarded Hanvey with wide-eyed wonder. "You are quite the most remarkable man I've ever met." "And the fattest?" For the first time Fiske smiled. "And the fattest." Hanvey's eyes twinkled for a moment mo-ment He fumbled in the breast pocket of his coat and produced two thin and vicious-looking projectiles He extended these toward his companion. com-panion. "Have a cigar?" Fiske thanked him and accepted one. Hanvey bit the end from the other, held a match to it and inhaled in-haled with vast relish. He blew a cloud of smoke across the room and Fiske turned startled eyes in his direction. di-rection. "They are kind of strong," said the detective genially. "Some folks like 'em." Fiske struggled heroically against the asphyxiating effect of the violent vio-lent fumes. Then they got the better bet-ter of him. "May I open another window?" he inquired weakly. "Sure. That'll be fine." Hanvey eyed the second cigar which lay un-lighted un-lighted on the desk. "Ain't you going go-ing to smoke yours?" "I'll try one of my own. If yon don't mind." As the banker moved toward the window, Jim sighed relievedly. He rescued the unused cigar and tucked It back In his breast pocket with real affection. Jim's cigars wer a source of perpetual worry he was always afraid that some day some one would smoke one of them. Fiske seated himself again. "You'd like to hear about the robbery?" he asked. "Yeah If you want." "Isn't that what you came for?" "Reckon so." "Then why don't you ask me some questions?" "Gosh ! Mr. Fiske how do 1 know what to ask? I'm waiting for you to tell me, and you're waiting until you're sure I didn't escape from some zoo." Randolph Fiske threw back his head and laughed. "You win, Hanvey. Han-vey. Now shoot !" Jim's face did not change. "When?" "Day before yesterday May first at ten minutes after two o'clock." "How much?" "The robber got away with approximately ap-proximately one hundred thousand dollars in currency." Hanvey blinked. "Lot of cash for a little bank like this." " "Plenty. We were making up the pay roll for the Marland mills. They pay on the third." "Stick-up?" queried the detective. "Yes." "Tell me all about It." Fiske rose and invited Hanvey to follow him. They passed from his private ofliee into the bank proper. Under the amazed eyes of Miss Helen Seward. Fiske conducted Hanvey to the front door and gestured ges-tured to the broad thoroughfare passing east and west. "That is Archer street," said Fiske. "The north and south street is Oak. Oak is a shopping street, hut Archer is the main traffic artery. ar-tery. Lots of cars going by here all the time. You will notice that this bank is the only commercial establishment estab-lishment on Archer street Do you follow me?" "Easy," grunted Jim. "You sure do talk explicit." Fiske stepped back Into the bank. "Our banking business starts at nine In the morning and stops at : two. At two o'clock daily and on Saturday at twelve we get rid of our last customer. Then we con ! ceal the interior of the hank by pulling the shades so." lie stepped behind the open door and pulled a shade which rose up from the bottom of the door. The heavy green shade rose along the glass surface until it was higher than a man's head. "There are similar curtains on both windows." he went on. "As soon as we get thp last customer out. we pull the curtains up. and then ail of the employees except two or three go out for a nite ot lunch. They invariably go out the back door. That door, which is behind be-hind my otlice. opens onto a little "I Am Kind of Funny-Looking, Ain't I, Mr. Fiske?' slick. I never could figure out how they do their tricks." Another shock for the banker. He blinked. "And you don't work like the detectives de-tectives In books?" "Golly, no. I ain't slick, Mr. Fiske. K don't hardly know any dicks who are. Leninie tell you something." Hanvey leaned confidentially confi-dentially across the desk and bis sleepy eyes held the. attention of the banker. "My kind of work ain't so hard. , And why? Suppose I go on a case. I start off wrong. All right, nobody's the wiser, and when I find out I'm on the wrong track I start again. Same thing always A detective can make all the mis takes In the world, Mr. Fiske but If he happens to do one thing right he hinds the man he's after ; see?" "Yes I see." "But the crook, gosh ! the poor feller hasn't got a chance. If he slips Just one time, he's caught, lie has to do everything right. The detective de-tective only has to do one thing right. And there you are." Fiske had been studying his vis Iter. He was nmazpii now to find himself warming to the ungainly person. There was an almost childish simplicity about Hanvey which gave Fiske confidence although al-though he told bmself that the man was n caricature. "The B. P. wired me." he said slowly, "that you are ttieir best op erative." "Hooey!" grinned Hanvey. "I've just been lucky that's all. You sec it's this way: Most all the crooks are my friends, and they don't lir to mo-so that makes things pretty easy." The banker gasped. "Crocks are your friends? I never heard of such a thing." |