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Show 'out w bell syndicate wn.u. service Then he pasted over the top of this record the three photographs of the dead woman he had taken from the old files, carefully burned all the evidence of the substitution, went upstairs and handed the record to the clerk, who replaced It In the files. Promptly at six thirty a knock sounded on his door, and to his hearty "come," Messrs. P. Flynn and A. Angelloti entered. "I sent for you two boys to tell you In no uncertain terms to lay olT Miss Tiebecca Lanning," the chief began. "However, I owe it to you to tell you why. Miss Lanning Is a friend of mine of long standing, and I know she Is a worthy and dependable depend-able woman and absolutely truthful. truth-ful. She isn't Interested in this girl, Nance Belden. It happened this way. I regarded that girl as a nut, see and haven't any confidence In the bone that does our medico-legal work. So I took Nance up to see Dr. Stephen Burt Miss Lanning is his nurse. She was very kind-to the girl very understanding and the Belden brat got stuck on her. She has an affection complex, understand." un-derstand." Flynn and Angelloti nodded languidly. lan-guidly. "Apparently," the chief continued, "Nance hasn't any friends. The poor, lonely kid remembered Miss Lanning, so she wrote and asked her to visit her in the pen and now the r r-rm I A jU fc) H h SYNOPSIS 8 Gatlin adopts a baby, ," In an effort to solve his Jal troubles. But his wife t wanted her, and their af- In the divorce court. Ten-' Ten-' Penelope is given Into the ?t Mrs. Gatlin. At a base- 9 a ball strikes Penelope on ; and Mrs. Gatlin removes j. the hospital and spirits her '. Gatlin Is about to begin for his daughter when a mo-"ent mo-"ent ends his life. Some ten jir. In San Francisco, Stephen :a rising young psychiatrist. ;amara, chief of police, brings ritient Nance Belden, a girl itia.1 personality, for which her ' lose" Is In part responsible. :!a does not think she Is a J: and obtains Burt's expert In court. Lanny, the doc-ce doc-ce nurse, Is won over to ause. but the girl's criminal 'itweighs Doctor Burt's ex- c of her case and she Is sent uentln penitentiary. She es-"lough es-"lough shot, and goes to Lan-;c:ment Lan-;c:ment Lanny tellB Chief Mc-who Mc-who orders her to bring lv his apartment. One of the j; helped Nance escapes has ijnded and his partners take irt'a office, where McNamara n. He learns that Nance's " Is Penelope Gatlin. PTER V Continued 10 nutes later Dan was In the efully looking over the unce Belden had left be-On be-On a slip he found a ""th-covered metal tag, such pinners clamp on garments u.y them. This tag bore the J. B." Inside and just be-1 be-1 l';ollnr of a worn tailored ;'!'ound the silk tag which Idi'w into tlie garments they O'ire. This tag carried the ," "I. Abrahams, Ladies' to 4 San Fernando avenue, ST;' !. S'iped tlds tag out of the rummaged through a sult-pr sult-pr the bed. It contained a nying cards, some cloth-yielded cloth-yielded no clues and a JLbk on the Security Trust ardof San Jose. of interest In the girl's s ss effects," he reported to ot :n. "I)y the way, I want sfcchln-chin with one of your )M:i-Benny Beetle, Number 4OTu do me a favor, Benny?" ;lVisked him when he came 9 to' vgme, Dan? I owe you Y i ,T orget the other two and :T? one. Do you know the ct prisoner who works ,rsj(iti tlcntlon bureau?" jdfljtle nodded. U t.nybody whose time Is up mate." puld bring me word that .graphs, flngorprlnts and laieasurements of Nance V. her eighteenth birthday, when the fnfnl Income from the trust was to be turned over to Ler. She can never touch the principal, however, although Gatlin did provide that she might have up to ten thousand dollars of it at any one time if, In the judgment of the trustee, the emergency requiring such withdrawal with-drawal was deemed good and sufficient. suffi-cient. Gatlin had faith that the real estate, if held long enough, would appreciate tremendously nnd It has. The trust is now worth three-quarters of a million and the income is close to twenty thousand a year." "You say Penelope Gatlin lias a checking account also? Has she ever asked for an emergency withdrawal with-drawal of ten thousand dollars?' "No." "Is her checking account active?" "Xot very. She draws chocks sporadically. Her checking account has interested us considerably for the past two years, because her monthly statement and dead checks have all been returned by the post office. With the exception of about a dozen checks made out to local merchants and probably in payment of her bills, Miss Gat-lln's Gat-lln's checks have all been in favor of one Ella Cates, of San Francisco. Francis-co. We traced the Cates woman down through the indorsements on the checks, but she stated she didn't know Miss Gatlin's address ; that Miss Gatlin visited her occasionally, occasional-ly, wrote out checks and asked her to cash them for her at the local grocery store or drug store. These people stated that Ella Cates never received the money at once, but that they collected the