LIBRARY OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

PRESENTED BY
HOMER G. RICHEY














3507
.U.73U5
Copyright, 1916, by
Frederick A. Stokes Compant
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America


CONTENTS
pa3e
Introduction ix
I The Conscience of the Cumberlands 1
II The Bank Wrecker 24
HI A Fiasco in Firearms 48
IV The Sugar Samples 71
V The Psychological Sleuth ... 93
VI "Roping" the Smugglers of Jamaica . 116
VII A Bank Case from the Outside . . 136
VIII Behind Customs Screens .... 154
IX With the Revolution Makers . . . 171
X The Elusive Fugitive 192
XI The Bank Bookkeeper 214
XII Putting up the Master Bluff . . . 231





INTEODUCTION
May I ask you to close your eyes for a mo-
ment and conjure up the picture that is filed
away in your mind under the heading, "de-
tective"!
There! You have him. He is a large man
of middle age. His tendency is toward stout-
ness. The first detail of him that stands out
in your conception is his shoes. In stories you
have read, plays you have seen, the detective
has had square-toed shoes. You noticed his
shoes that time when the house was robbed and
a plain clothes man came out and snooped
about.
These shoes are a survival of the days when
the detective walked his beat; for the sleuth, of
course, is a graduate policeman. He must
have been a large man to have been a police-
man, and he must have attained some age to
have passed through the grades. Such men as
he always put on flesh with age. Your man
IX


INTRODUCTION
perspires freely, breathes heavily, moves with
deliberation. The police detective can be rec-
ognized a block away.
Or, perhaps, you have the best accredited
fiction idea of the unraveler of mysteries.
This creation is a tall, cadaverous individual,
who sits on the small of his back in a morris-
chair and smokes a pipe. From a leaf torn
from last year's almanac, in an East Side gar-
ret, he draws the conclusion that the perpe-
trator of a Black Hand outrage in Xenia, Ohio,
is a pock-marked Hungarian now floating down
the Mississippi on a scow; he radiographs with
the aid of a weird instrument at his elbow and
apprehends the fugitive.
Of these two conceptions of detectives it may
be said that the first is quite correct: that the
graduate policeman is abroad in the land, lum-
bering along on the trail of its criminals and
occasionally catching one of them. His assign-
ment to this task is, obviously, a bit like
thrusting the work of a fox upon a ponderous
elephant. The police departments, however,
are practically the only training schools for de-
tectives and it is but natural that they should
be drawn upon.


INTRODUCTION
xi
Of the second conception of the detective—
the man of science and deductions—it may be
said merely that he does not exist in all the
world, nor conld exist. There is one case in a
hundred which would require the man of sci-
ence in its solution and upon which he might
work much as he does in fiction. In the ninety-
nine there would be no place for such talents
as his.
For each criminal case is a problem sepa-
rate unto itself, and there may not be brought
to it more than a trained, logical, imaginative
mind, which may unfold it and see all the possi-
bilities. There is but the occasional call upon
science, and the good detective knows when to
consult the specialist.
It was little more than half a dozen years ago
that the Federal Department of Justice set
about the upbuilding of the greatest detective
bureau that the Government, or America for
that matter, has ever known. As the Bureau of
Investigation it was to have charge of all the
secret work of the Government for which pro-
vision was not made elsewhere. It was to
wrestle with violations of neutrality, with those
of the national banking laws, with anti-trust


INTRODUCTION
xiii
nation with multitudinous interests. Its ac-
complishments have satisfied the Department
that its judgment was right when it established
a peculiar standard for the men whom it se-
lected to perform these delicate and difficult
tasks.
I have purposely cultivated these men in
many cities, have seen them at work, have been
given special privileges in my efforts to get a
true conception of them and their methods.
Scores of the stars that have been developed
in the service have told me their best stories,
their most striking experiences.
In the end, I have attempted to evolve a
character who is typical of this new school of
detectives. I have wanted him to work in my
stories as he would have done in actual life.
I have wanted him to be true in every detail
to those young men who to-day are actually
performing those tasks for Uncle Sam.
So has Billy Gard come into being. The
cases upon which he goes forth have actually
been ground through the mill of which he is a
part. Each is founded on facts related to me
by these special agents of the Department of
Justice. Billy Gard is not an individual but


UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
I
THE CONSCIENCE OF THE CUMBEELANDS
ON the face of it one might have ques-
tioned the wisdom of selecting for a
task so difficult a man who knew abso-
lutely nothing about it. When the work in hand
was the apprehension of a band of violators of
the law who had for years defied and intimi-
dated the whole countryside, this course seemed
even more unusual. But the wonder would
have still further multiplied itself if the casual
observer could have given Billy Gard the once
over as he sat nervously on the edge of the cane
seat of the day coach as the accommodation
train pulled into the hill country.
For this special agent of the Department of
Justice, mind you, was to take up a piece of
work upon which local constables and sheriffs,
l


2 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
United States marshals and revenue agents had
failed. There was murder at one end of the
road he was to travel and the gallows at the
other. And Gard was a nondescript youngster
who looked less than thirty, neither light nor
dark, large nor small—inconspicuous, easily lost
in a crowd. The careful observer might have
noticed the breadth of brow and the wrinkles
that come to the man who thinks, or the tense-
ness of his slim form that indicated physical
fitness. For to be sure, these federal sleuths of
the new school are mostly college men, lawyers,
expert accountants, as was Gard; but youngsters
in whom is to be found the love of a bit of ad-
venture and the steel of a set determination.
And now this slip of a lad was going back into
the Cumberlands where the whisky still whis-
pers its secret to the mountaineer; where the
revenue agent penetrates at his peril and the
Long Tom speaks from the thickets; where the
clansman sets what he considers his rights
above the law of the land and stands ready to
lay his life or that of any who oppose him on
the altar he has built. Gard was after a com-
munity of moonshiners who had defied all local
authority and thrown down the gauntlet to the


THE CUMBERLANDS 3
Federal Government itself. He came alone with
a little wicker grip.
"I am looking for a place to board," the spe-
cial agent told Todd, the livery stable man at
Wheeler, the mountain town at which he had
stopped off. "I have been clerking in a store
in Atlanta and got pretty well run down. The
doctor said I ought to stay in the mountains for
a month or two."
"How much can you pay?" asked Todd.
"I would like to get it as cheap as five dol-
lars a week," said Gard.
"You can buy a farm up here for five dollars
a week," said Todd.
"Well, I want good board where I can get
lots of milk to drink and eggs and where I can
tramp around and shoot squirrels. Do you
know such a place?"
The liveryman was accustomed to driving
summer boarders out to the few places where
they might stay in the Cumberlands. He
sketched these possibilities and told of the lo-
cation of each. Gard already had the map of
the country well in mind and selected the farm
near Sam Lunsford's, he being the mountain-
eer whom the agent most wanted to cultivate.


4 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
Todd reviewed the situation as between the
mountaineers and the Government as he drove
his customer out to the Tenney farm where he
was to ask to be put up.
"You see," he said, "they have always made
moonshine whisky around here and they just
won't stop for nobody. They ain't many ideas
gits into the head of a man who lives in the
mountains, and when one gits set there, you
can't get it out. They think they got a right
to make whisky and whisky they are goin' to
make or bust.
"Then along comes Tom Eeynolds and Sam
Lunsford and me and some more of us. We
see that it ain't right to fight the Government
and that whisky is no good anyhow, so when-
ever we find out where there is a still, we tell
the revenue agents about it. Well, we git
warnin's that we better not do it no more, but
them fellers can't skeer us so we go right
ahead.
'' Then one night, Tom Eeynolds starts home
from Wheeler late in the evenin' but he don't
never get there. Next mornin' we find his
wagon standin' off to the side of the road and


THE CUMBERLAND S 5
Tom is down in front of the seat dead with a
load of buckshot in his head.
"Sam Lnnsford has still got the idea, though,
that the boys ought not to make moonshine so
he goes right ahead reportin' every still he
finds. So things goes on for two months.
Then, one night, Sam was up late with one of
his babies that had the colic. He was settin'
before the fire a rocMn' the baby when, bang!
somebody shoots him through the winder.
"Well, that shot didn't quite get Sam. Did
you ever try to shoot the head off of a chicken
as it walked across the yard? Its head moves
for'd and back and it is mighty hard to hit it.
That's the way with Sam rockin' the baby,
I reckon. Anyway, the buckshot just got Sam
in the back part of his head and didn't kill him.
Next day his old woman picked the buckshot
out with a pocket knife because the doctor was
afraid to go. Now Sam is as well as he ever
was and he ain't changed his mind about the
stills. Him and me reported two of them last
week."
This story was about in accordance with the
information Gard received from Washington.


6 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
The revenue agents were too well known to
work effectually in the Cumberlands any more,,
so the Department of Justice had taken ovei
the case. The murderers and those who at-
tempted murder should be apprehended.
As the wagon wound along the country road
Todd called the special agent's attention to
the report of a rifle from a hillside to the right.
Soon another gun was discharged further
ahead and a third still further on. This, the
liveryman said, was a system of signals that
told of their presence.
A little farther along the road wound into a
hollow down which flowed a brook. Out of the
brush in this hollow stepped the form of a
mountaineer with a rifle across his arm. Todd
drew up his team
"What have you got there!" asked the man
in the road.
"Summer boarder," said Todd.
"Where's he goin't" was the query.
"To Tenney's," answered Todd.
The mountaineer walked around to the back
of the wagon where Gard's little wicker grip
was carried. Without a word he opened the
grip and carefully examined everything in it.


THE CUMBERLANDS %
Seemingly satisfied, he waved permission for
them to proceed.
"Young feller," he said to Gard in parting,
"you are in durn bad company. You can't
never tell whether you will git back when you
start out with that skunk."
To which Todd grinned as he drove on.
"They ain't never made the bullet that'll
kill me," he said.
It was three days later that Billy Gard,
squirrel rifle on his shoulder, walked into the
clearing about the house of Sam Lunsford, the
man who had survived the charge of buckshot
in the back of his head. The Lunsford house
consisted of one log room with a lean-to addi-
tion at the back. There was a clearing of some
thirty acres where grew a most indifferent
sprinkling of corn and cotton. There was a
crib for the corn, a ramshackle wagon, a flea-
bitten gray horse and some hogs running wild
in the woods. Such was the Lunsford estate,
presided over by this huge mountaineer and to
which his eleven children were heir. Seldom
did an echo of the outside world reach this
home in the woods. Not a member of the fam-
ily was able to read. Every Sunday Sam Luns-


8 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
ford drove the flea-bitten gray or walked seven,
miles to a little mountain church where was
preached a gospel of hellfire and brimstone.
He was hated by his neighbors and constantly
in the shadow of death. Yet he went unswerv-
ingly on the way of his duty in accordance with
his lights.
Gard already had the measure of his man.
No sooner had he presented himself than he
put his business up to the mountaineer, "cold
turkey," as the agents say when they lay all
the cards on the table. Would Lunsford help
the government in getting the facts that would
bring the murderers of Tom Keynolds and the
men who shot him to justice? Lunsford would
do all he could.
"Whom do you suspect?" the agent asked.
"There are so many of them agin me," said
Lunsford, "that it is hard to tell which ones
done it."
"Will you show me just how you were sitting
when you were shot?"
The mountaineer placed the rocking chair
in front of the fire directly between a hole in
the window and a spot in the opposite wall
where the buckshot had lodged themselves, pep-


THE CUMBERLANDS 9
pering up a surface two feet square. Thus
was it easy to trace the flight of the shot
through the room. The special agent examined
hoth window pane and wall.
"Could you tell where the man stood when
he fired?" he asked.
"Yes," said Lunsford. "I looked for tracks
next day. Let me show you."
He led the way into the yard and there pointed
out a stout peg which had been driven into the
ground not a dozen feet from the window.
"The tracks came up to there and stopped,"
he said.
"Did you measure the tracks?" asked the
special agent.
The mountaineer had done so and had cut a
stick just the length of the track. This stick
had been carefully preserved.
"Did you find any of the gun wadding?"
asked the agent.
Even this precaution was taken by Lunsford.
These men of the mountains mostly load their
own shells and the wads in this case had been
made by cutting pieces out of a pasteboard box.
So there were a number of clues at hand.
Special Agent Billy Gard stood on the spot


10 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
from which the shot had been fixed. From this
point to that at which the buckshot had entered
the wall of the cabin was not more than thirty
feet.
"An ordinary shotgun at thirty feet," he
reflected, remembering his squirrel hunting
days, "shoots almost like a rifle. The shot at
that distance are all in a bunch not bigger than
your fist. Yet the shot in the cabin wall were
scattered. The man with the gun must have
been further away."
Gard stated this view of the matter to the
mountaineer, but that individual showed how it
would have been impossible for the shot to have
been fired from a greater distance because there
was a depression that would have placed the
man with the gun too low down to see in at the
window. The shot could have been fired from
but the one spot. The window pane through
which the shot had passed was about half way
between the peg and the wall where the charge
had lodged. The hole in the window wag not
more than half as large as the wall surface pep-
pered by the shot. This scatter of shot at such
short range was significant.
"The shot must have been fired from a sawe&


THE CUMBERLANDS 11
off shotgun," said the special agent. "Only a
short-barreled gun would have scattered so
much at this short range.''
He meditated a moment and then asked:
"Who is there around here who has a sawed-
off shotgun?"
"Ty Jones has got one," said Sam.
"Is he friendly to you?" asked Grard.
"No," was the reply. "The revenue agents
chopped up his still after I reported it.''
"Did he ever threaten you?"
"He said onst at the crossroads that he knew
a bear with a sore head that would soon be
feelin' almighty comf'table 'cause it was goin'
to lose that head."
Here was a probable case of Ty Jones being
the man guilty of the attempt on the life of
Lunsford. There was a possibility, as Gard
saw it, of getting this suspicion confirmed.
Despite the animosity that existed between the
heads of the families, the Jones youngsters and
the Lunsford youngsters were playmates; so
does the sociability of youth break down the
bars set up by maturity. Lunsford had a boy
of ten who was wise with the cunning of the
woods and trustworthy in lending a hand in the


12 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
feuds to which he was born. This boy, in play-
ing about the Jones household, was instructed
to pick up every piece of pasteboard box he
could find and bring those pieces home. Like-
wise was he to measure the shoes of the Jones
household, when an opportunity offered, and tie
knots in a string to indicate their length.
It was a week before this task had been com-
pleted by the boy, but the results indicated that
the foot of a certain pair of shoes in the Jones
home was like unto that of the man of the sawed-
off shotgun. Scraps of cut-up shoe boxes had
been found, white on one side and brown on the
other, and from these had evidently been made
wads for reloading shells.
Thus far was Special Agent Gard able to
carry his case toward a solution. There were
twenty men in the neighborhood who might have
been implicated with Jones, if he were guilty, in
this attempt and in the killing of Tom Reynolds.
There were twenty and more makers of moon-
shine who had been reported or stood in danger.
It was hard to determine which of the twenty
were actually guilty. The suspicions against
Jones were not evidence. After a month on
the case Gard decided that a complete solution


14 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
"Do you suppose," said the man of rags,
"that your maw could stake a hungry man to
six or seven dollars' worth of bread and bacon
and wait for remuneration until the executors
of his estate act?"
"Yuh don't mean yuh want somethin' to eat,
do yuh?" said young Lem Jones.
"Son," said the curly-headed one, "your
instincts are clairvoyant. You have demon-
strated a hypothesis, confirmed a rumor, hit
upon a great truth, sleuthed a primal fact to its
lair. The plain truth is that I haven't had any-
thing to eat in so long that I have forgotten my
last meal. I am the hungriest man in the
world. I could eat tacks with a spoon."
"Come on," said Lem, a bit dizzy with the
unusual words, but anxious to please.
He led the way to the house where Mrs. Jones
met the hungry man at the door.
"Madam," said the hungry one most cour-
teously, "I am needing a little something to
eat. I have been lost in the woods and without
food."
"What are they after you for, young feller?"
inquired Mrs. Jones incisively, she who had
spent a life in those mountains where the sym-


THE CUMBERLANDS 15
pathy was all with the man whose hand was
turned against authority and where many fugi-
tives from the law had found refuge.
"Have you found me out so soon?" grinned
the fugitive. "Well, if I must tell I will say
that I just knocked a hole in a jail down South
Carolina way, cracked the heads of a couple of
armed guards together, robbed the city marshal
of his horse, outran the sheriff's posse, swam
the Elb river where ford there was none, and
lived on a diet of blackberries for seven days.
Back of that there was the little matter of crack-
ing a safe. Other than that I assure you my
conduct has been of the best."
So engaging was the manner of this young
man of the rags from the great world beyond
the mountains that Mrs. Jones immediately
liked him. He was a perfect cataract of words
and talked incessantly. She was not able to
understand half he said but was pleased with all
of it. He ran on glibly but always stopped
short of being smart in the sense that would call
forth dislike. All the time he was eating corn
bread and bacon with the relish of one who has
long omitted the formality of dining.
Such was the introduction of Special Agent A.


16 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
Spaulding Dowling into the Cumberlands, he
who played the cadet in white slave cases, the
wild young man about town in the bucket shop
investigations, and made love to a bank
cashier's daughter to learn where the loot was
hidden. For all these situations Dowling had
a stream of talk that never failed to amuse and
disarm. Billy Gard had asked the department
for his help on the moonshiners' case and Dowl-
ing had fallen into the plan with all the enthusi-
asm of adventurous youth.
The features of the jail breaker for whom the
reward was offered were those of Dowling. So
had preparation been made for his coming.
Gard had laid his plans with an understanding
of the habits of the mountaineer to hide the
fugitive. He had figured that such a fugitive
might get into the confidence of those iron men
of few words and filch from them their secrets.
With the right culprits behind the bars the back-
bone of this defiance of the law might be broken.
Dowling's stream of talk won the friendship
of Ty Jones and his sons as it had won his wife.
The fugitive was tucked away in the hills and
fed by the mountaineers. He came to know the
intimates of the Jones family and his stream of


THE CUMBERLANDS 17
talk entertained them for days and weeks. He
hibernated with others of his kind for he found
the hills full of men in hiding. He became a
visitor at many a cabin and eventually struck
the rock that responded to his confidence.
A young mountaineer named Ed Hill main-
tained an active still high up in the mountains
—a virgin still that had never known the dese-
cration of a raid. Hill was high spirited and
companionable, unlike most of his neighbors.
His was the soul of a poet, a lover of the wilds, a
patriot of the mountains. The flame of adven-
ture, the love of danger, the belief in the indi-
vidual rights of the mountaineer, made him a
moving spirit among the men who battled the
government.
Ed Hill told the fugitive the whole story of
the killing of Tom Eeynolds and the shooting of
Sam Lunsford. He told of the determination
to rid the mountains of Todd, the livery stable
man, and to preserve for the men of the Cum-
berlands the right to do as they chose in their
own retreats.
It seemed that of all the men of the moun-
tains who made moonshine whisky, there were
but four who were willing to go the limit of


THE CUMBERLANDS 19
jail. The jail bird and the ribbon counter clerk
talked long together and when they parted the
plans were laid for the nipping off of the men
who would murder for their stills.
It was a week later and the quiet of after-
midnight rested upon the little mountain town
of Wheeler. In such towns there are no all-
night industries, no street cars to drone through
deserted thoroughfares, not even an arc light to
sputter at street crossings. There is but the
occasional stamping of a horse in its stall or the
baying of a watch dog in answer to the howl of
a wolf on the hillside. But murder was planned
to take place that night in "Wheeler and A.
Spaulding Dowling knew all about it.
As the town slept four stealthy figures crept
down the trail that cuts across the point of the
Hunchback. Soft-footedly, rifles in hand, they
passed down a side street beneath the dense
shade of giant sycamores. It was but three
blocks from the woods to Main street. Beach-
ing this artery of the town, two of the men
crouched in the shadow while two others crossed
the street and went a block further, turning to
the left, Each group then shifted itself a
hundred feet to the left and paused again.


20 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
So stationed the four men found themselves
in front and back of Todd's livery stable. The
building itself sat back a little from the street.
On the ground floor were the stalls for the
horses and the sheds where the wagons were
stored. Overhead were bins of corn and hay
and a living room where Todd slept that he
might always be near his teams. About the
whole was a roomy barnyard enclosed by a high
board fence. The gates to the outer enclosure
were locked, but once past this wall a man would
have the run of the whole place.
The mountaineers, two in front and two in
the rear of the building, swung themselves to
the top of the fence and leaped to the ground
inside. Eifles at hip they started to close in on
the building. Each party entered at opposite
ends of the corridor down the middle through
which a wagon might drive. "Nothing inter-
fered with their progress and no sound was
heard except a sleeping horse occasionally
changing feet on the board floor of his stall.
Stealthily the four figures gathered in a clus-
ter and turned up the steep stairway that led
to the sleeping room of Todd. With every rifle
ready for action they pushed open the door.


22 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
"Listen, men," he commanded. "A parley.
You are trapped. There are armed men at
every corner of this building and every man
who runs out of it will be shot dead. Your
powder has been wet and none of you can fire
a shot. You can't fight armed men. There is
but one thing for you to do and that is to sur-
render."
In the parley that followed the marshal
asked each man to try his gun to see if it could,
be fired. None would respond. The moun-
taineers found themselves caught in the very act
of attempting to kill Todd, whom they had often
threatened. They had been duped and trapped.
So had these young detectives of the new
school worked out a most diflficult case and one
which later proved, in the courts, to be effective,
for every man arrested is now serving a long
term in prison and the backbone of the defiance
of law in this region is broken.
"Mr. Summer Boarder," said the curly-
haired Dowling,' 'it is back to the ribbon counter
for you. Your little vacation is over. But I
will say that you have shown remarkable intel-
ligence in this matter. You called me in to
help you. Little drops of water put in just the


THE CUMBERLANDS 23
right place saved all your lives. These moun-
taineers would have eaten you up if I hadn't
fixed their ammunition. Please thank me—"
"Easy, Windy One, easy," interjected Gard.
"Kiss the hand of the man who lent you the
brains to do it with."


n
THE BANK WRECKER
BILLY GARD was not thinking of busi-
ness at all. As a healthy, ultranormal
young man, he was drowsing over his
breakfast as one has a way of doing when at
peace with the world and when unaroused by
any call of the present. He had reached the
rolls and coffee stage of his meal in a spirit of
detachment that took no account of the some-
what garish flashiness of the hotel dining-room
in this typical hostelry of a city that had be-
come noted as a maker of industrial million-
aires. Then as his glance idly trailed among
the other breakfasters, it automatically picked
up an incident that flashed a light into his dor-
mant brain and brought it to full consciousness.
A spoon had started from a grape fruit to
the mouth of the tall, curly-haired man two
tables away. Half way on its journey the hand
which held it had twitched violently and spilled


THE BANK WRECKER 25
most of the contents. The brown eyes of the
man stole out somewhat furtively to learn if
anybody had noticed his nervousness.
Special Agent Billy Gard now gazed at the
ceiling, but his mind was busy. It was running
over the facts that it contained with relation
to Bayard Alexander, who was this morning
not himself and apprehensive lest the fact be
noticed. For Alexander was of the class of
men of whom it was his business to know. He
was cashier of the Second National bank and
Uncle Sam keeps a pretty close watch on such
institutions when they happen to be located in
communities of feverish activity.
So the special agent recalled that the tall man
with the damp curls was a moving spirit in the
city, an important instrument in its develop-
ment, a man of many philanthropies, personal
friend of a United States Senator, cashier and
active head of one of the most powerful finan-
cial institutions in the community. He was a
man of very great energy, but one who led a
normal, wholesome life and who, at the age of
forty-five, seemed just coming into his stride.
The bank examiner, Gard recalled, had steadily
given the Second National a clean bill of health.


26 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
Why, then, should Alexander be nervous and,
granting him that privilege, why should he fear
its being noticed?
All of which was the seemingly illogical rea-
son why Gard went to Wheeling that very night
and was not seen about the metropolis for a
week thereafter.
"I am a poor man," he told Allen, the stout
bank examiner, when they met in the West Vir-
ginia town. "Poor but honest and not trying
to borrow money. I am on my way to the city
of opportunity looking for a job."
"You have come away that you might go
back, as I understand it," said Allen.
"Couldn't you change your peacock raiment for
a hand-me-down without coming to Wheeling?"
"Yes, but I couldn't see you, Cherub," said
Gard, "and you are to make all things possi-
ble for me. You are to convert me from a dwel-
ler in gilded palaces to a bank bookkeeper out
of work, but with credentials.
'' There is in Wheeling a bank cashier of your
acquaintance," explained the special agent,
"who used to work beside a bookkeeper whose
friendship I want to cultivate. You introduce
me to the cashier, he finds out what a really


THE BANK WRECKER 27
good fellow I am, we become friends. He gives
me a letter of introduction to the man I want to
meet. I return to the city and thrust myself
properly into the affairs of one Sloan, book-
keeper for the Second National. The next time
the corpulent examiner comes around he gets
the surprise of his life. Do you follow me?"
Billy Gard had reached the conclusion that, if
there was anything wrong with Bayard Alex-
ander's bank the examiner was being deceived
and that, therefore, there must be a juggling of
accounts. Bookkeeper Charley Sloan of the
individual ledgers occupied the post most likely
to be used for deception, and so the special
agent was taking a lot of trouble to make the
right opportunity for getting friendly with
Charley. That mild little man was therefore
favorably impressed when he was handed a let-
ter from his former associate who had gone to
Wheeling and become a cashier. The two vis-
ited so agreeably together that a friendship
developed and Gard came to live at the book-
keeper's boarding house. The two accountants
grew to spend many evenings together and
naturally talked shop.
"I had a friend," said Gard one evening,


28 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
"who worked in a bank in New Orleans. Next
to him was a bookkeeper who went wrong. He
was induced to do this by a depositor who had
a scheme for making them both rich. All the
depositor needed was a little money. So he
proposed that he draw checks against the bank
and that the bookkeeper charge them tempo-
rarily to other accounts. The depositor would
cash the checks at other banks and, when they
came in, the teller would merely turn them over
to the bookkeeper, probably asking if there was
money to meet them. In this way a depositor
who never had a thousand dollars in the bank
eventually checked out $50,000.''
"There was a teller," Sloan volunteered,
"who worked in a bank here who entered the
deposits in the books of the people making them
and put the money in his pocket. There was no
record of it except in the pass books. He got
nearly all the money that came in for two
months before he was found out."
"There are a lot of ways in which a book-
keeper may hide the facts with relation to a
bank," continued the special agent. "It is
pretty safe to charge anything to the inactive
account of an estate or an endowed institution.


THE BANK WRECKER 29
These are not often looked into. The accounts
balance for the examiner. I'll bet there isn't
one bank in a dozen that doesn't fool the
examiner."
"It's the easiest thing in the world," volun-
teered Sloan, "to take the necessary number of
leaves out of the loose-leaf ledger to counter-
balance it if the cash is short, and hide the leaves
until the examiner is gone."
"Did you ever know that to be done?"
abruptly asked the special agent.
The bookkeeper colored to his temples and
was noticeably confused at the question. Then
he said lie had heard of its being done. The
sleuth would have sworn he had led the book-
keeper into a confession.
Nothing was more natural than that these two
bank bookkeepers should recur occasionally to
the possibility of so arranging accounts that
were in questionable condition that they would
be passed by the examiner. Gard would lead to
this in such a way that the bookkeeper would
seem to have began these discussions. Then he
would talk freely. He would tell so many sto-
ries that the timid Sloan would want to relate
a few in furnishing his part of the entertain-


30 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
ment. But Gard knew that the bookkeeper was
a man without imagination and that he could
relate only what had happened in his experi-
ence. So he was all ears when Sloan one night
gave his opinions on the subject of kiting.
"Of course," he said, "all banks have deposi-
tors who kite their checks and thereby get hold
of money which they may use for a week before
they have to make good. A depositor may turn
in a check for a thousand dollars, drawn on a
New York bank where he has no money. At
the same time he sends the New York bank a
check for the same amount, drawn on you.
This causes the New York bank to honor the
check drawn against it. The check drawn on
you has to find its way through the clearing
house and it will be a week before it gets back.
In the meantime the depositor has had the use
of a thousand dollars.
"But when it comes to real kiting," con-
tinued the bookkeeper, "it is the banks them-
selves that do it. If a bank has a sudden call
for $100,000 and hasn't the money, all it has to
do is to send a messenger with a check to a
friendly bank around the corner. The messen-
ger gets the whole amount in cash. It appears


THE BANK WRECKER 31
as an asset of the bank. It will be two or three
days before the check will come back through
the clearing house and appear as a liability, or
the friendly bank may hold it up even longer.
The banks may be swapping this sort of favors.
The bank examiner does not know of the out-
standing check. He is out of town before it
appears."
Special Agent Billy Gard was again practi-
cally certain that he had here been told a chap-
ter out of the experience of the Second
National. He began to see his way clear to a
denouement.
That same night events were transpiring of
which he was to know a week later but which as
yet were held in confidence among the directors
of the Second National. They took place at a
meeting of these same directors called by a
minority which was dissatisfied with certain
features of its management. Director Hinton,
a sprightly and quick-tempered little man, was
the leader of the revolt. Senator Bothdoldt
was present as a supporter of the management
of the bank as represented by the suave, force-
ful cashier, Bayard Alexander, whose hand
sometimes shook at breakfast.


32 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
"I want to protest," Hinton began by launch-
ing directly into the heart of the mattter in
hand, "against this new loan to the McGrath,
Construction Company. It has been three
years now that we have been pouring out our
money to these people. We have $400,000 of
their paper and I want to be shown that we can
realize on it. It is time to call a halt."
"And there are the notes of the Oldman Mer-
cantile Company," somewhat heatedly argued
a second disaffected director. "I have been
reliably informed within the last two days that
they are in danger of going to the wall.''
"And we, as directors, are responsible for the
bank," said Mr. Isaacs, who was conservative.
"I for one," said Mr. Hinton, "have reached
the point where I insist on a new management,
I would like to know the sentiment of the board
upon this question."
But the cashier asked for a word of explana-
tion. Broad-shouldered and upstanding he
rose among these heavy, sleek, bald-headed
business men. His high and intellecual brow
and clear-cut features gave him a distinction
that always made an impression. But the firm
mouth and the damp curls were those of a man


34 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
them had conferred the night before and settled
upon a plan of campaign for testing the stability
of the affairs of the bank.
It was in accordance with this plan that the
rotund and genial Allen breakfasted in that
dining-room where the special agent's suspi-
cions had first been aroused. Bayard Alexan-
der was at his usual table and Allen allowed
the banker to see him although he appeared not
to be aware of it. It was also in accordance
with the cards played by the men of the Gov-
ernment service that Special Agent Gard, still
a bit seedy in his hand-me-down suit, was loaf-
ing on the sidewalk opposite the Second
National bank when the cashier came to work.
It was a part of his plan that he should see as
much as possible of what went on in the institu-
tion when the word was passed that the
examiner was in town.
Gard was not surprised, therefore, when a
messenger emerged from the bank and hurried
off down the street. He believed that the story
of the bookkeeper of the kiting bank was to be
enacted before his eyes. He followed the mes-
senger to another bank two blocks away and


THE BANK WRECKER 35
there saw him present a check. Gard crowded
in on the pretense of getting a bill changed
and saw blocks of bills of large denomina-
tions being taken from the vault. The mes-
senger hurried back to the bank with them. It
was evident that that institution was making
ready for the coming of the examiner. It was
as evident that its affairs were not as they
should be or this preparation would not be
necessary.
It was a part of the program that when Sloan,
the bookkeeper, came out of the bank for lunch,
Gard should be waiting for him. It was not
unusual that they thus went to their noonday
meal together.
"Will you do me a favor?" asked Sloan
while they were at lunch. "Take care of this
package for me. It is a large photograph,
rolled, that I have just received from home.
Please be careful of it."
The special agent assumed charge of the
package which looked not unlike a roll of music.
Later he found his suspicions justified for in the
roll were a number of leaves from the bank's
individual ledger. Gard was appalled at the


36 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
amount of money that they represented. He
carefully photographed them and returned them
that night to the bookkeeper.
No pretext was omitted for getting a look
into what was transpiring in the Second,
National bank on this particular day. Exam-
iner Allen had called in the afternoon and had
carefully looked over the balances. All
appeared to be in order and no discrepancies
were revealed. The bank seemed particularly
strong from the standpoint of cash on hand.
It was just at closing time that two things
happened. Gard presented himself at the Sec-
ond National and asked to see the cashier. He
had become known there as an associate of
Sloan's. He was looking for a position as
bookkeeper and it was for this he came. He
waited.
It often happens that an individual may
wander unannounced into quarters the pri-
vacy of which are ordinarily closely guarded.
Gard found the door open that led into the cor-
ridor off of which were to be found the offices
of the officials of the bank. He walked in and
wandered down the row until he found that of
the cashier. This he entered and found


THE BANK WRECKER 87
entirely empty. It was a spacious room with a
big, flat-topped desk. Across one corner of this
was thrown a coat, and a hat rested upon it.
An open traveling bag stood on the table.
The special agent, by leaning on the table in
the attitude of waiting, could look into the bag.
There he saw a package of what he recognized
as a well-known issue of industrial bonds which
the examiner had listed as one of the chief
assets of the bank. It should have been in the
bank's vaults, instead of which it was in the
cashier's traveling bag. This was a discovery
well worth consideration.
Cashier Alexander entered the room hur-
riedly from another part of the bank. He was
visibly startled to find some one present and
demanded bruskly what the intruder was doing
there.
"I am a bookkeeper, sir," said the special
agent very humbly. '' Sloan is a friend of mine
and thought you might employ me."
"I can't talk to you to-night. Come around
next week."
"But may I not oome to-morrow!" said
Gard.
"I will be out of town for three days," Alex-


THE BANK WRECKER 39
"Alexander is leaving to-night with these
securities. He may be taking the $125,000 in
cash with him. The time has come for his
arrest. Particularly must we guard those
assets and prevent any unnecessary demands
upon the bank."
"He may be making a run for Canada," said
Allen.
"The securities will take him to New York
that he may realize upon them," was Gard's
deduction. "I am for the station and will fol-
low him if he takes any train. You try for his
trail about town and report to me there."
But after all it was a piece of luck that saved
the day for Gard. He was racing for the sta-
tion in a taxicab when his machine was halted
at a crossing. Another taxicab pulled up
beside his, waited a minute, two minutes. He
could see the driver from where that individual
sat not six feet away and just opposite his win-
dow. Presently this chauffeur bent down to
get instructions from his fare. The man in the
taxicab was talking quietly, but so near was he
to the special agent that he could be easily over-
heard.
"Get out of this jam," he was saying. "Cut


40 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
across town to the North side station. We have
already missed the 6:15. If you head it off at
the North side it is worth a twenty-dollar bill
to you."
The voice was smooth and unruffled. Yet it
was dominant. It set the driver immediately
upon edge and into motion. And there was in
it a familiar note that puzzled the detective for
a moment, then brought back the interview of
the afternoon. Yes, it was Bayard Alexander
talking.
It was hard luck that caused a crossing police-
man to let the first automobile through and shut
off the second. It was the worst sort of luck
that caused the special agent to arrive at the
North side station just as the gate was slammed
and made it necessary for him to produce cre-
dentials to get through. He was barely able to
swing into the vestibule of a sleeper as the
train was getting under way. It was particu-
larly hazardous from the standpoint of accom-
plishing the end he had in mind, for he did not
even know if Alexander was aboard and faced
the danger of having ridden away on the fastest
train to New York and left his work behind
him. Even if the man he was after was aboard


THE BANK WRECKER 41
there was the chance that he had become aware
of the chase and would take precaution to out-
wit him.
But now there was no hurry. His man was
or was not on the train and the porter told him
there would be no stop for two hours. The
special agent was still a good deal of a
youngster with an appreciation of the dramatic
and here was a situation that appealed to him.
He wondered if he were riding into the dusk on
a wild goose chase, or if he had cornered this
fugitive master-crook, with a traveling bag con-
taining half a million dollars of other peoples'
money. He pictured the man he was after—
the suave, confident, stealthy cashier, who had
stolen his hundreds of thousands and had, by the
very force of him, compelled his subordinates
to hide his shortcomings. He wondered if this
man of action was expecting pursuit or if he
was riding on in confidence of being able to
make his escape. He thought of the satchel
that the cashier carried and of his responsi-
bility, as a Government agent, for safeguarding
its contents. It was something of an assign-
ment for a youngster.
"And Mother used to say to me," grinned


42 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
Billy to himself, "when she sent me around the
corner for a dozen eggs:'Do be careful to bring
back the change, and for goodness' sake don't
drop the bag.' I wish Mother could see me
now."
Whereupon William H. Gard of the United
States Department of Justice arose and went
to the front of the train. From this point he
worked steadily back, making sure that he saw
every passenger, looking each over with suffi-
cient scrutiny that a disguise would not have
escaped him, making sure that the man he
sought was in the portion of the train to the
rear. It began to look as though he had actu-
ally boarded a train which the fugitive had
failed to catch.
Dark was just coming on. It was that hour
when most of the passengers on a train are to
be found in the diner. It happened that this
train was running light and now the sleepera
were practically deserted but for the nodding
porters. Through one after another of these
the special agent passed until there remained
only the observation car at the end. It was
here that he would find his quarry or prove him-
self outwitted.


THE BANK WRECKER 43
When he came into the observation car
through the narrow hall that leads to it, a
lounging figure by the door drew itself taut.
Instinctively it put its hand to a traveling bag
that rested on the next chair. Then it remained
still.
The special agent came direct dawn the car
and went immediately to the task in hand.
"You are Bayard Alexander," he said, "and
my prisoner."
The cashier was, after all, surprised. He
was not aware that he was being followed. He
sprang forward in his chair but met the glint
of a pistol in the hand of the special agent.
"And you? Oh, I see!" said the cashier,
recovering himself. '' The bookkeeper was not
a bookkeeper after all."
"I am an agent of the Department of Jus-
tice," said Gard. "You are under arrest."
The tall figure of the cashier had risen from
its chair. To the traveling bag he clung
instinctively. The situation seemed entirely in
the control of the special agent with gun drawn
and the retreat cut off. Yet, like a flash, the
cashier turned the knob of the door that led out
upon the rear platform of the observation car.


44 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
The gun of the special agent spit forth a flame,
but whether he had intended to bring down his
man or not he was afterward quite unable to
recall.
But with a leap he was after and upon the
fugitive. He suspected the intent of the cashier
to throw himself from the train, to end ail in
suicide. He saw the traveling bag getting
beyond his reach. It was the last thing that
would have appealed to him to stand idly by
while such incidents were taking place.
The two men grappled. A new purpose
flashed into the mind of the cashier. Here was
he given an unexpected opportunity for free-
dom. Only the special agent stood in his way.
If he could but drop this youngster over the rail,
suicide would be unnecessary. A new purpose
came into his tall, lithe form. It was to be put
to the task of fighting for its own preservation.
And such a setting for a fight! The clamor
of the train beat into the blood of the con-
testants like the applause of an arena. The
swish of the platform as the express dashed
through the darkness at seventy miles an hour
made the ordinary strategy of battle uncertain.
Beyond the narrow rail that skirted this plat-


THE BANK WRECKER 45
form upon which their fight was staged death
waited expectant on three sides. There were
now no weapons and the contestants went back
to the primal in a tooth and fang grapple for
existence as might two frenzied bears at bay.
The cashier was the larger man and one who
had always kept in condition through gymna-
sium work. The special agent was lither and
younger. The larger man was determined that
he would thrust the smaller over the rail and
fling him from the train. He fought his way to
the edge of the platform, forcing his antagonist
farther and farther over it, hammering him
down by the sheer superiority of weight and
strength.
But all the time the special agent was playing
to his own advantage. He was getting low
beneath the guard of the cashier. His arms
had found an iron lock beneath his antagonist's
coat and about his waist. He felt that this hold
could not be broken and that a time would come
when the strength of the larger man would
wane. He could afford to wait.
It was but a swish of the train that gave him
the slight advantage he sought in taking the
aggressive. It swayed the tall form of his


46 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
enemy as it towered above him a little back-
ward. This put the spine in a position where
it could not immediately resist a strong pres-
sure. Already he had felt a give in the body
muscles that meant the first approach of weak-
ness. Like a flash his head was in the tall
man's chest, all his strength was in his arms,
and he was administering that treatment known
in his youth as the "Indian hug." Slowly he
overcame his antagonist, bent him back, and
they came tumbling among the chairs of the
observation platform.
From the fall came a new grip to the advan-
tage of the special agent. As they went down
he flung his legs around his antagonist, and was
able to get the wrestler's "scissors" about his
waist, thus applying pressure where there was
already exhaustion and allowing his legs, which
were rested, to bear the brunt.
Thus were they locked when the brakeman
came to the rear and found them. But the bat-
tle was already near its end. For the flash of a
moment the cashier rallied and acted. In that
moment his hands seized and flung from the
train the grip with its precious burden. Then
lie sank into unconsciousness.