checks for her and then gave her the money. I don't like the looks of this. Chief." "I'll soon find out all about it," McNamara promised. "And I know where Penelope Gatlin Is only I'm not going to tell you now. Would you mind letting me look over her old bank statements and the dead checks?" The banker readily granted him the privilege, and McNamara went through the checks carefully, noting not-ing those drawn in favor of Ella Cates. The last one drawn was in favor of a man named Hugh P. Taylor, In sum of five thousand dollars, dol-lars, and deposited by him to the credit of his account in the Federal Trust company of San Francisco. "I have all the Information I want, with this exception." He drew forth one of the rogue's gallery gal-lery photographs made at the central cen-tral station by the police photographer. photogra-pher. "Is that Penelope Gatlin?" "That's the girl, Chief. Is she in trouble with the police?' Dan McNamara laughed. "Not at all. She's the sweetest little thing on earth. The only trouble she's been In Is that she's been lost. Amnesia. Am-nesia. Can't remember who she is or anything about her past life. Has several aliases she used at will." "How Interesting and how sad." "Neither Interesting nor sad to me. We handle lots of cases like this. They're curable. You'll be good enough to regard this interview inter-view as strictly confidential, of course. It would be very embarrassing embarrass-ing for the girl If news of her unfortunate un-fortunate predicament should leak out, for, of course, after her mind has been restored to its normal functions, she will have no memory of the period in which she has been lost. I know a doctor that will fix her up In jig time." "And after he's done that," the banker suggested, "have a plastic surgeon fix her nose. She used to be as lovely as a violet." "Sorry about the nose," McNamara McNa-mara lied, "but I've had the best plastic surgeons In town examine It and there's no hope." He held out his hand. "Thanks for yonr courtesy. cour-tesy. You've been a groat help. Meanwhile, don't send out any more of those bank statements and dead checks. Mum's the word." Back In San Francisco McNamara Mc-Namara went directly to the city prison and looked over the blotter to see what strange fish his men had brought in during his absence. He found a woman, an old offender, offend-er, booked for drunkenness, and ordered or-dered her sent to his oflice. When she arrived he locked the door, and fingerprinted her on the appropriate card, after which he lectured her on the error of her ways. Then he went upstairs to the identification bureau and asked the filing clerk to have pointed out to him the filing cnbinets containing criminal records rec-ords for the year 1D14-13 and 1910. He was searching for a face that was photographed on his remarkable memory, and at last lie fouud it. It was that of a young woman, black-haired black-haired and with a "saddle" nose, but not quite so badly deformed as .Vance Belden's nor did the contour of the face resemble Nance Belden's. However, since the original of that photograph had. to the chief's knowledge, knowl-edge, been dead six months, lie decided de-cided It would do. lie slipped this record Into his breast pocket and ui'iit back to his cilice. Here he carefully removed the three photographs photo-graphs from the card to which they were pasted in n row across the top. Below the row of photographs appeared the typewritten criminal history of the subject and la appropriate appro-priate spaces on the reverse of the card appeared the subject's finger-rnns. finger-rnns. uiLiuiiiti j a nose that something has smashed Hat in the middle?" "Sure I have," Abrahams replied. "You mean Miss Tenelope Gatlin, don't you?" Abrahams looked in his card Index In-dex cabinet, then opened a large book in which he kept his customers' custom-ers' measurements recorded, together togeth-er with a sample of the cloth from which each order has. been cut. Dan McNamara unhesitatingly placed his finger on one of these samples. "That was the cloth." "Sure, that was the suit I made for Miss Gatlin two years ago." "Did Miss Gatlin live in this city? If so, I'd like to have her address." ad-dress." Ten minutes later, McNamara was pressing the bell at the door of a house In South Mariposa street. "Does Miss Gatlin live here?" he queried. "Not any more. She used to live here with her mother, but she disappeared dis-appeared about two years ago, and her mother sold this house to the lady I work for." "Where Is Mrs. Gatlin now?" "We don't know." "Thank you," and McNamara directed di-rected his driver to go to the Security Se-curity Trust company, where he sent his card In to the president. He was received promptly. CHAPTER VI TvO YOU happen to have an ac-J ac-J count In the name of Penelope Pene-lope Gatlin?" Chief McNamara asked the banker. "Both a trust account and a checking check-ing account. Chief. We had her father's fa-ther's account for years before he was unfortunately killed in an automobile auto-mobile accident some eight years ago. We