THE BANK WRECKER 47
Billy Gard had ridden back to the section of
the road where the traveling bag had gone over-
board, and had waited for the coming of day-
light to search for it. In the gray dawn he
walked down the track and met an Irish section
man, who had already picked it up.
"I see you have found my satchel," said
Gard, accosting him.
"Your satchel it may be," said the Irishman,
"but you will have to be after tellin' me what's
in it by way of identification."
"Nothing much beside half a million dol-
lars," said the special agent, proffering the
key.
The man who had found the traveling bag
looked inside and, as far as Billy Gard knows,
never spoke again. He was still dumb with
amazement when the young man drove away in
his automobile.


i
m
A FIASCO IN FIBEABMS
IT is here set down for the first time that
Special Agent Billy Gard of the United
States Department of Justice trod the
deck of the good German ship Esmiranga and
smoked many Mexican cigarettes on that his-
toric morning in April, 1914, when she ap-
proached the port of Vera Cruz, loaded to the
gunwales with ammunition for the Huertistas,
and precipitated the landing of American
marines.
Also it was here first told that it was the hand
of Billy Gard that lighted the match that ignited
the powder that caused the explosion that kept
Yankee fighting men in Mexico for many
months and the big American sister republics
on the verge of war. For the action of the head
of the government of a hundred million of peo-
ple, the orders extended to the military, the
48


A FIASCO IN FIREARMS 49
shuttling of battleships and transports, were
based npon mysteriously received messages
from this young representative of the United
States, who through a combination of chance
and design found himself strangely placed in
the center of a web of circumstance.
It had all started in a New York hotel six
months before. It was not entirely out of keep-
ing with what was to follow that a huge and
bewhiskered Russian should have staged the
prologue of what was later to assume something
of the nature of an international farce. But it
was such a man, registering himself as G. Ege-
loff, pronouncing some of his indifferent Eng-
lish with the explosiveness of Russia and some
of it with the lilting softness of Latin America,
who created a scene in a Manhattan hotel and
thus first introduced the whole matter. He had
arrived but a moment before, dusty, disheveled,
empty handed. The room clerk had suggested
that it was the custom of the hotel that guests
without baggage should pay in advance. Then
had come the explosion accompanied by oaths
in four languages.
The man with the wiskers called upon all to
witness that this indignity had been placed upon


50 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
him, G. Egeloff, the representative of rulers of
nations, the bearer of credentials, the possessor
of enough money in his one vest pocket to buy
the hotel in question and turn it into a barracks
for his peons.
Whereupon he produced from the vest pocket
in question a draft on the Mexican treasury for
the neat sum of three million dollars in gold,
signed by none other than Victoriano Huerta
himself. At which signal the entire hotel staff
salaamed profoundly, the man who swore was
escorted to the best suite and the house detec-
tive telephoned to the special agents of the
Department of Justice.
Billy G"ard was forthwith sent out to deter-
mine the legitimacy of the mission of this
strange representative of turbulent Mexico.
In three days he knew that Egeloff was in
touch with those representatives of the Huerta
regime with whom the Department of Justice
was already acquainted and whose activities
centered about a certain Mexican boarding
house just off Union square. He also knew
that the Eussian had called up from his hotel
room certain manufacturers of munitions
whose factories were in Hartford and that rep-


A FIASCO IN FIREARMS 51
resentatives of those firms had visited him.
Gard had drawn the conclusion that the Rus-
sian was buying ammunition for the Mexican
government. Since the United States was
denying clearance to ships with such cargoes
destined to either faction to the controversy to
the south, it was necessary that all the facts be
ascertained.
But it developed that the strong current of
the plans of the man from Mexico ran through
Valentines, that outfitter of revolutionists and
dealer in second-hand and out-of-date war mate-
rial. Valentines based his operations upon the
principle that the discarded munitions of pro-
gressive nations are plenty good enough for use
in Latin-America and that the purchase of all
puch, no matter how antiquated, offers a good
opportunity for profit. Hardly a warlike ven-
ture in the tumultuous lands to the south has
run its course within recent years without lean-
ing heavily upon Valentines.
Knowing this, Gard was particularly anxious
to find out what was transpiring within when,
on a murky Saturday night, he followed the
Eussian and three of his Mexican associates
through the narrow lanes of the lower East


52 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
Side, beneath its clanging elevated, and to the
side door of Valentines, within which they dis-
appeared.
He had previously reconnoitered the sur-
roundings. He knew that Valentines had taken
great care in guarding the privacy of his estab-
lishment. The dark back room in which his con-
ferences were held had but one entrance, which
was from the main establishment. The area-
way upon which its single window looked faced
the wall of a printing house, broken by but three
or four small windows, as is so often the case
with these blank surfaces. Gard had made note
of the fact that one of these windows was oppo-
site and above that in the back room of Valen-
tines. He had gained admission to the print-
ing house and had viewed the adjoining
premises from this high window.
A single possibility presented itself. This
was that Valentines might leave his curtain up
and that Jane Gates might help with the case.
Jane Gates occupied a warm spot in the
hearts of the special agents and they were
always particular that when they called upon
her there was no possibility of unpleasant
experiences, and the way seemed clear here.


A FIASCO m FIREARMS 53
She was a deaf girl, known among them as the
Lily Maid, horn without the sense of hearing
but mistress of the inestimable difficulties of
lip reading and the possessor of the nimblest
set of fingers in the world, these latter earning
her a place as copyist for the service. Her
face was of a cameo beauty, with a touch of
pathos because of her isolation. She was the
warm spot in the heart of the office but, as its
very spirit was the untangling of riddles, she
had found opportunity to help in a novel way
in several difficult cases through her ability at
lip reading.
By prearrangement Jane Gates, on this Sat-
urday night, was awaiting at the office not half
a dozen blocks away a possible call from Billy
Gard. Barrett had a taxi at the front door
and the expected summons brought him to the
publishing house in five minutes. Beneath a
light in the hall Gard told the deaf girl of the
situation, for lip reading needs light. Soon
they were in the gloom by the little window and
the eager eyes of the Lily Maid were looking
into the office opposite where the conference on
munitions was going forward. Fortunately
Valentines did not speak Spanish and an inter-


54 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
preter was necessary. The face of this man
was in plain view not thirty feet away.
Soon Jane Gates was repeating in the pecu-
liar, hollow voice of those who do not hear hut
have learned to form words with the lips:
"Mauser ammunition—old Krupp rapid-fire
guns—Seventy five—"
Gard stepped beyond the range of view from
the opposite window. He turned a pocket
flashlight on his own lips.
"Try to find out how they are to be shipped,"
he instructed.
"Could supply a total amounting to $750,000
in value," the girl repeated after the inter-
preter.
"Delivered in thirty days—Brooklyn—how
can you get clearance papers?"
"We clear for Odessa," the interpreter's
lips said. "The United States must accept our
claim of that destination. We know how to
evade embargo regulations."
Valentines had been walking nervously about
the room. At this moment he approached the
window and pulled down the curtain that
looked into the courtyard. The work of the
lip reader was at an end.


A FIASCO IN FIREARMS 55
It was a month later when Gard had traced
a consignment of ammunition from the factory
at Hartford to its place on a Brooklyn pier
where it lay ready for shipment. It seemed
the last of the American goods that were
needed to complete the cargo of the Italian
bark, City of Naples, that was ready to sail.
It appeared that papers had already been taken
out, that the manifests acknowledged the pres-
ence of great quantities of war munitions, brit
that the claim was made that the cargo was
bought for South Eussian dealers and bound
for Odessa.
Gard hurriedly ascertained that the United
States would not refuse permission for the ship
to sail. It was, however, anxious to keep in
touch with its movements. Could the special
agent find a way to accompany her? Gard
would try.
Half an hour later a young Italian strolled
down the pier just as the last of the cargo waB
being taken aboard the City of Naples. He
was dressed in a well-worn, light-checked, some-
what flashy suit, a scarlet vest, a flowing tie.
His dark locks breathed forth odors of the
lotions of cheap barber shops. He walked non-


*6 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
«halantly aboard the Italian bark and went
below.
The vessel was just breaking loose from her
moorings when the stowaway was discovered.
There had been great haste in her sailing and
she was making for the seas two hours ahead
of her appointed time. The stowaway sur-
mised that there was every reason why her of-
ficers would fear delay and that, if he could
remain below decks until she was under way,
the vessel would not be stopped to put him
ashore.
It was from this situation that an unequal
fight developed in which three sailormen sought
bo drag an unwilling youngster in a plaid suit
from the hold to the deck that he might be put
off the ship. But the first of the attacking force
proved himself unfamiliar with the strategy of
a lead with the left to make an opening for a
swing with the right, and so this latter blow
oaught him on the chin and he went down and
out. The second sailor was a squarehead and
rushed his antagonist. The stowaway ducked
and the force of the Swede increased the sever-
ity of a mighty jab with the right in the pit of


A FIASCO IN FIREARMS 57
the stomach, which happened at the time to be
unusually full, and the attacker crumbled with
an agony in his inwards. The stowaway grap-
pled with the third man and showed an addi-
tional knowledge of the science of the rough
and tumble. He twisted one of that individ-
ual's hands behind him and pushed it up, using
the favorite jiu jitsu trick that American po-
licemen have borrowed from the Japanese. In
this way he had his man at his mercy.
"Mother of Jesus," came a roar from the
doorway in most indifferent Spanish. "Where
did you learn it all?"
The stowaway looked up and saw the huge
form of the bearded Russian who represented
the government of Mexico standing there.
"In the United States," he answered in
Spanish. "Ah, they are wonderful, those
Americans!"
It should be remembered that Billy Gard, for
it was he, had lived abroad when a boy with his
father who was in the consular service. He
had learned the languages of the Mediterranean
almost before he spoke English and was there-
fore much at home among its people. And be-


58 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
cause of this he had been able to become an
Italian stowaway in half an hour at a second-
hand store in Brooklyn.
"But why all this fighting?" asked the Rus-
sian.
"I would go back to Italy, bon Italy," said
the stowaway. '' These pigs of sailormen know
not how homesick I am. They would put me
ashore. I not go. You see the result."
"Well, you will not be put ashore now," said
the Eussian. "I happen to be interested in
this cargo, and I want no delay. You may
come on deck with me."
It happened in this way that Billy Gard went
to sea with a large cargo of Mexican ammuni-
tion, little believing that it would ever cross to
Europe. Since he was aboard and might not
be otherwise disposed of, the Italian captain
set him to work as a clerk, and got much good
service out of him on the ship's books before
land was again sighted. It happened in this
way, also, that he was given an opportunity to
study and cultivate G. Egeloff, but little came
of it because of the all-sufficiency of that gen-
tleman within himself.
Gard was greatly surprised when the City of


A FIASCO IN FIREARMS 59
Naples maintained her course straight across
the Atlantic. Even more surprised was he
when she passed in at Gibraltar, ignored the
ports of Spain, sailed past the towns of her
nativity in Italy and on to the east. Not until
the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus were passed
was he convinced that she was bound for the
port for which she had cleared. But after six
weeks at sea she reached Odessa, on the Black
Sea, and there put into port.
But at Odessa the unexpected happened.
The authorities, being by temperament suspi-
cious and ever-vigilant of anarchistic plots,
refused to let the ship unload her cargo of am-
munition. Egeloff stormed and swore and
bribed, but all to no avail. The ammunition
might not be landed.
Billy Gard managed to get ashore and find
his way to the American consulate. From
there he was able to make his report to the
home office and receive instructions that he was
to remain with the ammunition cargo.
The special agent found his task compara-
tively easy here, and merely had to wait for
events to take their normal course. His chief
interest was G. Egeloff, who had remained a


60 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
mystery to him despite a semi-friendship that
had slowly grown up between them. He had
attempted in vain to lead the Russian into a
discussion of his future plans in Mexico, and
had grown to suspect that the gentleman had
no such plans. At Odessa the big man seemed
impatient of delay, and, Gard thought, rather
reckless of the disposition of his charge.
The representative of the United States had
been contemplating the value of the guns
bought at Valentines and the figure of $750,000
which the Lily Maid had caught from the lips
of the interpreter. He knew that the pur-
chases at Hartford had not exceeded $100,000.
He drew the conclusion that this strange rep-
resentative of the Indian head of a Latin-
American nation would probably give less than
value for the $3,000,000 that had been placed
in his hands for the purchase of American mu-
nitions of war.
The special agent was still attached to the
City of Naples as clerk when, after ten days of
futile attempts at landing her cargo, she again
turned her nose to the sea. She was two days
out when he became assured of a fact which he
had suspected. The Eussian was not aboard.


A FIASCO IN FIREARMS 61
The ship picked her course through the Medi-
terranean, out again past Gibraltar, but, in-
stead of striking out toward Mexico as Gard
had suspected she would, she steered to the
north and eventually came to anchor in the port
of Hamburg on a windy morning in March.
At Hamburg there was assurance of ability
to discharge cargo. No sooner had the ship
tied up than its long-restrained personnel of
officers and crew availed themselves of the free-
dom of shore leave. As the afternoon wore on,
the vessel was deserted with the exception of
the Italian second mate and a few members of
the crew. Gard stuck to his desk in the pur-
ser's cabin. It was from this point of vantage
that he became aware of an altercation on deck.
An American voice was saying in English:
"Mr. Egeloff; I want to see Mr. Egeloff."
The second mate protested his inability to
speak English, whereupon a second voice re-
peated the request in Spanish, with no better
result. Then of a sudden a great light seemed
to break on the second mate.
"Ah! Si, senor. If you will be so good as
to step this way."
Whereupon he led the strangers to the cabin,


62 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
where he knew Gard to be at work, and, remem-
bering that the supposed clerk spoke many
languages, he turned the visitors over to him.
"Mr. Egeloff?" asked the American, evi-
dently misinterpreting the action of the mate.
The special agent was taken entirely by sur-
prise. The possibilities of such a situation
had never presented themselves to him.
"What if I am?" he asked cautiously.
"I am McKay," said the American.
"You have credentials, I suppose," said
Gard.
"Yes," answered that individual. "I am
authorized to provide for the reshipment of the
cargo."
Whereupon he presented letters from the
Mexican government showing him to be its
agent in London. His companion he intro-
duced as Mr. Sanchez, Mexican consul at
Hamburg, whereupon the three dropped into
Spanish and continued the conversation.
Gard presented letters he had found in the
ship's office and addressed to these gentlemen.
He took it that these letters were from the
Mexican consul at Odessa. They evidently
asked the men to whom they were addressed to


A FIASCO IN FIREARMS 63
do what they could toward expediting the
transshipment of the cargo.
"We have all arrangements made," McKay
volunteered. "The Esmiranga will take our
stuff aboard immediately and is sailing for
Vera Cruz in six days."
"I have had the very devil of a time," said
the special agent, introducing the rasp of an
occasional Eussian consonant into his Spanish
as he had heard it done for two months by the
man whose role was being thrust upon him. "I
want to run over to Warsaw for a few days.
Do you not think, gentlemen, that I have earned
this brief vacation?"
Whereupon McKay and Sanchez agreed to
attend to all details, making it necessary only
that the supposed Egeloff should be in Ham-
burg on the day of sailing. So was Gard
relieved of the difficulty and danger of a sus-
tained masquerade and so was he able again to
get in touch with America. As a matter of fact
he hurried to Paris. There he found Coleman,
whom he had known before, in charge of the
Paris branch of his own service.
"Dress me up like a white man," he told
Coleman. "Lead me up to something that


64 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
human beings eat. Take me out where I may
try the experiment of attempting to be a gentle-
man again. I am by no means sure I can do it.
Four days from now talk to me about cipher
messages, but not until then."
But when Gard returned to Hamburg it was
understood that he should use the old confeder-
ate cipher for any messages that he might be
able to send. This is a simple and always effi-
cient cipher made up of a square of the letters
of the alphabet. One begins by writing the
twenty-six letters in a row, commencing with A.
The second line begins with B, placed directly
under the A of the first line, and followed by
all the letters in order. The third line begins
with C, the fourth with D, and so on until Z is
reached. Any amateur may build up his
square of letters in this way.
There must be a secret key word which is
known to the senders and the receivers. The
keyword is witten out repeatedly and the mes-
sage is written beneath it. Instead of using the
letters of the message, the letters of the key-
word are used. This is the first puzzling trans-
lation. The message as it then appears is taken
to the square of letters. In writing it as it is


A FIASCO IN FIREARMS 65
ultimately to be sent, its letters are found in the
top line of the square and also in the perpen-
dicular line that runs down its side. The lines
of letters that radiate from these margins, one
horizontally and one perpendicularly, meet at
some point within the square. The letter upon
which they meet is used in the message. No
one in the world without his square of letters
and without the keyword can read this mes-
sage.
So the home government was informed that
Special Agent William H. Gard might commu-
nicate with its ships by means of the confeder-
ate cipher and that the keyword, rather
strangely, was "Bussian whiskers." The
home government transmitted this information
to its battleships lying off Mexico and their
operators were instructed to pick up any wire-
less that might come to them out of the Atlan-
tic.
Gard hurried back to Hamburg just in time
to sail on the Esmiranga. He was not sure but
that the big Eussian would communicate with
the Mexican representatives and approached
the situation he had developed with no little
misgiving. It appeared that his conclusion


66 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
that the Eussian had made a getaway with much,
swag was correct. He was warmly received by
both McKay and Sanchez and the ship got away
with but one difficulty facing the special agent.
The Mexican consul was returning to his native
land aboard it.
Gard realized that, as the confidential repre-
sentative of Huerta, he could not with impunity
have anything to do with Sanchez, as that vola-
tile Latin would immediately lead him into
much talk of Mexican men and conditions.
Gard knew almost nothing about Mexico City
and could not even sustain a casual conversa-
tion on that subject.
It was because of these considerations that
the apparently genial disposition of the sup-
posed purchaser of munitions of war proved a
disappointment to Sefior Sanchez. This Eus-
sian was evidently no sailor. He took to his
cabin as soon as the Esmiranga took to sea.
His sea manners were also far from Latin for
he answered with guttural oaths any inquiries
that were made as to the condition of his health.
He seemed to have gone on a mad debauch and
insisted that a constant procession of highballs
be sent to his stateroom. He cut Sefiof San-


A FIASCO IN FIREARMS 67
chez dead when he met him on the deck.
Caramba! A beast of a man was this, to be
shunned as the plague!
The captain and the wireless operator were
the only individuals with whom this disagree-
able shipmate had anything to do. To the cap-
tain it was made plain that a delicate situation
existed off Mexico. The ships of those pigs of
Americans were blockading Vera Cruz. They
might blockade but they had no right to stop a
German ship bound for that port. But he must
talk to his principals in Mexico. There was the
wireless of the Esmiranga, and there was his
secret cipher which no Yankee could read.
Might the operator handle his messages?
To be sure. The representative of the Mexi-
can government which was to pay handsomely
for the transportation of the cargo aboard the
Esmiranga might do entirely as he wished.
So it transpired that Special Agent Billy
Gard began talking to the American battleships
in southern seas when the Esmiranga was not
much more than half-way across the Atlantic.
He amused himself writing messages much as
a man passes the time of a voyage in playing
solitaire. So it happened that the United States


68 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
Government had all the details of the approach,
of a shipload of ammunition of American origin
destined to Huerta, upon whom the screws were
just then being put for insulting the Stars and,
Stripes. So it was evident that if this ammu-
nition were allowed to land, it might be used
against American troops, who were at any
moment to be thrown into Mexico.
Yet the United States might not prevent a
German ship from entering the harbor at Vera
Cruz. The only method of stopping that
ammunition was to seize the port and customs
house and thereby come into possession of the
cargo if it were disembarked.
The wireless of the Esmiranga sputtered out
a message which, when interpreted in accord-
ance with the confederate cipher and the key-
word of "Bussian whiskers," conveyed the
information that the vessel was approaching
the Mexican coast and that her intention was
to steam under the very noses of the American
dreadnoughts into port. The facts were
reported to Washington, where the alternative
of seizing the port was sternly faced. Orders
were given to act.
The next day American marines went, some


A FIASCO IN FIREARMS 69
to glory and some to death, past that most tragic
spot in all America, the fortress prison of San
Juan de Ullao; into those streets frequented
by the sacred scavenger buzzard of the Aztecs;
beneath the walls of the ancient parochial
church beside the Plaza de la Constitution
where the first American boy was destined to
die at the hands of a sniping priest; into the
gate city that had known Cortez and Maximil-
lian, and had loaded the galleons of Spain with
more silver and gold than had ever before
been amassed anywhere in the history of the
world.
But the Esmiranga did not come in to dis-
charge her ammunition that it might fall into
the hands of the Americans. Instead, it
haunted Mexican waters for a while as a crea-
ture of unrest, uncertain where to land.
Finally it put into Mobile, where its captain
was left at a still greater loss, for the supposed
Mexican gun-runner went ashore and was seen
no more. Sanchez, the Mexican consul, left by
train for his native land. Huerta, in the mad-
ness of his career, extended no instructions.
The ultimate disposition of the Esmiranga's
cargo completes the record of another of those


70 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
fiascos in the game of pandering to revolution-
ists in Latin America. The outcast cargo
knocked about the Caribbean for a while like a
party dressed up and no place to go. The con-
stitutionalists came into possession of Tampico
and sought a way to deal with the captain of the
Esmiranga, who was still unpaid for transport-
ing his cargo and willing to listen to almost any
proposition. But the constitutionalists bought
no pigs in pokes and insisted on an examina-
tion of the cargo. Probably they had them-
selves bought of Valentines and knew the
nature of his stock in trade. They found a way
to open some of the boxes and there discovered
such an array of antique armament that even
they scorned its use. Valentines and the Rus-
sian who came to New York to buy for Huerta
had taken no pains to give that warlike gentle-
man the value of even a portion of his money.


IV
THE SUGAK SAMPLEBS
MR. GAED," said the chief, "I take it
you would like to earn the stipend
the Government pays you."
"Your lead sounds ominous," said the young
special agent, who had a free and easy way with
him even at the Washington headquarters.
"If I say yes, you will hand me a large piece
of hard work. If I say no, I will be courting
discharge. I select the lesser of two evils. I
confess to a desire to earn my money."
"It is like this," said the chief. "We sus-
pect that there is a leak in the collection of
sugar duties. You know the possibilities. If
a ship comes to port with 10,000 tons of sugar
from Cuba, it pays duty that depends on the
purity of the cargo. If that sugar is graded at
92 per cent, pure it gets in a half cent a pound
cheaper than if it is graded 96 per cent. pure.
The difference in duty received by the Govern-


72 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
ment on such a carec might, theoretically,
amount to $100,000."'
"If I catch three ships," mused Gard half to
himself, "I have earned my salary for the rest
of my life and won't have to work any more.''
"I wouldn't just say that," responded the
chief; "but if you saved the Government half
a cent a pound on all the sugar imported, you
would bring into the coffers a round two mil-
lion a year. That would be a fair accom-
plishment for a somewhat amateurish detec-
tive."
"Sustained by the flattery of my superior,"
said Gard. "I am ready to rush into any mad
undertaking. What are the orders?"
"You will be assigned to one of the great
sugar ports. We do not even know that any
fraud is being practised. You are to find out.
If there is fraud you are to determine the
method of it. The criminals, particularly the
big ones, are to be apprehended. The Govern-
ment would like to know how these frauds may
be prevented in future. The work need not be
completed to-morrow or next day. You may
have any amount of help. But we must know
that sugar duties are honestly paid."


THE SUGAR SAMPLERS 73
It was a week later that William H. Gard sent
in his card to Henry Gottrell, president of the
Continental Eefining Company, one of the
greatest importers of raw sugar in the nation.
According to this card Gard was a writer of
magazine stories. He had explained in asking
for an interview that he was assigned to write
an article on "sugar ships," which should be a
yarn of color and romance in a setting of fact.
When the special agent entered the office of
President Gottrell, large and florid and radiat-
ing geniality, he found his plan of approach
somewhat interfered with by the presence of a
third party. Seated at the elbow of the refiner
was one of the most striking young women
he had ever seen. Corn-colored hair gone
mad in its tendency to curl made a perfect
frizzle about her face. A flock of freckles, each
seemingly in pursuit of its fellow just ahead,
were hurdling the bridge of a somewhat pug
nose. Blue eyes that danced and a mouth that
responded to the racing thought of an active
brain gave life to the face. And as she arose
the slightest movement of her slim, well-rounded
form suggested fast work on a tennis court.
Henry Gottrell presented his daughter.


74 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
"She always looked like a Swede," said the
big man, "so we call her Thelma.''
"And Mr. Gard," she bubbled forth, "I have
so wanted to know what a writer did when he
goes for an interview. May I stay and see?"
"It will destroy the romantic illusion if you
do," said Gard. "Are you willing to pay the
price?"
"I can't believe that," she said. "Do let
me see how it is done! Don't leave out a single
thing."
"The interviewer begins," said the special
agent, "by seating himself, as I am doing, in an
uncomfortable chair which has been arranged
with the idea in mind of preventing him from
staying too long. The gentleman being inter-
viewed always reaches into the right-hand
drawer of his desk, as your father is doing, and
produces a box of very excellent cigars. Then
the interviewer explains the idea that is on his
mind that requires elucidation. Has the man
being interviewed anything on hand, already
prepared, that covers the ground. Maybe he
has made a speech at a convention, or some-
thing of that sort. The idea is to save labor
>or both. Mr. Gottrell is now looking for the


THE SUGAR SAMPLERS 75
report of his testimony before the committee
on tariff revision. He will probably produce
three reprints that will contain much matter
that I want. I ask if he will provide a conver-
sational escort to conduct me over one of his
sugar ships, if I may talk to his captains. He
agrees. You see him doing it. The interview
is at an end. The foundation has been laid for
a romance on 'sugar ships,' the same having
a background of fact."
"That is splendid," exclaimed Miss Gottrell,
"because it does so easily a thing that looks so
hard. It does not spoil an illusion at all. It
is wonderfully clever."
It was in this way that Special Agent Gard
got an opportunity to go most carefully over
the docks, through the warehouses, into the
ships of the Continental Eefining Company. It
was in this way that he was enabled to ask
many questions that might have aroused sus-
picion had he been there in any other guise than
that of a writing man. It was in this way that
he was able to observe rather carefully every
process of the transfer of a cargo of sugar
through the customs house at which the Fed-
eral Government takes its toll.


76 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
All the time the special agent was looking'
for a clue—was bringing an incisive mind to
bear upon the problem of the course the sugar
took and the possibility of fraud at each step.
He spent days observing the methods of the
weighers. He watched every detail of the
transfer of cargo from ship to warehouse. He
loafed about the sheds where the samples were
taken—a process in which he took a vast inter-
est.
Here the samplers, Government employees,
ran their little hollow tubes through the mesh
of the sacks that contained sugar. The tubes
went in empty but came out full of that which
was within. This constituted the sample for a
given sack. Each sample was made into a lit-
tle package, carefully labeled, and went to the
Government laboratory to be tested. The duty
on the sugar coming in was charged according
to the degree of purity of these samples.
It was here that Billy Gard picked up his first
clue. He noticed a peculiarity about the
methods used by the samplers in inserting their
tubes into the sacks. They were always run
along the side of the sack and never plunged
into its very heart. Tobin, the little consump-


THE SUGAR SAMPLERS 77
tive, sampled in this peculiar way, as did the
hammer-handed Hansen of the every-ready
scowl. Yet it would be easier to take the sam-
ple out of the middle of the hag. Why did the
samplers skim near the edge?
Gard took this question to the Government
laboratory, but found no ready answer to it.
He procured a typical sack of sugar and from it
took two samples—one from the very heart and
one from the outside rim. These he had tested
in the laboratory. That from the middle of
the bag showed a degree of purity 3 per cent,
higher than that from the outside. The impu-
rity, the report stated, was in the form of water.
Technical men were set to work to determine
through many experiments the difference in the
grade of the sugar in different parts of the bag.
Finally it was established that raw sugar has a
tendency to take up moisture, and that that por-
tion of it which is exposed does so. The sugar
near the ouside came in contact with the air
which contained moisture, while that on the
inside did not. The refiners were, of course,
aware of this tendency. But the important
conclusion from the viewpoint of Billy Gard
was that the Government samplers were doing


78 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
their work in such a way as to favor the
importers. Here might be a leak that was very
important.
William H. Gard, special writer, that day
disappeared from the sugar docks and was
never seen again. Simultaneously with his dis-
appearance the saloon of Jean Flavot, not a
block and a half distant, acquired a new cus-
tomer in the person of a roughly dressed young
laborer who did not drink as heavily as some
of his fellows, but was none the less willing to
buy for others. But what was vastly more in
his favor in the eyes of Flavot than even liber-
ality was the fact that he spoke French. Mon
Dieu, these rough Americans who knew not of
the blandishments of absinthe and drank only
the whisky! The resort keeper and the new-
comer held them in common contempt.
The special agent had selected the resort of
Jean Flavot as a basis of operations because
it was the place most frequented by the
samplers. He wanted, in the first place, to find
out if these men had more money to spend than
honest men of their salaries should have. The
individual who makes illicit money usually
*pends it lavishly and it should therefore be


THE SUGAR SAMPLERS 79
easy to determine if the samplers were being
paid to be crooked. And Gard, after two weeks
of convivial association with them, was rather
thrown back upon himself when he found that
their carousals were always within their means
and that money was scarce among them. They
were evidently not being bribed.
That he might get on a more intimate basis
with these samplers Gard went to work as a
laborer on the docks, and there toiled for two
months. He came to be most intimately one of
them, was given every opportunity for observ-
ing their work, was even intrusted with certain
valuable confidences when the men were sober
and saw his way toward learning more by asso-
ciating with them when they were in their cups.
His task was but half finished, however, when
the maiden with the frizzy hair and the freckles
came near upsetting the beans. The daughter
of the president of the company had played
through her childhood on the docks and about
the warehouse and was not yet averse to climb-
ing stacks of sugar sacks or descending into the
hold of the ships. So it happened that she
often visited the water front, and Gard had at
first feared he might be recognized, but this


80 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
fear wore away as the visits were repeated and
no attention was paid to him.
Bnt one busy day he was carting away the
sacks of sugar that were being unloaded in
packages of twenty or so, slung in ropes and
lifted by mighty derricks, when Miss Gottrell
strolled down the docks under a pink parasol
and in the midst of an array of fluffy, spring
ruffles such as make a healthy, wholesome girl
outrival in beauty the orchids of the most tropi-
cally luxuriant jungle.
The special agent had always liked corn-
colored hair and freckles on the nose and wor-
shiped at the shrine of the physically fit.
Besides which this girl had enthusiasm and
intelligence and inspiration. And it was
spring and he was a youngster shut off from his
kind and lonesome. He had thought of her a
lot of times since that day he had interested her
by pretending to be something he was not.
Now he rather resented it that she should be
there and he a perspiring laborer, not daring
to speak to her.
And just at that time something very start-
ling happened. The great crane of the ship
drew another load of sugar from the hold and


THE SUGAR SAMPLERS 81
swung it majestically over the dock. In doing
so it described a great sweep in reaching the
spot where it was to be deposited. In the midst
of this sweep a single sack of sugar slipped
from beneath the ropes and came hurtling out
and down as though it were a projectile from a
sling.
The pink parasol was standing unconsciously
with its back turned directly in the course of
the flying bag. The vision of spring beneath it
was gazing away to where a sail was just taking
the fresh breeze. Billy Gard and his truck
were emerging from the shed for a new load of
sugar. And here was a young man quick to
act and with a training that enabled him to do
so effectively.
Three strides and a leap into the air were all
the time allowed. But this was enough to make
it possible for him to tackle about the waist the
catapulted sugar sack, much as he had often
tackled the member of an opposing team who
tried to go around his end in the old football
days. To be sure, this end play was the fastest
he had ever seen and resulted in a good spill,
but it was a success. The pink parasol was
uninjured. ,


82 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
Thelma Gottrell came to a realization of what
had happened about the time Gard was getting
himself to his feet. She ran to him spontane-
ously and would have helped him to rise had he
shown the forethought to be a little slower.
"I do hope you are not hurt!" she began.
"It was splendid—Oh! What? It is Mr.
Gard, isn't it? How in the world—" She
stopped in consternation. Billy Gard grinned
foolishly.
"Don't give me away," he pleaded with her.
"It is a very great secret and it would all be
spoiled if you did. A writing man must have
color, must know life, you know. Please don't
spoil my chance by telling a single soul about
it."
"Since you have probably saved my life,"
said she,'' it would not be grateful of me to deny
any wish of yours. But I will agree not to tell
only on one condition. You must promise to
come to me and let me hear all about it when
it is over."
"I promise," said Gard.
"And you must let me say that I think you
are wonderful to do the things you do, and that
I thank you."


THE SUGAR SAMPLERS 83
She placed her dainty glove in his grimy
workingman's hand for a moment and was
gone.
It was a wild Saturday night at Jean Fla-
vot's. The occasion of the celebration was the
ending of the season on the sugar docks. For
seven months in the year the Continental Refin-
ing Company was busy with sugar that poured
in upon it from Cuba and Porto Eico and Santo
Dorningo and other lands to the south. Then
there was a period of five months when there
was no sugar from the outside and refiners
turned their attention to the home-grown crop.
Those men who had worked together in the
camaraderie of the docks for seven months this
season, and perhaps for many a year before,
were to-morrow to be dispersed. They would
be scattered about at many places and would
play their part in the handling of the raw sugar
that came from the canefields of Louisiana and
the beet lands of Colorado and Michigan.
Most probably they would meet again on these
same docks five months later. But assuredly
there was every reason why they should end
the season in one mad carouse.


84 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
Billy Gard was present. Through the weeks
that had passed he had gradually tightened the
net that revealed to the Government the condi-
tions that existed on the sugar docks. But his
case might still be strengthened, for he wanted
the whole story from a man who participated
in the irregularities, and in such a way that it
might be introduced into court as evidence.
This was the last opportunity and the special
agent hoped that the story might be told to-night
when the samplers were reckless over their
liquor.
Jean Flavot brought whisky and beer when
the big-fisted Hansen beat upon the table.
Billy Gard stood upon his chair and drank to
the time when they would all get together again
under the cobwebs that decorated the ceiling of
the little Frenchman. He led three lusty
cheers for that time, for none was so abandoned
on these occasions as the youngster who had
saved the president's daughter. And Flavot
and Billy interchanged a wink, for they had a
secret between them. Both knew that the bev-
erage that the special agent drank with such
recklessness was nothing more than cold tea,
and the little Frenchman delighted in seeing


THE SUGAR SAMPLERS 85
his favorite lead these American pigs, who
knew no decency in drinking, on to complete
inebriety.
But Gard had a secret from even Flavot
which had to do with a grimy little man who sat
at a nearby table and who had of late fre-
quented the place—a seedy, long-haired, sallow
man who worked always with pencil over the
manuscript of a play he was writing. As a true
genius he paid no attention to what went on
around him, but always pored over his pa-
pers.
But this same man in Washington was a star
stenographer at the Department of Justice, a
dapper, one-time court reporter, the man who
had handled the listening end of many a dicta-
graph when the ways were being greased
between men in high places and the penitentiary
at Atlanta.
"And you samplers," Gard was saying,
"where can I meet you when another Saturday
night comes?"
"Me at the Bayou Fouche mills," said Han-
sen.
"And the company sends me to Colorado fo*
my lungs," said Tobin, the consumptive.


86 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
"And I keep time at the refinery," ventured
"Fat" Cunningham.
"So everybody works," said the special
agent. "Uncle Sam does not care if he lays
good men off half the time, but the Continental
people take care of the samplers."
"Good is the reason why they should," said
the consumptive Tobin. "Don't we save them
enough money in the way we take the sam-
ples?"
"How is that?" asked Gard.
"Look here, young fellow," said the gruff
Hansen, "it seems to me that you are a good
little asker of questions. Why are you so curi-
ous? Maybe you are a secret service man,
eh?"
"Sure," said Gard. "I am Chief "Wilkinson
himself.''
"Wilkinson, nothing," said Hansen. "His
name is Wilkie."
"Wilkie, your eye," argued the special
agent. "Don't you suppose I read detective
stories? His name is Wilkinson."
But the sampler was sure of his facts and
the apparent error of the other man disarmed
him.


THE SUGAR SAMPLERS 87
'1
«
"Well," he said, "as yoij're so curious and
as I have the tip that you are to be a sampler
next season, I might as well put you wise. We
are all taken care of by the refiners because we
look after their interests on the dock.''
The big fellow looked carefully about, but
there was nobody near except the frowsy dra-
matist, who was absorbed in his manuscript.
He threw off another big drink of whisky and
with it all discretion.
"You see," he said, "a sampler on Govern-
ment wages would be in a pretty fix if he were
let out after seven months and had to stand a
chance of loafing for five. So the company
passes the word that if the boys do the right
thing they will be given work during the off sea-
son. I happen to know Gottrell himself and he
takes me aside. That was eight years ago.
"'Hansen,' he says to me, 'pass the tip to the
boys to sample right,' he says, 'and there will
be work for them between seasons.'
"'What do you mean, sample right?' I says.
"'Well,' he says, 'a wet sample may mean
she grades 92 and a dry one that she grades 94.
A sampler can get a good many of them wet. I
don't have to tell you how.'


88 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
"So I passed the word," continued Hansen.
"At the end of the season half of the samplers
were offered jobs with the company. It was
easy, of course, for them to find from the rec-
ords who was getting wet sugar. Not a dry
sugar man got a job. You ask Tobin, He was
one of the guys who held out for honesty. But
it was a hard season for Tobin, with his health
bad and three kids. So next season he lined
up. So did most of them. Inside of three
years there was not a sampler on the dock who
was not taking them wet."
"But put me wise," said Gard. "If I am
going to get a sampler's job next year you bet-
ter pass the word to me so I will know how to
hold it."
"I guess you know enough about raw sugar,"
said the sampler, "to know that it drinks up
moisture like a sponge when it gets a chance.
Well, they are not careful in keeping out the
damp air when it is aboard ship, and it often
comes handy, not altogether by accident, for a
sack of sugar to get a chance to lie on a wet
board. The sugar on the outside naturally gets
a little damp, and if you will turn a sack over
you may find a wet side to it. The first lesson


THE SUGAR SAMPLERS 89
is to take your samples from the wet side of the
sack and from the part near the ouside.
"But maybe the sugar has been kept pretty
dry. "Well it is up to the sampler to get a little
moisture into his tube. If it is a warm day a
few drops of sweat may be gathered by a scrape
of the back of your hand. Every drop is worth
its weight in gold a hundred times to the refin-
ers. It would surprise you to learn how clev-
erly the sampler learns to spit a bit of tobacco
juice into his tube. You have worked on the
docks for a long time. You never saw it done,
did you? But they were at it all the time. I
bet the Government has paid a million dollars
for tobacco juice in the last ten years. Cun-
ningham, here, has grown fat eating tobacco."
"But does everybody on the dock take wet
samples?" asked the detective.
"Surest thing you know," said Hansen.
"Ask them."
"How about it, Cunningham?" queried Gard.
"I need the work," said the fat man.
"And you, Tobin?"
"I held out a year," said the little consump-
tive, "but couldn't afford to lose my job."
All the others present pleaded guilty.


90 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
"Don't you fellows get anything for it but
a little off-season work?" asked Gard.
"Not a thing," acknowledged Hansen with
a huge oath. "We certainly sell out cheap and
the company makes barrels of money out of
the bargain. But the old man has never given
us a look in on any of it.''
The dictagraph stenographer at the next
table had caught every word. He was in a posi-
tion to substantiate the testimony of Gard who
should be able to make these samplers tell their
stories in court. Soon the two faded away
without being missed, but they took with them
a complete case against the Government
samplers of this port and against the Continen-
tal Refining Company which had been profiting
through their shortcomings.
It was a month later and Billy Gard had com-
pleted his work. He had gone to Henry Got-
trell "cold turkey," and with authority from
the department. He had shown that rotund
and genial captain of industry just the case the
Government had against him. With him he had
gone over the record of the business of the re-
finers since that period, eight years previous,


THE SUGAR SAMPLERS 91
when the wet sample scheme had been inaugu-
rated. He had worked out an estimate of the
probable duty that the Government had lost
during that time. The actual loss was not, of
course, as great as the theoretical, for many
of the samples were of necessity honest. Yet
it must have run as high as $600,000 as a short-
age on the part of G"ottrell and his associates.
Gard indicated the possibility of the success
of a criminal prosecution, the probability of
recovering that large sum of money through the
courts. He confessed to the humiliation of the
Government that so many of its employees had
been false to their trust. He even granted that
the Government might, under the circumstan-
ces, feel itself somewhat to blame for the con-
ditions that had existed. It is not recorded
whether the vision of a girl with frizzly, corn-
colored hair came into the mind of the special
agent and had to do with his recommendations
that the case be settled out of court. But certain
it is that the Government authorized him to pro-
pose that, if the company should pay the Govern-
ment $600,000, an amount it would be just able
to raise and escape bankruptcy, the case would


92 UNCLE S\M: DETECTIVE
be dismissed, thejsaiAplers discharged, and a
new regime inaugurated in which the Govern-
ment would take pains to protect itself.
Upon this basis the case was settled. Billy
Gard had earned his salary.
The next day he was packing up at his hotel
in preparation for leaving for Washington
when there arrived by messenger a little,
square, delicately scented envelope which he
tore open somewhat wonderingly. Inside he
found this note:
Father has told me all about it. For the third
time let me say, "Splendid!" And remember that
you promised to come and tell me about it when it
was all over.
THELMA GOTTREIiL.
Which would seem a perfectly good reason
why Gard was a day late in reaching Washing-
ton.


V
THB PSYCHOLOGICAL SLEUTH
BILLY GAED was jogging comfortably
from the station to the Commercial
hotel in the carryall which, in Royerton,
still afforded the only link between those two
points, when pandemonium broke out in the
slumbrous streets. He met its forerunner head
on not two blocks from the station. This bolt
that had launched itself from the clear skies
took the form of a normally dignified family
carriage drawn by two lean bays. But the
sedate respectability which surrounded this
equipage when it was driven by its proper
owner, President Sissons of the Eoyerton
National bank, had been lost in the madness of
the present exploit.
For the lean bays were now extending them-
selves in what appeared to be an attempt to
break all speed records that the community
had ever known. The dignified carriage was
93


94 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
careening from side to side in a way that
threatened its overthrow at any moment.
Gard's first impression was of a team that had
broken loose from a hitching rack and dashed
away uncontrolled. But as it flashed past him
there was an instant in which the actual situa-
tion was photographed upon his brain.
For this team was not without a driver. He
had seen the form of a slim young man which
leaned far out over the dashboard—pale,
refined features that fitted illy into a scene of
such vigorous action. But what was more sur-
prising was that this driver, instead of attempt-
ing to restrain his horses, was every moment
lashing them into new exertions.
"Homer Kester, as I live!" ejaculated the
driver of the carryall in consternation.
"Who is Homer Kester?" asked Gard.
"The cashier of the bank," was the reply.
Whereupon the young special agent of the
Department of Justice acquired an even greater
interest in the situation than he had experienced
before, for he had come to Boyerton for the
purpose of making inquiries into the condition
of its national bank, which was under suspi-
cion.