had the account of his divorced di-vorced wife for quite a while, too, but she has closed that." "Do you know where she lives at present?" "I do not." He was Interested. "But I remember her quite well a very beautiful woman. Her first husband was a splendid chap retail re-tail shoe dealer in this city, and very prosperous. He and his wife had a row and she divorced him and got the child. Gatlin was permitted per-mitted by the court to have the child on two Sunday afternoons a month, and one day he took her to a ball game and they sat in the bleachers. A long hard ball flew Into the bleachers and flattened the little girl's nose ; Gatlin rushed the unconscious child to a hospital and his ex-wife came and took her home before anything but emergency emergen-cy treatment could be given. Gatlin suspected she was going to try to cure that ruined nose by prayer so he kidnaped the child, was caught, arrested, and did sixty days In the county jail. "While lie was In jail Mrs. Gatlin Gat-lin fled to Europe with the little girl, and Gatlin was desolated. Subsequently Gatlin sold out his business, made most of his estate liquid and established a trust with us in fnvor of himself and daughter. daugh-ter. He had made a settlement with Mrs. Gatlin. "When his wife fled to Europe with the child, Gatlin reused to deposit de-posit the monthly check to her credit, cred-it, in tlie belief that she'd write to know why. She didn't, but in some other manner he located her, and started for Europe with the Intention Inten-tion of stealing the little girl from her. On the way to the station, an automobile hit the taxi he was In and Gatlin was killed." "Did he leave a will?" "He did. His daughter was his sole beneficiary. We were the executors exe-cutors and probated it. There was :he ten thousand dollar letter of redit he had purchased just before darting on his fatal trip, and half i dozen pieces of city realty, which ins since Increased enormously in value. We advertised for the heir nit received no answer, so the es-ate es-ate was closed and we handle it low, as trustee." t "How do you know Mrs. Gatlin lias become Mrs. Morton?" ' "She has leased the house Gatlin gave her in the divorce settlement, and about two years ago, when the lease expired and the old tenants departed, she came down here to have the place renovated and secure se-cure a now tenant. It was only then that she heard of Gatlin's death. She came to this bank, with her husband. making Inquiries about Gatlin's estate, and tried hard to get control of It hut she "I'd Recognize That Dame Now If She Was Burned to Ashes." Thus Angelloti. warden swears she smuggled out of San Quentin, a letter with Nance's plan of escape. Well, maybe site did, but if she did, Miss Lanning didn't know It. "Now, when the Belden girl came to Miss Lanning's home she realized real-ized she couldn't harbor her. Within With-in a minute after the girl entered, Miss Lanning had me on the phone. .."'I've just heard a thump out in the hall,' says she. 'I think the girl's fainted. Better let me put her to bed, Chief, and have Doctor Burt come over to bandage her wound ; then the ambulance can call for her in the morning.' "I thought that was a good idea. When she came back Nance was just going out of the door. The trouble trou-ble was that Miss Lanning thought the girl was unconscious, but Nance heard her and beat it. Now it's up to you two to find her." "How long have you known Miss Lanning?" "Quite a while," McNamara lied. "Leave her alone from now on and don't waste your time watching her house. The Belden devil won't come back there again. That will be all, boys." Outside of Chief McNamara's office of-fice door, Detective Sergeant Flynn and Angelloti looked at each other meaningly. "He's up to his old tricks, Ama-deo." Ama-deo." "Always feeling sorry for the under un-der dog, Pat. He makes me sick." "I'll bet a month's salary he knows where the Belden girl is this minute.' "I'm not quitting such a hot scent, Pat." "We'll just split that two hundred hun-dred and fifty-dollar reward and see how the chief likes It That old Lanny girl warned us to step softly or she'd have us broke, didn't she? Well, where does she get her drag with the old man?" A. Angelloti Jumped to the natural nat-ural conclusion of his kind. "She's got something on him, I suppose." "Sure she has. She knows he knows where she's hid tlie body." "We've got to see the Belden girl's photograph and thumb prints and Eertlllon measurements. They're Iu the upper office." They went up to the identification identifica-tion bureau, called for the record of Nance Belden and studied it for a couple of minutes. "I'd recognize that dame now If she was burned to ashes." Thus Angelloti. Flynn drew his partner Into a corner. "The girl was wounded. We know that from the guard that rf! : 11! H : : LtrA " Fx v mm 5 .Zz 1 iootk ore t,e nitjas N B Sionibcr that name? gtin:"'otisly disappeared, I'd 0 :to be his friend If he , ,lli;ciu later on and It wasn't --iat I can for you. Chief. ,,.ider. He's assistant to !n tno "ifss-hall at |