PSYCHOLOGICAL SLEUTH 95
Behind the fleeing carriage came the town
constable, who had evidently appropriated, for
purposes of giving chase, the first horse he had
found by the side of the street. Others had
joined in the pursuit and a rabble of small boys
and curious townsmen crowded the street.
From these the stranger was soon able to gather
the story of what had happened in the immedi-
ate past.
It had suddenly developed that the cashier
was short in his accounts. The directors had
awakened of a sudden to a realization that the
institution over which they presided was but a
financial shell. There was no delay in the
interest of expediency. An immediate call was
sent forth for the constable. The young
cashier went into a panic. In desperation he
rushed from the back door of the bank, cut
loose the team of the institution's president
which stood near, leaped in and fled from the
danger that faced him.
It would have appeared that such a procedure
would have been entirely futile, that there
would have been no question of the apprehen-
sion of this criminal. Yet such was not the
case, and Homer Kester was a thorn in the flesh


96 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
of the authorities and particularly of Special
Agent Billy Gard for many a day. For he ran
his team two miles into the country, abandoned
it, but sent it still adrift, caught a cross-country
trolley, and with the exception of a single fleet-
ing moment, was not again seen by the authori-
ties for a year and a half.
Gard, in the meantime, was faced with the
immediate problem of determining the nature
of the crime and representing the United
States, that justice might be meted out. In the
course of which work he developed the detail
of what had happened to the lone financial insti-
tution of this country town and revealed a
method by which a single depositor had filched
it of its funds in a way that almost amounted
to the knowledge and consent of the directors.
The trouble was all caused by a young man
by the name of George D. Caviness, who was
born with a peculiar gift of inducing his asso-
ciates to perform for him such favors as were
better not granted. It would seem that he had
taken for his model in life the monkey (if it was
a monkey) that had first induced the cat to pull
those historical chestnuts out of the fire. But
so alluring were his blandishments, so attrac-


PSYCHOLOGICAL SLEUTH 97
tive his personality, so popular was he socially,
that the town had become accustomed to for-
giving his transgressions and allowing him to
have his way.
The father of George D. had been a director
of the Eoyerton National bank and at one time
a man of means. It was a great shock to the
town when, three years earlier, the elder Cavi-
ness had blown out his brains. It was a sur-
prise to his associates to find that his estate
had so dwindled that there was almost nothing
left. The bank was directly embarrassed,
because of the fact that the younger Caviness
had borrowed, upon his father's endorsement,
$3,000 from that institution. Knowing the
youngster as these directors did, they called
him on the carpet and asked him what he
intended to do toward making good.
"I am going to pay these notes almost imme-
diately," he said confidently. "You know that
I am now the local representative of a New
York insurance company. I am doing a great
business. In fact, I can promise a payment
to-morrow."
"But," urged a dierctor, "your personal
account is also overdrawn."


98 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
"That will not be necessary any more," said
Caviness. "I am now on a firm financial basis.
I am now in a position to throw new business to
the bank instead of being a burden to it."
With these assurances the directors parted
with young Caviness on the friendliest of terms.
They wanted to believe in what he said, as this
would save the bank money and themselves
embarrassment. Further than this there
seemed nothing that could be done, and the
boundless optimism of the young man created
confidence.
The next day the insurance agent deposited
for discount a sixty-day note for $300, given him
by a man for whom he had written a policy. He
drew $50 in cash, and allowed the balance to be
placed to his credit. The directors were
encouraged. The insurance man continued
such operations, much of his paper being per-
fectly good. It would appear that he was on
the way toward clearing up his affairs, but Cav-
iness spent much money, some of it going
toward the entertainment of sons and daughters
of the directors. If they stopped him at any
time it would have meant the absolute loss of
the amount he already owed. As illogical as it


PSYCHOLOGICAL SLEUTH 99
might seem, more and more credit was
extended.
In addition to the liberties that Caviness thus
took with the directors of the bank, he had also
established a sort of dominance over Homer
Kester, its young cashier. The dominant
insurance man had been a leader among their
mutual associates from youth, was the social
lion of the town, and always patronized the
cashier. That timid youth had allowed his
friend to overdraw his account when his father
was a director, and it therefore seemed safe.
This fact made it easier afterward when it was
unsafe.
Finally the directors awoke to the fact that
George Caviness owed the bank $10,000.
Homer Kester, the cashier, so reported. The
directors were appalled. This was the end.
Caviness was contrite. He made new notes
for the whole amount. These would at least
appear in the assets of the bank when the
examiner came around. He promised he would
in future deposit only cash and certified checks.
The hope of recovering some of the money led
the directors to keep the account open. There
seemed no other way.


PSYCHOLOGICAL SLEUTH 101
tion was different. Caviness now had Kester
in his control. That youngster had made a
false report to the examiner and the directors.
He had violated the law. His position, even
his freedom, depended on helping Caviness to
make good.
"If I had but a few hundred dollars," Cavi-
ness told Kester when they met surreptitiously
to talk the matter over, "I could clean up the
whole amount. I have a most unusual business
opportunity in Philadelphia. You must let me
overdraw just once more."
"Not a cent," insisted Kester. "I have
already let you ruin me and the bank. I will go
no further."
"If you don't," brutally stated the insurance
man, "you are ruined by what you have already
done, I am ruined, the bank is ruined. This is
the one chance."
In the end he went to Philadelphia to grasp
this one chance. Billy Gard acknowledged that
it was logical that the cashier should allow him
to do so. The draft that Caviness drew was
for twice the amount he had named but the
harassed cashier could not bring himself to
refuse to honor it. Caviness had proved him-


102 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
self a psychologist again. Two days later a
smaller draft came but with no line of explana-
tion. The chance to recoup might depend upon
this money, the cashier felt. He appreciated
the greater chances on the other side but, hav-
ing honored the larger check, he could not turn
down the smaller one. It was not logic that
he should do so. As the days passed there
came other drafts for always smaller amounts.
There was still no report from Caviness. Yet
what excuse could the cashier offer himself for
refusing these small drafts when he had hon-
ored the big ones? Finally the prodigal drew,
in a single day, forty small checks ranging
from one to five dollars.
Despairingly the cashier cashed every one.
It was during the week that followed that
the directors had precipitated the flight of the
cashier. Billy Gard found the whole case easy
to clear up with the exception of the apprehen-
sion of the two men who had been the instru-
ments in wrecking the bank.
The special agent had little doubt of his abil-
ity to catch Homer Kester, the cashier. There
was the almost infallible theory that such a
fugitive would write home. There was but the


PSYCHOLOGICAL SLEUTH 103
necessity to wait until he should do so and the
point of hiding would be indicated by the post
mark. There was no need of haste in the case
of Kester, it seemed, but Caviness was harder
to figure out.
Yet just the reverse proved to be true.
Gard's theory for catching a man of the Cavi-
ness type held good, while on the fugitive
cashier he absolutely failed.
In Eoyerton it was easy to find many inti-
mates of the insurance man. From these it
was learned that the spendthrift often visited
Philadelphia and that while there he kept fast
company. Some of the young men of the vil-
lage knew of the places he frequented, the peo-
ple who were his friends.
"Such a man," soliloquized Billy Gard,
"always hides with a woman."
Whereupon the special agent returned to
Philadelphia and began investigating, one after
another, the resorts and the sporting friends of
the missing insurance agent. One thread after
another was followed to its end until, in tracing
a certain woman to Germantown, the special
agent met with a result and a surprise that was
beyond his expectation.


104 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
A drayman who had hauled the goods and
chattels of the woman he was tracing had given
Gard the Germantown address. It was eleven
o 'clock on a sunshiny morning when the special
agent reached the address. It was a narrow
house in a closely built row and evidently was
rented, each floor as a flat. Gard had recon-
noitered front and back, had gossiped with the
grocer at the corner, with some children in the
street. He was looking for an opportunity to
approach the janitor of the house to question
him informally, wanted to talk to the postman.
Then he met the policeman on this beat. He
had asked this guardian of the law about the
occupants of the flat in question and the two
men were drifting idly past when pandemonium
broke loose.
Shriek after shriek tore its way through the
drawn curtains of the ground-floor flat. There
was the crash of broken furniture, the whack
of heavy blows, the thud of falling bodies. The
policeman and the special agent ran to the door
of the house to which the former put his shoul-
der with good effect. They were thus let into
a narrow hall. Off of this were the doors to the


PSYCHOLOGICAL SLEUTH 105
flat through which the noise of a vast disturb-
ance continued to come. It required the
strength of the two men to break through the
barrier, and some delay was occasioned. But
when the door was finally forced it was a wild
scene that was revealed.
They had broken into the sitting room.
Sprawled across its floor was the form of a di-
sheveled woman, frowsily blonde, shapely, clad
in a dressing sacque and evidently unconscious.
Chairs were upset, tables overturned.
The intruders gave but a hurried glance to
this apartment, however, for the action of the
play was still going forward and might be seen
through the torn portieres that led into the
adjoining dining-room. As they looked the
form of a strong young man fell heavily across
the dining-room table, felled by a blow from the
stout stick of a slim antagonist. The wielder
of the stick shifted his position and Billy Gard
got a view of his face, lividly white, delicately
chiseled and refined in appearance. It seemed
illy to fit into this chaotic scene. Yet the' spe-
cial agent knew he had seen it before and
instantly the photographic flash of such a face


106 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
bending over the dashboard of a madly plung-
ing carriage returned to his consciousness. It
was the face of Homer Kester.
Billy Gard had often had occasion to be
vastly surprised by the unexpected vigor and
prowess of mild and law-abiding men when
plunged by circumstances into the realms of the
lawless. He had therefore not been greatly
surprised when the young cashier had made his
wild ride to freedom. But as the aggressive
wielder of a heavy stick that had beaten his
antagonist into unconsciousness—this was
indeed a militant role to be played by the inof-
fensive former cashier. That young man evi-
dently had qualities that had not been attrib-
uted to him.
Gard knew instantly that the man stretched
across the dining-room table was Caviness, the
bank wrecker. The policeman, true to his
training, rushed into the affray that it might
be stopped and the participants placed under
arrest. The wielder of the heavy stick turned
toward the door, took in the situation in a
glance and fled toward the back of the house.
As in his escape from Eoyerton, all the luck
broke with him. As he dashed into the kitchen


PSYCHOLOGICAL SLEUTH 107
he slammed the door behind him. It was prob-
ably all chance that the latch was so set that the
door locked, and the officer was delayed in
breaking it down. From the back steps of this
ground-floor flat to an alley was but twenty
feet. When the officer gained those steps he
but looked into a blank board fence in which
there appeared another closed door. He rushed
to this, flung it open, looked out. There was
not a soul in sight. The police of Philadelphia
lost track of Homer Kester when he slammed
the flat door in the face of this member of its
Germantown staff. The prowess of the Fed-
eral agents, represented by William H. Gard,
one of its best men, • was also ineffective in
tracing the fugitive farther than to a railway
station where he took a west-bound train.
It was more than a year after this and
George D. Caviness was serving time in the
Federal penitentiary at Atlanta. Billy Gard
had been working hard on many other cases that
had intervened and the tracing of Homer Kes-
ter had been allowed to rest. It is the motto of
the Federal detectives, however, that a case is
never abandoned, and now Gard was back upon
the old task of catching the fugitive cashier.


108 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
His decks were otherwise clear and his instruc-
tions were to get his man.
Gard locked himself up with the Kester case
for three days. He read the records of it,
reviewed his personal knowledge, got together
every scrap of information that had any bear-
ing upon the character of the fugitive. He
wanted to know exactly what sort of young-
ster Kester was, he wanted to place himself in
that youngster's place and attempt to deter-
mine what he would have done under the cir-
cumstances. It is a method that has been
used by a few detectives with very great suc-
cess. But it is only the occasional man who
is so human that he may discard his own per-
sonality and appreciate the course that would
be taken by another, who may thus get results.
In Kester he had a youth of twenty-four
who had been born and reared in Eoyerton, had
rarely been away from that town, had no
interests out of it. He was a young man of
good character, had demonstrated certain
strokes of boldness and action. He had a
mother and father and two sisters living in
Eoyerton.


PSYCHOLOGICAL SLEUTH 109
It appeared that Kester had fled and that
he had cut all ties behind him—that he had
left town and had never communicated with
his relatives or friends. While Gard had
been off the case a vigilant watch had none-
theless been kept upon all letters arriving in
Royerton that might possibly be from the
fugitive. No letters had come.
"Now, Gard," said the detective to himself,
"were you a youngster of this training, living
thus in Eoyerton, surrounded by a family to
which you were devoted, with no interests in
the world outside, with a certain element of
boldness in your nature; if under these cir-
cumstances you got into trouble, would you run
clear away and never communicate with your
people?"
"No," he answered, transported back the
few years that separated him from the inex-
perience of twenty-four. "I could not break so
easily from my dependence upon my family and
the only world I had ever known."
"And if you were thus thrown upon your own
resources in the big outside world and had no
money, and if you had the additional handicap


110 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
of having to keep in hiding—would you be able
to face a proposition like this and still not call
for help from your people?"
"No," again answered the hypothetical
youngster. "I would hide and find a way to
get money and news from home."
So the detective reached the conclusion that
Kester was, in all probability, communicating
with his relatives. It was evident that he was
not writing home. Too close a watch could be
kept on letters coming to a small town for any
of his people or their confidential friends
to be receiving them without the knowledge of
the special agents who, through the postmas-
ter and letter carriers, had been steadily watch-
ing this means of communication.
So the conclusion was reached that Kester
was getting messages to his people through
some other means than the mails, in all proba-
bility through a confidential messenger. To do
this he must be near by. He could hide to best
advantage in a city. Philadelphia, Pittsburgh,
Baltimore were in a convenient radius. The
detective drew the conclusion that, were he in
the boots of the fugitive, he would have taken
refuge in one of these cities; that, had he not


PSYCHOLOGICAL SLEUTH 111
been willing to risk the mails, which Kester evi-
dently was not, he would have used some trusty
go-between and through that agency would have
learned the news from home and received from
his relatives the money upon which to live.
Upon the basis of this theory Billy Gard
asked himself more questions.
"Were I hiding under such conditions whom
would I use as a messenger?"
A faithful former servant who might be liv-
ing there, a distant relative, some individual
hired for the task. There were not so many
possibilities. They might be exhausted in a
few weeks' investigation. Was there not, how-
ever, a shorter road to results?
"If I were in this lad's place," the detective
again queried introspectively, "what would
make me write home?"
"Obviously nothing would," came the
answer, "so long as I could communicate
through the safer medium of a trusted messen-
ger."
"But if the messenger were an impossibility,
would I write?"
This query the detective had some difficulty
in answering. He brought himself to experi-


112 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
ence the lonesomeness and homesickness of the
fugitive, the lad whose whole life interest was
wrapped up in the little circle in which he had
moved. At the same time he appreciated the
fugitive's proven fear of the mails and his
avoidance of them so far.
But for the sake of laying down a basis for
action Detective Billy Gard granted that he
would write if he could not communicate other-
wise. If this were admitted what was to be
done! Obviously the former methods of com-
munication should be cut off.
How could this be done?
The messenger method of communication was
possible only because the fugitive was near
home. If he were far away it could not be
used. If he were far away he would also
feel an added degree of security. A worldly
fugitive would not, but Kester would. With a
continent between him and his crime the man
who had always lived in this narrow sphere
would not appreciate the possibilities of his cap-
ture. He would write.
Special Agent Billy Gard was quite sure of
this. He would have done it himself at twenty-
four. The runaway cashier should be captured


PSYCHOLOGICAL SLEUTH 113
by being caused to flee thousands of miles fur-
ther away.
Having reached this conclusion the special
agent called Police Sergeant Flaherty on
the telephone. Would Flaherty come to see
him? Flaherty would be there in fifteen min-
utes.
Now Gard knew that Flaherty had grown up
in the little town of Eoyerton. His folks lived
there and Flaherty occasionally went back for
a visit. The Irishman was a trustworthy guar-
dian of the law and might be depended upon to
carry out orders.
"Flaherty," said the special agent, "would
you like to take a bit of a trip to Eoyerton over
Sunday and see your folks, with all expenses
paid?"
"Would I eat a Dago's apples when I was
hungry?" said the policeman.
"Well, here is the lay of the land," Gard
explained. "I am after that fugitive cashier,
Kester, and I am going to get him. He is not
far from home and his folks are in communica-
tion with him. I want them to know that I
am after him. They will tell him, will supply
him with a bundle of money and he will not


PSYCHOLOGICAL SLEUTH 115
locating a well-described stranger in a compara-
tively small city. Two days later the Depart-
ment was informed of the arrest.
"Psychology," said Billy Gard rnminatively,
'' is a great help to a detective—when it works.''


VI
HOPING THE SMUGGLERS OP JAMAICA
SPECIAL AGENT BILLY GAKD sat in
the cafe of Fun Ken, that wealthy Ori-
ental who had pitched his resort among
the ferns of the Blue Mountains which look
down upon Kingston, the capital city of the
tropical and flowery island of Jamaica. Many
drowsy afternoons had he spent here with
orange juice and a siphon at his elbow and the
best of Havanas in his teeth. For Billy, in the
opinion of every man he met in the islands,
with the single exception of the American con-
sul, was a retired manufacturer, with money to
spend and time hanging heavily on his hands.
As a matter of fact, his table at the cafe was
chosen because it gave him an opportunity to
observe Fun Ken and his satellites, whom he
suspected of being a part of a huge conspiracy
for the smuggling of opium and Chinamen into
the States.
116


ROPING" THE SMUGGLERS 117
This afternoon he had thus silently gained a
reaffirmation of his belief that Fun Ken was a
part of the organization with which he had
already associated Wilmer Peterson, whose
acquaintance he had been cultivating. He had
seen Peterson alight from the electric car that
passed the door. The American had gone
through the cafe and out at the back. Fun Ken,
who was at the time presiding at the cashier's
desk, had immediately disappeared. Half an
hour later Fun Ken was again on the cashier's
stool and Peterson shortly thereafter returned
to the cafe. This occurrence had been wit-
nessed for three days in succession by the spe-
cial agent, who regarded it as a convincing
indication of collusion between these two men.
Of Peterson's operations, Gard already had
absolute proof. This he had gained at Port
Antonio, the shipping point for fruit at the
other end of the island. He had been sent to
the Caribbean because of the difficulty the
United States was having in preventing the
smuggling of opium and of Chinamen not
legally entitled to enter the country.
It was suspected that Jamaica was the base
of operations for these smugglers, and the


"ROPING" THE SMUGGLERS 119
this door he had a key. He let himself in.
Where the customs house faced the wharf were
large double doors through which freight might
be taken directly to the boat tied there. The
special agent unlocked these doors and made a
crack just large enough for observation and for
eavesdropping, but still so small as not to
attract attention from the outside. Here he
waited from eight to eleven o'clock.
In the stillness of this late hour the skipper
of the banana boat and Peterson, the smuggler,
held a conference.
"I have room for ten men," said the skipper.
"I have the men ready to come aboard," said
the smuggler.
"And the money?" suggested the man of the
seas.
"The cash is ready; $150 for each man when
he is stowed away. You will land them at
Mobile."
"At Mobile," assented the captain.
"See me next trip at Kingston," said the
smuggler. ''1 leave for that point in the morn-
ing."
Thus was gained the first peep into the
methods of the smugglers. Gard reported to


120 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
the American consul, who sent a message that
would result in the seizure of the banana boat
when it reached Mobile.
The special agent now had the thread of his
work well in hand. His intentions were to get
at the very bottom of the affair, however, and
not merely to apprehend an individual like
Peterson. That gentleman should be induced
to show the way. Peterson should be '' roped.''
That most effective, yet most difficult task of
working into the confidence of a culprit and
inducing him to lay his cards on the table,
should be employed.
It was with this idea in mind that Gard came
down to breakfast early the next morning, but
not so early that Peterson was not there ahead
of him. He sat opposite his man. The spe-
cial agent kept looking at his watch apprehen-
sively, and finally asked the man opposite if he
knew what time the train left for Kingston.
"At eight-thirty," said Peterson. "There is
plenty of time. I am going over on that train
myself.''
This opened the conversation, and placed
Gard in the position of having first indicated


"ROPING" THE SMUGGLERS 121
his intention of making the trip. He had said
he was going before he seemed to know that
Peterson had any such intention. These small
matters are of great importance in laying the
(foundation for getting your man. They talked
^through the meal. It was but natural when, at
8 :15, Gard appeared with his grip and started
to enter his cab, that he should ask Peterson,
who was just then ready for departure, to join
him.
At the station the smuggler, as a return
favor, advised Gard not to purchase a ticket,
as one could ride for half the fare by handing
the cash to the conductor. Gard, however,
declined this opportunity to save money, for he
was looking to the future and the necessity of
establishing himself in a given light with this
stranger.
Peterson asked his companion as to the hotel
to which he was going in Kingston.
"The Myrtlebank," said Gard.
"It will cost you six dollars a day," said the
smuggler. "Come with me, and I will show
you as good accommodations for three."
A detective less experienced in roping might


ROPING" THE SMUGGLERS 123
to Peterson, who was often embarrassed by
inquiries into his occupation.
And all the time Gard was picking up the
details of the operations of the smugglers. It
"was through the negro boy who waited on him
at the hotel that he learned of an opium ship-
ment. The boy had overheard the conversation
that gave him the information, and told of it
amusingly in the cockney English of the Jamai-
can negro.
Sing Foo was the moving spirit from the Chi-
nese end in these smuggling operations. He
was a more important man, in fact, than was
Fun Ken, who ran the resort on the hill. Sing
Foo was a wealthy merchant with a large estab-
lishment in the center of the Kingston China-
town. Gard had been studying his establish-
ment. The strange thing about it was that
there were constantly two or three hundred idle
Chinamen in its vicinity. The presence of Chi-
namen not at work is a condition so peculiar as
to require an explanation. But with the smug-
gling theory in the back of one's head, it was
easy to conceive that these superfluous Mongo-
lians were waiting an opportunity to be shuttled
into the United States.


124 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
The smuggling of opium and of Chinamen
was known to go hand in hand. Sing Foo,
according to the negro boy, had arranged a ship-
ment of opium to Philadelphia. A French-
American named Flavot, whom Gard had met
through Peterson, had been the intermediary.
The captain of a tramp copra trader was to
carry it. It was to be snugly hidden and, when
the steamer docked, nothing was to be done
immediately about it.
Presently a large negro wearing a linen ulster
would come aboard under the pretext of doing
some sort of work about the ship. This negro
was to be shown the opium. He would carry it
out a few boxes at a time.
Gard cabled his home office the details of this
deal in opium introduction. He advised that
nothing be done until the negro went aboard,
actually carried out the stuff and was followed
to his principal. There was a slip in Philadel-
phia, however; the captain got suspicious and
the opium was thrown into the river.
Two months passed in this way. All the time
Gard and Peterson were becoming more inti-
mate. One day the supposed retired glass
manufacturer confessed to the smuggler that


"ROPING" THE SMUGGLERS 125
he had once made some easy money by backing
some men who bad a system of beating the pool-
rooms. This, he said, was in Vicksburg, Miss.
The poolrooms in that city got their returns
on the Memphis races on a loop that was
relayed out of New Orleans. That is, the
results were telegraphed from Memphis to New
Orleans and from there relayed to the smaller
cities on a telegraphic loop. This caused a
delay of about four minutes. The men whom
Gard had backed had established communica-
tion by telephone between Memphis and Vicks-
burg and got the returns in time to put down
bets ahead of the receipt of the poolroom's
information. Thus they made the cleanup.
This not merely paved the way to similar con-
fidences on the part of Peterson, but gave him
to understand that Gard's morals were none
too puritanical, and that he might be induced to
back other questionable enterprises.
Peterson evidently thought this matter over
thoroughly before acting, for it was three days
before he touched on the subject. Then he
said:
"I could show a man of your sort an invest-
ment that would pay him a hundred per cent.


126 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
every month, if he were looking for a chance
to make money.''
"Well, I am not looking for such a chance,"
said Gard, '' but if one should drop into my lap
I might tie a string to it."
"Do you know anything about the opium
business?" asked the smuggler.
"Not a thing," said Gard.
"Well, a can of opium can be bought for five
dollars in Jamaica, and sold for twenty-seven
fifty in Philadelphia."
"That's a pretty good profit," said the spe-
cial agent; "but a man would have to get more
than two or three boxes past for it to amount
to anything."
"If you had a trim little schooner and some
one to show you how to get her past the authori-
ties, and she was loaded with opium to the gun-
wales, you would not have to make a trip every
other week to keep in cigarette money, would
you?"
"Obviously not," assented the capitalist.
"And you may have noticed all these idle
Chinamen about Sing Foo's place," continued
the smuggler. "Somebody is going to get one
hundred and fifty dollars apiece for running


"HOPING" THE SMUGGLERS 127
those fellows into the States. They are cross-
ing in a steady stream and getting past. It is
but around the corner of Cuba and a hundred
inlets inviting. Twenty of the Chinks can live
in a space as big as a dog's house, and they feed
themselves. It's clear profit. The little
schooner could carry a score or so of them every
trip."
"It looks like a good proposition on paper,"
said Gard. "If it could be demonstrated, it
would easily get a backer. But the trouble with
all such schemes is that they are good on paper,
but they can't be actually shown upon the basis
that a business man with money demands.''
"But this one can be shown," urged the
smuggler.
"That is the way you fellows with fancy
schemes always talk," argued Gard. "You can
make all the money in the world if you only had
the backing. Then a man with the money
comes along and says 'show me.' You always
fall down on the showing."
"Would you put up the price of a schooner
and a cargo of opium if you were shown that my
scheme would work?" asked the smuggler.
"I would," said Gard. "But you must


128 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
remember that I am a business man who has
made his stake by strictly business methods. I
must be shown."
This was the first step toward the formation
of a smuggling syndicate that labored along in
its preparation for birth and died tragically.
Gard here insisted on proving to Peterson
his commercial reliability and financial stand-
ing. He had long before prepared the papers
for just such an occasion. He had credentials,
and letters of credit, and certificates of deposit
and bank books without end. The smuggler had
had no idea of the wealth of the man he had
been cultivating. The backing was without
end, if he but won this man's confidence.
So he took the financier in tow, with the idea
of first showing him the source of supply of
opium and of Chinamen. In the presence of
Gard he got quotations on opium from Sing
Foo and from Fun Ken at five dollars for a can
the size of a pot of salmon. It was shown that
there was opium to be had practically without
end.
And the Chinamen themselves! He was told
that there were always five hundred of them in
Jamaica, ready to make the run into the States.


132 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
the inspector may sometime look under the mat-
tress ?'' Gard asked.
"There is the barest possibility," assented
the smuggler. "We have been taking it in this
way for years, and it has never been found.
But if it is discovered, we have but to look
innocent. It cannot be proved that we are
responsible for its presence. It might be the
steward."
The three came into Philadelphia, and passed
the customs officials as the smugglers had pro-
phesied, without a hitch. They went to their
hotel, and there found themselves each the pos-
sessor of twenty cans of opium, for which they
had paid five dollars and for which, Peterson
said, they were to receive $27.50. This was the
part of the transaction that was yet to be dem-
onstrated.
"We will do but a little business in Philadel-
phia," said Peterson, "just to show that it can
be done."
They took ten cans of the opium to a China-
man in Arch street, with whom Peterson was
acquainted. Yes, this man would buy opium.
The price for the same grade was the same as
before, $27.50. He could use all he could get.


"ROPING" THE SMUGGLERS 133
He would be glad to take ten cans. The profit
on these ten cans was $225.
'' We could have sold him a hundred cans as
easily, with ten times the profit," said Peter-
son.
In New York the smugglers called upon a
Doctor Yen, in Pell Street, one of the important
men in Chinatown. He stated that he was able
to buy opium at $27.50. The smugglers insisted
on $30. After much haggling 20 cans were sold
at $28.50. Here was a profit of $470.
But Doctor Yen was to be counseled on a
much more important matter. He was to be
told of the proposal to purchase a boat for the
opium traffic. He was to be asked to guarantee
the purchase of large amounts of opium.
The old Chinaman became greatly excited.
He ran to his safe and came back with $10,000
in currency. He was willing to put up this
money for its value in opium at $27.50 a can as
soon as delivered. When that was gone there
would be other money. He alone would make
the owners of the boat rich.
In Boston was the actual headquarters of
Peterson and Flavot. A Jew by the name of
Ferren was their financial backer. It was Fer-


134 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
ren who had put them into the business. When
Ferren was told of the proposed enterprise he
would not at first listen to it. He would have
to be shown that this Mr. Gard was on the level.
There were too many eyes watching for opium.
Peterson told of the credentials, and finally
succeeded in convincing him that Gard was what
he purported to be and, gaining confidence as
the plan developed, the Jew finally became
enthusiastic. In the end he vied with Doctor
Yen in his anxiety to purchase unlimited opium.
Gradually Gard granted that he was con-
vinced of the feasibility of the scheme, if he
were shown the possibility of getting the
schooner into the States. It was at this point
that he was introduced to one Captain Bailey,
who had, some years before, figured in a very
sensational attempt at the introduction of Chi-
namen from Canada and their landing at New
Haven. Bailey had been caught, had served a
term in prison, and, since his liberation, was run-
ing a fish stand in Boston market.
But Bailey knew all the coves in the Atlantic
and the gulf into which a boat might put. He
knew every dock where she might tie up, and the
time that must pass thereafter before it would


"ROPING" THE SMUGGLERS 135
be safe to put his men ashore. Operating from
Jamaica there was none of the danger into
which he had run in bringing Orientals from
Canada.
Eventually the papers were drawn, setting
forth conditions under which all these men
entered into a partnership in this smuggling
venture. Gard, Ferren, Peterson, Flavot and
Bailey had all signed, and Gard had gone to
New York to get the signature of Doctor Yen.
The district attorney's office in Boston was pre-
pared for the arrests when the papers should
finally be signed. "When Doctor Yen affixed his
signature Gard signaled an associate across the
narrow street in Chinatown. He sent the flash
to Boston and the trap was sprung.
So were all the inside facts of this most aggra-
vating system of smuggling revealed. With
these facts in hand, the Government had little
difficulty in breaking up a system that had been
causing a lot of trouble for a decade.
So, also, was one of the most complete and
successful cases of "roping" that any of the
Government agents had ever attempted carried
to a successful termination.


A BANK CASE 137
"And I know just how much I have on
deposit," insisted Miss Dolan, the school-
teacher.
"And I am quite sure of mine," asserted a
buxom widow who had collected life insurance.
"As a test of my contention," said Gard, "I
am willing to pledge a box of candy to each of
the ladies and cigars to the gentlemen who will
set down the exact amounts of their inactive
accounts in the First National bank and then
prove their figures correct by application to the
cashier."
This proposal appealed to those who had been
drawn into the incipient controversy. Next day
they asked for the figures, and each had won his
reward. Gard seemed chagrined that his the-
ory should have thus gone to the winds, but he
cheerfully stood treat.
For he had established a fact very important
to him. The inactive accounts of the First
National bank of New Beaufort were intact.
This was one of the first steps in an investi-
gation of a financial institution which, while
seemingly in the best of condition, was suspected
of having been looted for hundreds of thousands
of dollars. Special agents of the Department of


138 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
Justice knew that an official of the bank had been
trading heavily in Wall Street and that he had
lost. Gard, a member of this new detective
force of the Federal Government, had been sent
to investigate. Eepresenting himself as a book-
keeper he had secured a position with the lead-
ing grocer and had come to board with Mrs.
Hudson.
He stayed three months. At the end of that
time he reported the shortage, fixed the blame
upon the man responsible for it, showed the
methods used, cited the accounts from which the
money had been stolen, told what accounts were
still intact. Yet he had never been inside the
bank, had seen none of its books, had consulted
with nobody familiar with them, had received
no confessions. The manner in which he
accomplished these seemingly impossible ends
illustrates most excellently the methods used by
this new detective agency of the Government.
It was a strange conspiracy of circumstances
that brought to New Beaufort detectives from
three different services on the night, two months
later, that Conrad Compton, the enterprising
citizen and banker, was giving his big party.
There was McCord, a plain-clothes man from


A BANK CASE 139
New York. McCord would not have been in
New Beaufort but for the ramifications of the
New York police department in keeping track
of these middle class criminals who live through
the trade of burglary—a calling that is some-
times refined to art. And the police depart-
ment would not have come into possession of a
certain tip if "Speck" Thompson had not done
his bit up the river and returned to his old
haunts so broken that he chose to become a stool
pigeon because he was no longer up to second
story work.
Speck had found that "Dutch" Shroder had
arranged to crack a safe and that the scene of
the cracking was New Beaufort. He had tipped
the matter off to the police, and hence McCord's
presence in a community that was far from
metropolitan. He represented the first of the
detective services.
The second such service was represented by
Ogram Newton, a bank examiner in the service
of the treasury department. His district was
central New York. For three years he had
been taking an occasional look into the books
of the various national banks of his district,
checking up assets and liabilities, inquiring into


140 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
the value of the paper held by the banks. Two
weeks before Conrad Compton gave his party
Newton had been in New Beaufort and had gone
thoroughly into the affairs of the bank. Its
books were models of efficiency and there was no
flaw to be found in any of its securities or loans.
Newton had given the institution his O. K. and
had passed on to other towns.
But there was a feeling of unrest that haunted
the young examiner. It seemed that his subcon-
scious mind was aware of an oversight that had
been made by his working faculties. He was
not able to sleep well of nights, and in his sleep
the various accounts of the New Beaufort bank
insisted on visualizing themselves. Finally the
recurring accounts eliminated themselves with
the exception of one which persisted. The loans
and discounts account kept thrusting itself into
his consciousness.
"By Jove!" he exclaimed suddenly to him-
self. '' The entries in that account, the amounts
of money that have been run through it, are out
of all proportion to the other business of the
institution. Something is wrong with loans and
discounts."
So Newton hurried back to New Beaufort and


A BANK CASE 143
served. He thought the banker was a bit paler
than usual and his natural nervousness seemed
somewhat accentuated. Once during the even-
ing he had drifted into the library which hap-
pened to be empty of guests, and had found the
host peering out of a window that commanded
a view of the town.
"I trust you will pardon my preoccupation,"
said the banker, turning again to his guests, "I
seem to have a way of feeling lonesomest when I
have most company."
McCord, the plain-clothes man, had vacillated
between his hotel, the railway station, and those
streets that gave views of the alleys leading past
the back ends of establishments that might con-
tain safes worth raffling. Occasionally his eye
fell upon the lights in the house of the banker
on the hill, and wandered to the chief financial
establishment of the town. Yet all was so
serene in this eddy of the world that the hour of
solitude that followed eleven o'clock seemed
such an age that it drove him to bed.
As the time drew on toward twelve there was
no sign of life in the village. The lights in the
drug stores, the restaurants, the delicatessens
where ice cream is served to the small town


A BANK CASE 145
foot when the clatter as of a bunch of giant fire
crackers called their attention to the village
below. From the bank building was seen sud-
denly to burst a cloud of smoke while, a moment
later, a skylight was broken and a tongue of
flame leaped forth.
'' Fire! Fire!'' came the shout from a dozen
voices.
Gard had seen more than had the guests of
the banker. As he smoked his pipe and watched
the village below, the lights in the windows of
Stone Crest, and the silent cottage of Lorance,
the assistant cashier, he had seen an automobile,
with no lamp showing, creep through the quiet
back street, purr stealthily into the alley back
of the bank and stop behind a small building
that shut off his view. Half an hour passed and
the darkened machine reappeared from behind
the intervening building, turning into the thor-
oughfare leading to the southeast and disap-
peared in the distance at an ever increasing rate
of speed.
When the exploding cartridges in the
cashier's drawer at the bank gave the first warn-
ing of the fire, the clamor of the alarm followed
and pandemonium broke out in the village. Of


146 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
the dispersing group on the hill, every one ran
for a nearer view of the fire. The musicians,
the servants, the master of the house himself,
all hurried into the village to make part of the
excitement that prevailed. Stone Crest, the
lights of its entertainment still glowing, was left
deserted.
Gard, the special agent, again acted differ-
ently from his fellows by failing to do the thing
which others did. He crossed over from the
hill on which he had smoked and hastily entered
the banker's house. Arriving, he seemed to
know exactly what he wanted. He hurried
through the rooms of the house, snapping on
still more lights until he found that apartment
which seemed to be the personal retreat of the
owner.
Here he evidently had business. Standing
in the middle of the floor he looked about.
Thrown carelessly into a window seat he saw
two heavy books of the appearance of ledg-
ers. These he secured and placed on a table
in the middle of the room without even ex-
amining them. Next he began further explo-
ration. When he found the banker's bedroom
he seemed satisfied. On the back of a chair was


A BANK CASE 147
a, coat, evidently that which Compton had worn
until he dressed for the evening. Gard thrust
his hand into the inside pocket of his coat and
pulled out a batch of letters through which he
ran rapidly. He selected two or three, thrust
them into his pocket, returned for the ledgers,
tucked these under his arm and left the house.
On the way to his lodgings he filed a telegram
to the department at Washington which read as
follows:
Compton, cashier in First National bank case,
guilty. Lorance probably not implicated. Bank
burned to-night by accomplices of Compton. Case
complete. Gabd.
The manner in which these conclusions were
reached are but typical of the methods of the
sleuths of the Department of Justice. Gard had
come to New Beaufort with but a suspicion that
Lorance, the assistant cashier, was playing the
market on the funds of the bank. Lorance was
known to be placing orders with a Wall Street
broker.
At the boarding house Gard learned that Lor-
ance lived modestly in a cottage with his wife
and babies, had not been seen to make any dis-


148 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
play of money, was of sturdy farmer stock. On
the other hand the investigator immediately
picked up the facts that the cashier, Compton,
maintained an expensive establishment, enter-
tained lavishly, was often absent from town, was
nervous, highstrung, in bad health.
All these facts led him to watch the cashier
rather than his assistant. They led him, also,
to some experimental testing of the condition of
the bank's accounts. He knew that a dishonest
employee of a bank, in appropriating money,
had to charge it to some account to make the
books balance. The large, inactive accounts
offer a most tempting opportunity of this sort;
but these were found to be intact by his ruse of
inducing the depositors to call for their bal-
ances.
It was to get a better line on the business
of the community, and particularly upon the
accounts of Compton, that the special agent
secured a position of bookkeeper in Joy's gro-
cery store. Here he found, in the first place,
that the buying of the Compton home was
profligate and evidently wasteful. He found,
further, that the bills were always paid without
question and by check. Knowing of an old trick


A BANK CASE 149
that has brought many a cashier to ruin, Gard
sought a way to test these personal checks to
determine whether or not they actually found
their way to the personal account of the cashier.
The cashier of a bank is usually the individual
who opens the mail, and many of these have
been known to cash personal checks and destroy
them when they came in for collection, charging
the amount to some account where it might tem-
porarily be hidden. To determine whether or
not these personal checks were being juggled by
the cashier Gard, as the grocer's bookkeeper,
found a pretext to send to the bank for a record
of some personal checks of Compton's which he
had handled a few days earlier. The call was
made while Compton was out to lunch, and the
checks could not be found. Through another
dealer Gard succeeded in getting a second simi-
lar request made with the same results. He
concluded that Compton was at least juggling
his personal account and charging the amount
of his personal checks to some other account,
probably loans and discounts.
In various ways the special agent found
opportunities, even without seeing the books of
the bank, of demonstrating to his satisfaction


A BANK CASE 151
avenue of misappropriation thus was discov-
ered.
In this way the special agent was ahle from
the outside to get very good leads into the con-
dition of the hank and to determine the manner
of its looting when the facts might not have been
obtainable by an expert working from the in-
side.
Gard's case was about completed and the
Department was ready to act when the dra-
matic denouement came. Arson, suicide and
flight are the three events most to be expected
when the funds of a bank have been misappro-
priated. The young special agent was watch-
ing for any of these at the time of the anniver-
sary party given by the banker. It was in
preparation for any of them that he watched
so late on that occasion.
On the afternoon which preceded the enter-
tainment Grard was working over his books at
the store and at the same time keeping an eye
on the bank. An hour after closing time at the
bank he saw Compton come out of the side door
with two books of the institution under his arm.
He could make out that one was loans and dis-
counts. He surmised that they might be rec-


152 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
ords that were to be destroyed—probably the
books that showed his guilt.
When from the hillside Gard that night saw
the silent car stop back of the bank and the
flames subsequently break out, he knew what had
happened. These were accomplices of the
cashier who had probably looted the bank of
any remaining funds and, according to agree-
ment, had set it on fire that the incriminating
records of the cashier might be destroyed. The
wily cashier, however, had made sure that the
books that showed his guilt would not be found,
in case the plan was not an entire success. He
had removed them himself, but had not as yet
destroyed them for he saw no probability of
coming under immediate suspicion. Likewise
had he neglected to destroy certain correspond-
ence that later connected him with the parties
found to have committed the arson.
The books taken from the banker's house
were found to be the personal ledger wherein
should have been entered deposits, and the loans
and discounts ledger in which account Compton
had entered the amounts representing all his
personal checks. This latter was the account
that had dwelt in the mind of Newton, the bank


VIII
BEHIND CUSTOMS SCBEENS
iHE effrontery of this special agent, you
would quite naturally conclude, was
.A. ridiculous. You approve of the sort of
courage that makes a man willing to tackle
almost any big task, but you also recognize the
limitations of the individual. David with his
slingshot had an obvious chance of success. If
he could make a scratch shot and land on
the coco of Mr. Goliath he would win. But
Special Agent Billy Gard sallied forth non-
chantly against the whole army of Philistines,
apparently without even a slingshot.
The Philistines in this case were typified by
the customs crowd of the port of New York.
That crowd was a ring within the administra-
tion of the affairs of that greatest of gateways
that had built up a system for diverting a mil-
lion of dollars a year from the pocket of Uncle

1M


BEHIND CUSTOMS SCREENS 155
Sam and appropriating the money to itself.
For twenty-five years the men of this inner cir-
cle had steadily strengthened their positions,
their hold upon those in authority, their power
to shake down importers. There is a great
influence to be wielded by a million dollars a
year in the hands of willing spenders.
The development of this condition of affairs
was based primarily upon the fact that posi-
tions in the customs service are dependent upon
politics. The men who built up the system of
customs graft had secured their appointments
because they had political influence. They
afterward used that influence and put their easy
money back of it. Their power grew. It made
it possible for them to dictate appointments
more important than their own, even to the col-
lectorship itself. It made it possible for them
to bring about the removal of any smaller official
who seemed to stand in their way. Men not in
the ring learned to wink at many things that
they saw. When an emissary of the crooked
customs crowd went to an importer, even where
he was honest, it came to be known that it was
wise to listen to any proposal made. Thus did
the machine gather force.


156 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
Just one example of the workings of the sys-
tem. An Italian named Costello was an
importer of cheese. He was a successful, enter-
prising and honest merchant. One day he
received a large shipment from Italy, upon
which he expected to pay a duty of $10,000.
The cargo was unloaded and weighed by the
customs representatives. That night an emis-
sary of the ring called upon the Italian mer-
chant. He showed the record of weights for
the cheese cargo. According to this record Cos-
tello would have had to pay a duty of $5,000.
It showed but half the weight in cheese that had
actually arrived.
"We save you $5,000," said the spokesman.
"We expect you to divide the profit."
"But I believe in dealing honestly with the
Government," said Costello. "I have always
done so and I have prospered."
"My tip to you," said the go-between, "is to
do as the weighers suggest. They could as
easily have charged you overweight as under-
weight. Besides, you will save much money.''
The importer, a foreigner, thus advised by
representatives of the Government of his adop-
tion, took the tip and thereafter profited through


BEHIND CUSTOMS SCREENS 159
was working hard at the task of becoming a
baseball fan.
Two weeks he had devoted to the docks. Dur-
ing the first of these weeks he had gone from
wharf to wharf and from man to man. He had
asked many questions which were but the com-
mon places that any individual who wanted to
get a smattering of the detail of such a business
would have asked. He was received tolerantly
by the old heads of the customs crowd. Many
agents had been to the docks ahead of him and
most of these had been experts. If they began
to get dangerous, political influence was used
in having them pulled off the job or money was
used in having them fail to report any wrong-
doing. But this youngster who did not know
the simplest things about the customs service—
he was hardly worthy of notice.
But during that week Gard had not expected
to become a customs expert. His plan for get-
ting results was founded on a different idea.
He had been hunting for a man who suited the
purpose of his plan, and had found him. This
man was an Irishman by the name of O 'Toole,
who was one of the weighers at a certain dock


160 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
in Brooklyn. He had in the back of his head I
all the* facts that the special agent lacked. If 1
he could be induced to cooperate, the case might |
be worked out. j
0 "Toole was a man of fifty, and had been a |
weigher for eleven years. Gard had learned
many things about him. He had no family, his
great enthusiasm was baseball, and his weakness
was a certainty of going to the mat with John
Barleycorn every third Saturday night. He
was a lonesome man, and sour and cynical.
"How long have you been on this investiga-
tion?" O'Toole asked Gard before the conver-
sation had gone far.
"Just this week," said the special agent.
"Have you found anything?" asked the
weigher.
"Not yet," said the special agent.
"Well, if you want your job to last, don't,"
said the Irishman.
They discussed the general points in the busi-
ness of weighing cargoes and the work of the
force having it in charge. But the special agent
had gathered the idea that 0'Toole was not in
sympathy with conditions, that he was not a
member of the inner circle. Yet an intelligent


162 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
customs frauds from the inside. He knew that,
to get on a basis of sufficient good feeling to
bring this about, he must approach 0'Toole on
the most favorable basis possible. Too much
care could not be taken in laying the foundation
for his final proposal to the weigher. The
man's love for baseball first presented itself.
The agent determined to become a fellow fan
with him. Thus should he come to know him
better and under most favorable circumstances.
On two occasions the special agent bowed to
the weigher in leaving the bleachers. He had
thus got himself identified in that individual's
mind as a fellow fan. It was the end of the
second week, however, before the conditions
developed that made just the opening that Gard
wanted. The situation worked itself out on Sat-
urday afternoon. The game had gone three
innings when a flurry of rain threatened to bring
it to a close. Then there was a downpour. The
people in the bleachers scurried for shelter.
There seemed little chance for the game being
resumed, and most of the bleacherites filed out
under their umbrellas.
Some twenty enthusiastic fans held to their
seats on the chance that the game would go on.


BEHIND CUSTOMS SCREENS 163
Among these were O'Toole and the special
agent. Both were drenched to the skin. Fi-
nally the umpire announced that the game was
called, and the stragglers turned homeward.
As O'Toole started to go he was greeted by Spe-
cial Agent Gard.
"By jove," said the young man, "I believe
you are a more enthusiastic fan than I am."
"They shouldn't have called the game for a
few drops of water," complained the saturated
weigher. "But let us go some place and get a
drink."
Whereupon the two dripping fans found their
way to a nearby barroom and talked of club
standings and batting averages while they
warmed up with copious drafts of red-eyed
liquor.
"Boy," said the weigher, after the fourth
drink, "have you got a family?"
"No," answered Gard. "I am not married.''
"Go get married," urged the older man.
"When you begin to get old and have only a
solitary room to which to go and no children
nor grandchildren to give you an interest in the
world, there is nothing to live for. You perform
your small duties with a great void in the back


164 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
of your mind. There is no stage setting that
makes the petty play seem worth while. The
only relief is an occasional Saturday night when
you forget."
The special agent began to realize that the
weigher was starting on his tri-weekly fling. It
also began to be evident that he was of the order
of inebriates who indulge in a debauch of self-
pity as an accompaniment to their liquor.
"It always seemed to me," said the special
agent, "that a man could become so absorbed in
his work that it would fill his whole life. Par-
ticularly should this be true when he has a task
so important as yours."
"Mother of Mary!" exclaimed the Irishman.
"Become absorbed in watching a bunch of
thieves always at work? "Would you like to
spend your declining years in sitting idly by
and watching your employer and benefactor
robbed?"
"Why do this?" said Gard. "Why not lay
the whole thing before the right authority and
do a worth-while piece of work in cleaning up
the service?"
"Yes, and be broken and thrown into the dis-
card to starve," was the reply. "I have seen


BEHIND CUSTOMS SCREENS 165
too many of them go up against the gang. None
of it for 0'Toole.
"Just one tip I will give you," said the
weigher after hearing the special agent's argu-
ment in favor of lending his aid to showing up
the frauds. "If you will examine the records
of Mediterranean cargoes you will find that, dur-
ing the past ten years, such cargoes have regu-
larly been about twice as heavy when handled
by certain weighers as when handled by others.
The men whose records show these cargoes
always light are the crooks. Those who show
them heavy are honest. The solution is merely
a matter of mathematics."
With this semiconfidence the agent contented
himself. He continued to go to the baseball
games, but met 0'Toole only casually. In the
meantime the records of weighers were being
examined. In a week the figures were complete.
They showed these men divided into two groups
that were far apart with relation to the weights
of cargoes. The group that weighed light was
the larger.
A few days later Gard saw O'Toole after a
ball game. He told the weigher that District
Attorney Stimson wanted to see him that night


166 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
at the Federal building, that the district attor-
ney was under great obligations to him for the
tip to examine weigher's records and wanted to
thank him.
"0'Toole," said the district attorney that
night, "this is a time when the Government
needs the aid of honest men. We know that
men who would clean up customs graft have,
in the past, come to grief. But this is not now
true. I have taken up your case with the Sec-
retary of the Treasury himself. That official
asks me to inform you that, in case you aid us
in cleaning up this situation, your place will not
only be made secure but that you should figure
that the service will be remembered in the light
of your future interests. We know that your
record is clean. We want your help. Are you
with us?"
Agent Gard had selected the right man.
O'Toole, at first timid in his fear of the ring,
became an enthusiast over the task of weeding
out the graft. The dominance of local politi-
cians had no terrors for him with Washington
at his back. The value of all he had learned
in eleven years at the scales was made to supple-
ment the lack of customs experience on the part


BEHIND CUSTOMS SCREENS 167
of the special agent. His acquaintance with the
customs force in the port made his information
invaluable* So enthusiastic did he become that
he missed three ball games in succession and
went past four Saturday nights without his cus-
tomary tussle with the spirits that bring forget-
fulness.
O'Toole confirmed much of the list of short-
weight employees that had been made up. Of
the derelictions of many of these he had per-
sonal knowledge. With their methods he was
entirely familiar and was able to point the way
toward the establishing of guilt so it would be
admissible as evidence and would secure convic-
tions.
That an individual weigher may report short
weights it is necessary that his associate at the
scales, a checker, should share in his deceptions,
for the checker is a witness of the record of the
scales. In the celebrated short weight cases of
the sugar scandals, the checker had a steel
spring like a corset stay that he thrust into the
mechanism of the scale and retarded it, thus
resulting in a showing of short weight. But in
the case of the Mediterranean cargoes the fraud
was less disguised. The scales were allowed to


168 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
record the proper weight, but the weigher and
the checker, in collusion, divided the figure by
two in setting it down. The system was both
simple and effective. It worked for twenty-five
years.
Gard consulted with O'Toole upon the advisa-
bility of using workmen about the docks as
informers. The weigher thought this could be
done and knew a number of men who might be
so used. A laborer, for instance, working about
the scales, was able to see the amount that the
beam registered at given times. He could easily
remember the big numbers, those that repre-
sented the thousands of pounds, until he had a
chance to set them down. He could thus get a
rough record of the weighing of a given half
day. This could afterward be compared with
the figures of the weigher. A pretty close check
could thus be put on the given suspects.
By such methods fairly clear cases were
obtained against given weighers and checkers.
After much information was gathered certain
guilty men would be selected who would be given
chances to tell all about their knowledge of the
frauds. These men would be given immunity.
Thus would a few of the guilty escape punish-


170 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
cases made absolute and so were all the methods
of graft revealed. Eleven weighers and check-
ers were convicted and sent to the penitentiary.
Many hundreds of thousands of dollars in duties
that had been avoided were assessed against and
paid by importers. The Government was leni-
ent with most of these because of its chagrin
over the part played by its representatives and
because the initiative in the offending had usu-
ally been taken by Government agents.
Altogether the cleaning up of the customs
scandals in the port of New York was a most
complicated task. The work of Special Agent
Gard is but a fragment of it, but was vastly
important and decidedly typical of the problem
in hand and its solution.


IX
WITH THE REVOLUTION MAKBKS
IHE Isla Dolorosa is in the Rio Grande
River a few miles below El Paso. It
«JL is Mexican territory and is owned by an
aged ranchman named Jose Encino. If one
should start a camp fire anywhere on the island
he would be running a monstrous risk, for so
great is the quantity of ammunition that has
been smuggled thus far on its way to revolution-
ary war and buried, that any such fire might
cause a huge explosion.
It was in the moonshine of a clear November
night in 1911 that a boat drifted down the Rio
Grande from the American side, pulled up
among the cattails of the north shore of the
island and was beached beneath a great cotton-
wood tree that stood out against the sky as a
landmark. Two men stepped ashore and waited
in the shadows. Fifteen minutes later two rid"

171


REVOLUTION MAKERS 173
some sixty years of age, a thin, wiry individual
with refined and almost classic features. He
was a practising physician, a citizen of means
and repute in the border city. The man who
had come with him in the boat was named Coma-
cho. He was short, square built, deeply pock-
marked. He was notorious along the border,
particularly in Lower California. He was an
anarchist and an expert with explosives and was
suspected of having been connected with many
dire deeds.
The man who came on horseback was huge
and heavy and wore always a red flannel shirt.
He it was who had led the assault on Juarez
when the troops of Francisco Villa had captured
that city early in the Madero campaign. He it
was who inflicted some of the early atrocities
upon prisoners, who plied the torch and who
had to be discouraged in his activities by even
his bandit associates. "Red Shirt" Pena he
had since been called. His specialty was smug-
gling fire arms over the border. He had sixty
loyal followers in the vicinity of El Carmen.
And the woman! Senorita Josef a Calderon
was the name by which she was known. She
was from the interior, was something of a mys-


182 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
Juan Ortego, and Archie Dobbs were the met
against whom the capacities of Pena as a killer
were to be directed. But failing these he was
to run amuck and do whatever damage he could.
Any representative of the American army, any
Madero official, was to be regarded as a fair
mark. The object was to at least create a great
sensation to advertise the new revolution, and
possibly to bring about intervention. At any
rate the border should be awakened.
With all this information in hand the United
States authorities were ready to act. They
wanted, however, to time their coup in such a
way as to have the most discouraging effect
possible upon the revolutionists. With this
idea in mind they postponed making arrests
until the last moment.
The revolutionists were to be taken into cus-
tody by Captain Hughes of the Texas Rangers.
There were some fifteen of the active plotters
that should be arrested and the Eanger force
was the best fitted agency on the border to cope
with these. Every man was known to the Ran-
gers and all were being kept pretty well located.
The manner of making these arrests was pe-
culiar to this cowboy police of the Southwest,


REVOLUTION MAKERS 183
The plan was that, when the time to strike
should come, operations should begin at the
little building without windows where the ring-
leaders of the revolutionists gathered. These
should be arrested, none being allowed to es-
cape and give the alarm. They should all be
put into a wagon, inclosed with white canvas,
such as is common in the Southwest and which
would attract no attention in passing through
the streets. This wagon, with two or three
Rangers aboard and others riding carelessly
near it, should then drive about El Paso, pick-
ing up a man here and another there until all
those wanted were under the white canvas. Se
was it planned that a clean sweep of the revo-
lutionists should be made in a manner of raid
that might seem queer to those accustomed to
the methods of metropolitan police but which
was intended to accomplish its purpose.
But as far as Billy Gard was concerned, "the
raid came near coming too late. The position
of Gard, the American special agent, in revo-
lution headquarters as a Mexican conspirator,
was never one of especial security. There was
the danger of his identity being found out,
which would not only spoil his case but might


186 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
of that few. If Gard were recognized he would
be exposed and in this desperate company
would be in a delicate position.
The light in the windowless building was
very dim and the stranger had come in from
the sunlight. His eyes were not adjusted to the
darkened apartment and he therefore did not
recognize the special agent when presented to
him. Appreciating the reason for this lack of
recognition, Gard made an excuse for going out
and approached the door. Flores again sat
with his back against it. "When the young man
gave his excuse for wanting to go the doctor
waved him aside and stated that he desired that
he should hear the report of the man from Los
Angeles. Gard dared insist only to a reason-
able extent. Doctor Flores would not hear of
his departure. Quietly he settled into the
remotest and darkest corner.
The man from Los Angeles began to tell of
the part he had played in lighting the fuse that
was about to start a revolution. His remarks
were addressed to Doctor Flores and to Coma-
eho, the dynamiter, an associate of his. The
man in the corner was given little attention.
But as the talker's vision became adjusted to


REVOLUTION MAKERS 187
the darkened room, he turned his glance occa-
sionally in the direction of the special agent.
That young man sat as one hypnotized with
the possibilities of the situation. He felt very
sure that, as time passed, the visitor's eyesight
would adjust itself and he would be recognized.
His mind ran ahead and saw the scene that
would then be precipitated. The thrill of it
held him taut, ready for any emergency.
It was the third time that the eye of the visi-
tor passed him that it lingered a moment ques-
tioningly, and passed on. He looked at the
dynamiter during a long explanation of some
detail of bomb making before his glance again
returned to Gard. By this time his eyesight
had become entirely readjusted.
He started forward, mouth agape. He
sprang to his feet. He pointed an accusing
finger at the special agent and fairly screamed:
"By the Holy Virgin, a spy, a traitor! He is
an agent of the perfidious United States. He is
a detective, an informer. I knew him in Los
Angeles. He peeped into our windows and
stole our papers. He has already betrayed you
and the cause."
A vile oath was ripped from the throat of


186 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
the pock-marked dynamiter. The Mexican
ranchman stood agape. The nervous little doc-
tor sprang to his feet and started as if to spring
at the throat of the special agent. But as he
advanced he found himself looking into the muz-
zle of a big American pistol. He recoiled.
"Don't make a great mistake," said Gard.
"What this man says may be true and it may
not. Granting that it is true I am then in the
best position right now I could hope to be in.
If one of you advances a step toward me I will
fire. None of you dare fire upon me, as the
shots that would follow would expose you.
Now sit tight and talk business. What do you
propose to do about it?"
"Gringo pig of a spy, you shall die and be
fed to the buzzards!" hissed the dynamiter.
"Mother of Mary, we have been betrayed!"
almost sobbed the little doctor.
"It may not be as bad as it seems," argued
Gard, talking against time. "The four of you
should be able to get me if you insist on shoot-
ing it out. I will get one or two of you, how-
ever, and the police will get the rest. I would
suggest that it would be wiser for you to let me


REVOLUTION MAKERS 189
back slowly out of that door and that you all
beat it for Mexico."
The little doctor stiffened stubbornly against
the one exit, but before his proposition could be
seriously considered there came a loud rapping
at the door. The noise of it sounded as though
it were made with the butt of a revolver. The
Mexicans present stood transfixed with fear.
The knocking was repeated with greater vigor.
Then a drawling Texas voice sang out:
"Oh, you greasers, lift the latch. This ain't
no way to treat visitors."
"Break it in, Captain," called out Gard, who
recognized the voice of the Banger chief.
"This bunch is half captured already."
Then came the creaking of door hinges as
though a great weight was being thrown against
them and, finally, a mighty crash. As the door
came in nothing could be seen but the blank side
of a^ thick cotton mattress. Few other things
will stop bullets like a cotton mattress and it is
therefore an excellent breastwork in an attack
which is likely to be met by bullets fired through
a door. This was not the first time such an
object had been used in Banger strategy.


190 UNCLE SAM: uETECTIVE
Presently the head of a Ranger peered cau-
tiously around the mattress and a request for a
parley was made. The Mexicans decided upon
discretion and surrendered without a fight.
Gard was thus relieved of a very delicate situa-
tion.
The four prisoners from the windowless
house were loaded into the white-topped wagon.
It moved on unostentatiously to other parts of
the city and around it the Eanger dragnet
tightened. '' Eed Shirt'' Pena was found in the
act of boarding a street car to cross the bridge
into Juarez. He made fight but a Ranger
floored him with a blow from a big forty-five
six-shooter. In two hours fifteen of the ring-
leaders of the El Paso revolutionists were
behind prison bars and any expedition that
might have been launched in this vicinity was
leaderless.
At Brownsville a similar dragnet had oper-
ated at about the same time. General Reyes
himself succeeded in getting across into Mexico.
But the leaders from the American side had
been discouraged and failed to follow him even
where they were not under arrest. The Mexi-
cans did not rally to the aged general's cause


REVOLUTION MAKERS 191
after he entered his native land, as had been
expected. Discouraged and heartbroken he
surrendered to the Madero authorities a few
days later at the little town of Linares, and his
revolution was at an end.


194 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
him. Berliner was a customs broker. His
business was to act as agent for American pur-
chasers and European dealers. He knew his
Europe and he knew New York. The details of
customs regulations and duties to be paid were
an open book to him. He spoke many lan-
guages and had customers among the wealthiest
people in America.
It was when a mere suspicion arose as to the
fidelity with which he was paying his duties that
Billy Gard, on some pretext, went to see him.
A large, upstanding, white-haired man he was—
unusually handsome and dominant.
"May I ask," said Gard, "if you think table
linens of good quality could be procured from
Ireland within six weeks? My sister is opening
an establishment at that time and is not satisfied
with the offerings here.''
"Who is your sister?" asked Berliner, rather
more directly than a customer would expect to
be questioned by a broker.
"Mrs. Jonathan Moulton," said the special
agent glibly, giving the name of a woman friend.
"She lives in Seventy-second Street."
"Do you mind if I call her for a confirma-


THE ELUSIVE FUGITIVE 195
tion of your inquiry?" said the broker, still non-
committal.
"Such a request is not usually addressed to
a. prospective customer," said Gard, appearing
a bit nettled, "but I have no objection what-
ever."
As a matter of fact the special agent was very
much disconcerted. He had foreseen the possi-
bility of having to use the name of some indi-
vidual who might afterward be called upon to
verify the genuineness of his interest in linens.
"Mrs. Moulton was a good friend who would be
entirely willing to help him in a little deception
of this sort, but he had not as yet coached her
as to the part she might be called upon to play.
He had thought there would be plenty of time
later if it became necessary to identify the sup-
posed customer. But Berliner was evidently
suspicious of bright young men who called upon
him. He evidently knew that he was under
investigation. Gard's particular hope, if the
broker insisted on calling his alleged sister, was
that he would find that she was not at home.
But luck was not with him. Mrs. Moulton
herself answered the telephone.


THE ELUSIVE FUGITIVE 197
toms house at less than its value, he would
defraud the Government of just the difference
between the amount paid and the amount that
should have been paid. But this money was
not saved for his customer. That individual
was charged the full amount due and the broker
pocketed the difference. There was evidence
that the Government had lost $100,000 through
these operations.
Because Gard had seen the customs broker
he was assigned to the capture of the fugitive.
He set about the task methodically.
The special agent diligently searched out
every one of Berliner's intimates. There was
a wife and brother to begin with. It is the A,
B, C of fugitive catching that every man will
communicate with some one of his relatives or
intimates. It is not human nature to break off
every tie. Against the possibility of this fugi-
tive writing Gard established a close watch
over the mail of each of the fugitive's relatives
and close friends. The postman who delivered
mail to each was given samples of Berliner's
handwriting, was instructed to report the
arrival of any letter that might be suspected of


198 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
coming from him, to have tracings made of its
envelope, to note its postmark, before it was
delivered.
But a month passed and no suspicious letter
arrived.
In the meantime every possibility of getting
directly on the trail was exhausted. Even in a
great city like New York it is difficult for any-
body to take a train without having fixed the
attention of somebody else. An expressman
must be called to get a truck to the station. A
taxicab may be used. Servants are aware of a
departure. Tickets must be bought. Conduc-
tors on trains must take up those tickets.
It is a tedious task to interview innumerable
expressmen and ask each if he had had a sum-
mons from a certain apartment. The taxicab
records of calls are equally confusing, but each
may be traced to a driver and that individual
may be questioned. Every ticket seller in a city
may be seen in a day or two, the photograph of
the man wanted may be shown and a recollection
of him developed. If the fugitive is of striking
appearance, as was Berliner, the chances of his
being remembered are increased. If the trail is
once crossed the going is easier.


THE ELUSIVE FUGITIVE 199
Yet all these and many other devices failed in
this case, and chance first pointed the way. The
goddess of coincidence made her appearance in
a modest motion picture theater where Gard
and a friend were killing a bit of time. Among
the reels shown was one which portrayed a visit
of the President to New York. It began with
the arrival at the station, among throngs of peo-
ple.
"By the Lord Harry!" suddenly exclaimed
the special agent. "Would you pipe that gray-
haired gent in the foreground. I have been
looking for him for a month."
It was Berliner. He had chosen the moment
when the station was most crowded to make his
getaway. Oblivious to the presence of the
motion picture operator, he had stopped for a
moment to say good-by to another man, his
brother, as Gard thought. The two had spoken
a few words and parted.
"I wonder," soliloquized Gard, "what those
two men Said to each other."
Then he thought of Jane Gates, the Lily Maid,
the deaf copyist at headquarters, the cameo-
faced girl, best loved of the special agents.
"The Lily Maid might read the lips of those


THE ELUSIVE FUGITIVE 203
"Has she received any callers?" asked the
special agent.
"But one person, a man, has visited her,"
answered the house detective.
"What sort of a man?" asked Gard.
'' A large man with gray hair,'' said the house
detective. "He is in her room now."
"Will you go up with me immediately?"
ejaculated the special agent. "I must not fail
to see this man."
"Assuredly," was the response, and they
caught the next elevator.
The car they took was an express and was
not to stop until it reached the eleventh floor.
The next to it was a local, stopping at all floors.
The express, going up with the detectives
aboard, slackened its speed at the eighth floor
while its operator gave some message to the boy
on the local which had stopped there to take
on a passenger. The cars were of an open-
work structure and the passengers in one could
see quite plainly those on the other as they
passed. As the express passed Gard looked
through at those riding on the other car.
Imagine his consternation when, not two feet


204 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
from him, he saw the man for whom he had been
searching for months. As he gazed through the
checked steel slats of the car side he was close
enough to have put out his hand and laid it
on his man had nothing intervened. Berliner
faced him and, as the car paused, he and the
special agent gazed directly into the eyes of
each other. This was for but an instant and
both cars were in motion again. The detective
was being borne rapidly toward the top of the
building and the fugitive less rapidly toward
the ground.
"There is my man on the other elevator,"
Gard whispered hurriedly to the house detec-
tive. "Have the boy reverse and run down
again."
The message was given to the operator, who
obeyed instantly and some excuse was made to
the passengers on the car. The local had been
stopping at each floor and the express passed
it and barely reached the ground floor first.
There the two detectives stepped out and waited
for the coming of the other car.
A moment later it arrived, much crowded, and
began to disgorge itself. The two officers
waited in instant readiness to capture the man


THE ELUSIVE FUGITIVE 205
whom they had seen at the eighth floor. But
the car was emptied and he was not among the
passengers.
"Where did the big gray-haired man get
off!" the boy was asked.
"Third floor, sir," he replied.
"You bar the exits," Gard said to the house
detective, "and I will get back to the third."
On that floor the hallman said that the white-
haired gentleman had run down the steps to
the second. Gard followed, but was able to find
no one on that floor who had seen the fugitive.
He ran hastily about looking for possible exits,
and then instituted a thorough search. He
investigated every possible avenue of escape
and hastened downstairs to his ally to help cut
off the fine of retreat. Every possible barrier
was put up and the house was well gone over.
The gray-haired fugitive had, however, eluded
pursuit.
Gard immediately called upon the Chicago
police to throw out a dragnet and a general
alarm, and this was done. All railway stations
were watched with particular care. But none
of these efforts were of any avail, as Berliner
was never reported to have been seen again in


206 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
Chicago. Nor was Gard able to get so much,
as the glimmer of a trace of him nor a sugges-
tion as to where he might have gone.
It was a task of infinite patience that brought
Special Agent William H. Gard to London two
months later on the trail of a woman whom he
had traced half around the world. The Titian-
haired guest of the Chicago hotel, the wife of
the fugitive broker, here installed herself for a
while and lived in a manner that amounted to
absolute seclusion.
Then she went to Paris. There she took
rooms in a quiet side street and seemed to settle
down with some idea of permanence. There
was nothing in her mode of life that would in-
dicate that she lived differently from any"
other woman who was alone in the world and
sought quiet. She went out for a long walk
every afternoon, purchased the necessities of
her establishment, or books, of which she seemed
to read great numbers.
Special Agent Gard established a close watch
over the house in which she lived. This was
easy because there was but a front entrance and
apartments opposite looked out upon the street.
He determined that nobody should enter this


THE ELUSIVE FUGITIVE 207
house without being observed. He asked the
Paris police to provide him with two reliable
men who could watch with him in shifts from
the quarters he rented across the street.
A vigil of two weeks revealed absolutely noth-
ing. With the exception of the servant who
came at noon each day and remained not more
than four hours, no living creature entered the
house. In all that two weeks the postman left
no mail. Billy Gard seemed to be up against a
blank wall. He held, however, that if a man
kept awake on the most hopeless job for a suffi-
cient length of time some clue was sure to
develop or some idea present itself that would
lead toward results.
Gard investigated the maid who worked the
daily short shift in the quarters of the red-
haired woman from America. He found her a
placid and stupid creature who knew nothing
nor had intelligence sufficient for his purpose.
Incidentally he found that she had secured her
place through an employment agency located at
a considerable distance. He immediately made
use of this information.
The special agent, through the Paris police
force, secured the cooperation of the employ-


THE ELUSIVE FUGITIVE 209
It seemed peculiar that such a room should be
used for storage and, even so, that it should be
locked up.
Gard put together the two facts—the locked
room and the short hours of the servant—and
drew a conclusion. It was as the result of this
conclusion that he asked the woman detective
to install a dictagraph beneath the table in the
sunny little dining room just off the apartment
of the locked door. This was easy of accom-
plishment during the hour of the afternoon
stroll of the mistress of the house. The wires
of the dictagraph were run across the street and
into the watch-tower rooms of the special agent.
When the dinner hour approached that even-
ing Billy Gard sat patiently with the headpiece
of the dictagraph securely in place. The first
sound that he caught from across the street
was that of feet, supposedly those of the woman
of the Titian hair, passing back and forth about
the room, then an occasional snatch of a song
while she worked. He gathered that she was
arranging for the evening meal, the servant
having gone home hours before.
Ten minutes passed and then there came over
the wire a sound that might have been a bit


210 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
surprising to the observer of this ultra quiet
household, the watcher at the entrance through
which none had passed unseen since the day
it was rented, had not the listener already
developed a theory.
"Well, Margaret," said a full-throated man's
voice, as transmitted by the dictagraph, "this
is not so bad. I never dreamed that you had
the housewifely instincts that would make it
possible for you to arrange with your own hands
the dainty dinners we are having. I am begin-
ning to think that the man is lucky who cannot
afford servants."
"And don't you know," said a woman's
voice, "I never enjoyed anything more in my
life. For almost the only time I can remember
I have a definite occupation. I have to pro-
vide our creature comforts. I haven't been so
happy in years. I really don't care how long
they keep us cooped up."
"I will confess," said the man, "that the nov-
elty has worn off of the view into the courtyard.
But it might be worse. For a while they had
me thinking quite regularly of striped suits and
the lockstep which are part of a life even more


THE ELUSIVE FUGITIVE 211
confining than this. And here I have you. I
am quite content to wait for the atmosphere to
clear."
"But I am very sure we are still being
watched,'' said the woman. '' I always feel that
I am being followed when I go out."
'' Very likely,'' said the man. '' But no detec-
tive will pursue fruitless quests indefinitely.
Even though they know you are here, they will
ultimately lose interest in a surveillance that
yields nothing. We can afford to wait. The
time will come when we can steal away in
safety."
"When it is all over," she responded, "I do
wish that we could find a way to let those detec-
tives know that you were here under their very
noses all the time."
Billy Gard, it may here be set down, was
most anxious to learn how this had been possi-
ble. He had followed Margaret Berliner to the
house when she had first come to see it. He had
been notified immediately when she had rented
it. From that moment he had watched every
detail of her taking possession; had, with the aid
of his men, seen everything that had gone into


THE ELUSIVE FUGITIVE 213
Gard told Berliner, through the locked door, of
the situation that existed on the outside. He
suggested that the easiest way was to unbolt
the entrance, thereby saving the necessity of
breaking it down. Whereupon the customs bro-
ker walked out and surrendered, and a very
tedious fugitive case was brought to a success-
ful conclusion.


XI
THE BANK BOOKKEEPEB
TWELVE-DOLLAE-A-WEEK book-
keeper in a prim New England town,
jL JL without access to the funds of the bank
for which he worked, stole nearly a half million
dollars and so juggled the books as to hide the
shortage from the directors and from the
national bank examiner for a period of two
years.
The "faro gang," a band of master crooks,
as well organized as though for the development
of a mining venture, financed in advance for
many thousands of dollars, took the money from
the bookkeeper as regularly as he took it from
the bank—took it all, but never aroused his sus-
picion.
The detectives of the bureau of investigation,
Department of Justice, unraveled the whole tan-
gled skein and revealed the ramifications of one

814


THE BANK BOOKKEEPER 215
of the completest schemes for the illicit acqui-
sition of other people's money that the history
of the crime of the nation has ever developed.
The first incident that led to the discovery of
this monster plot to defraud took place when
two most staid and dignified of the solid citizens
of Bainbridge, Mass., happened to meet outside
the First National bank of that serene suburb
of Boston one sunshiny afternoon. Their con-
versation led to an argument as to whether there
was $186,000 or $187,000 in the endowment of
an orphanage, of which they were directors.
To settle this argument they decided to have a
look at the books which contained the record of
deposits and withdrawals.
So these dignified guardians of this endow-
ment fund approached the cashier's window in
the First National bank and asked for the bal-
ance in the given account. The official turned
automatically to the ledger containing the inac-
tive accounts of the bank, glanced at the bal-
ance and automatically reported the figures
there revealed.
"Four thousand five hundred dollars," he
said.
So was obtained the first revealing flash into


216 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
the affairs of this institution which had stood
as the conservative financial bulwark of the com-
munity for a hundred years. Yet a week later,
when the principal pass books had been called
in, and the experts had completed their exami-
nation, the bank was shown to be but a financial
shell. Each of those large inactive accounts
that lent the institution its strength was found
to have melted away. A bank of a capital of
but $100,000, it was soon shown that it had been
looted for more than $400,000 of the depositors'
money.
As soon as the shortage was evident a report
was made to the Department of Justice, in
Washington, which has charge of the prosecu-
tion of violators of the national banking laws.
Expert accountants and Special Agent Billy
Gard of the Bureau of Investigation of that
department were immediately hurried to the
scene. When they arrived they found that one
event had just transpired which came near
establishing the facts as to the immediate
responsibility of the shortage. The bookkeeper
of the bank had disappeared.
The bank was an institution which employed
but three men; a cashier, an assistant cashier,
>


THE BANK BOOKKEEPER 217
and a bookkeeper. The disappearance of the
bookkeeper, Eobert Tollman, fixed attention on
him, and it was ultimately demonstrated that
he was the only individual inside the bank who
had anything to do with its misfortunes.
Special Agent Gard, who handled the outside
work of the investigation, found Tollman to be
a youngster of twenty-three, a mild-eyed, likable
chap, who made friends easily. He was a mem-
ber of one of those old New England puritani-
cal families that have become institutions in
the community in which they reside. Back of
him were a dozen generations of repression, of
straight-edged righteousness. At the age of
eighteen he had entered the bank, and at twenty-
three was receiving a salary of but $12 a week.
There had been no chance for advancement.
At twenty-one he had come into $20,000 as an
inheritance from an aunt and this had been the
one event of his life, up to that time.
The government's expert accountant immedi-
ately established the manner in which the funds
of the bank had been taken. As bookkeeper,
Tollman did not have access to the cash or secu-
rities, and was therefore not considered as being
in a position of trust. He was not even bonded.


220 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
ures. He bad a big red automobile which, it
was supposed, he had bought with the money
of his inheritance and in which he drove away
practically every night. Through the whole of
the last year of his peculations, Tollman, the
twelve-dollar-a-week clerk, drove regularly to
Iris work at the bank in this car.
In Boston Gard picked up the clues. Toll-
man was well known at certain hotels and cafes.
At one hotel which was rendezvous for sport-
ing people he regularly called upon a very dash-
ing young woman who was registered as Laura
Gatewood. It was at this same hotel that he
became acquainted with an accomplished indi-
vidual known as John E. Mansfield, who was
well known about McDougal's Tap, in Colum-
bia Avenue, and whose livelihood was secured
through alleged games of chance. Miss Gate-
wood also introduced Tollman to a Mrs. Sid-
dons, an especial friend of Mansfield, who main-
tained a cozy little apartment in a respectable
part of Boston, and who had, in a dress suit
case, a portable faro outfit which could be set
up in her rooms upon occasion. There was also
Edward T. Walls, a large and dominant man,
who had, of late, found poker playing on trans-


THE BANK BOOKKEEPER 221
atlantic liners a rather precarious calling. But,
finally, Miss Gatewood arranged meetings
between Tollman and "Big Bill" Kelliner, who
lived in Winthrop, not far away, was in the
wholesale liquor business, in politics, and, as
afterward developed, was a dominating spirit
in the "faro gang."
With the development of the friendship with
Kelliner began the trips to New York. These
two would meet two or three times a week at
the Back Bay station and together take the
train for New York. So frequent were these
trips that the members of the train crews came
to be well acquainted with the men, and to know
something of their movements. They gave
clues to the hotels in New York at which these
travelers stayed, and this led to their identifi-
cation by hotel clerks and other facts as to their
associates. Eventually all this led to a certain
house in West Twenty-eighth Street and a con-
sultation with the New York police as to its
character.
It developed that in this house there was
always running, on evenings when Kelliner and
Tollman came to New York, a faro game. Here
Kelliner gambled and at first won and induced


222 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
Tollman to try his luck. The youngster was
allowed to win prodigiously. Again he would
lose, but not enough to frighten him away. So
was the craze for gambling developed in the
bookkeeper. But eventually he lost what was
left of his inheritance.
Up to this time he was honest. But at the
suggestion of Kelliner he stole from the bank
to make good his losses. He lost again, and
was in the mill. There was no chance of escape
but through stealing more of the bank's funds
and gambling in the hope of eventually win-
ning out. The bookkeeper had entirely lost his
head. He became consumed with the reckless-
ness of desperation.
In the meantime the Gatewood woman had
moved to New York. Also Tollman had become
deeply enamored with her. So fond was he of
her company, as a matter of fact, that he would
often turn over to Kelliner and Mansfield and
other of their friends the money with which to
gamble, while he visited with Miss Gatewood.
The members of the gang would go to some
gilded restaurant and dine sumptuously and
return to Tollman and report that luck had been
against them, and that they had lost all their


THE BANK BOOKKEEPER 223
money. On such occasions the profits of the
evening were almost clear to the gang. On
such occasions, so the members of the train
crew back to Boston reported, "Big Bill" Kel-
liner would sob out his apparent grief, because
of his losses, on the shoulder of Tollman. The
latter was thus placed in the role of comforter.
Kelliner would swear never to gamble again and
make his protestations so earnestly that Toll-
man would become the aggressor and urge his
associate on and paint pictures of luck ahead.
So adroitly did Kelliner play this game that
Tollman had been heard to threaten to break
with him because he was a piker.
For two years this arrangement continued.
Kelliner, Mansfield, Walls, the Gatewood
woman, and other accomplices, maintained
themselves as decoys that induced the young
bookkeeper to draw ever more checks against
his personal account and always extract these
and charge them where they were least likely
to be missed. Despite his long carouses at night
Tollman never failed to be at the bank in time
to open the mail and extract the checks that
would have betrayed him. Despite the loss of
sleep he was never so dull that he neglected


THE BANK BOOKKEEPER 225
much in the theory. In the case of Tollman
the connection with the Gatewood woman was
soon established. She was not about her old
haunts in New York. No trails were immedi-
ately found. It was developed that she had ori-
ginally lived in Kansas City. When any indi-
vidual has got into trouble there is always a
strong probability that he will return to his old
home, another detective theory to which Billy
Gard subscribed. It is particularly true with
reference to such serious crimes as murder, but
it is to a material extent true in all cases that
necessitate flight.
Upon this theory Gard went to Kansas City
to look for the woman in the Tollman case. It
required some weeks to find her. When she
was located it was found that Tollman was not
with her. He had been there until the night
before. They had quarreled and he had gone
away. The cause of their quarrel was the fact
that Tollman had no money. She had cast him
off as a dead husk. She did not know his
whereabouts.
In practically every case of otherwise well
executed crime there develops some element of
unexpected folly—the criminal does some one


228 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
Street house until Price came out. He was
none other than Mansfield. He was placed
under arrest.
With confidence in the old detective theory
of the woman, the special agents applied it
again in the case of Walls, the one-time gam-
bler on transatlantic liners. This was not
done, however, until several suspected individ-
uals in different cities had been shown not to
be the man wanted, and many other schemes
for the apprehension of the gambler had failed.
For Walls was married to a very attractive and
respectable woman, who supported herself by
keeping a boarding house after his flight. It
could not be discovered that she was in com-
munication with her husband. Finally, there
was developed another woman with whom Walls
was known to have been friendly, and who had
a part in the activities of the faro gang. This
woman's correspondence was watched, and it
was soon discovered that she was sending letters
to and receiving letters from a man in Detroit,
Michigan. Tracings of the man's handwriting
were made as the letters came through the post
office, and when compared with that of Walls,
the resemblance was convincing.


THE BANK BOOKKEEPER 229
The writer of these letters gave his address
as a lock box. A special agent went to Detroit,
but the box had been given up. Two months
later more letters came to the same woman
from Grand Junction, Colorado, and also from
a lock box. The postmaster was able to de-
scribe the man holding the box and the descrip-
tion suited Walls. But he moved again before
a detective got there to identify and arrest him.
There was a chase of six months on such clues,
always through the same woman, but Walls was
still at large.
Eventually there appeared among death
notices in New York the name of Edward T.
Walls. Subsequently Mrs. Walls went from
her boarding house in Boston and took charge
of the body. Suspecting that this might be a
trick to throw them off their guard, the special
agents took every precaution to identify the
body. Eventually they were convinced that the
man they had pursued so diligently was dead.
The case was closed.
The three principals in this case, Tollman,
Kelliner and Mansfield, were given 15, 18 and
10 years respectively. After their conviction
both Tollman and Kelliner talked freely to Billy


XH
PUTTING UP THE MASTEE BLUFF
DID you ever go among strangers and
pretend to be a more important per-
sonage than you really are? Yes?
So have I. There are many of us who habitu-
ally take a taxicab when we go into a strange
city on a modest piece of business. Yet at
home we would walk six blocks to save a nickel
in car fare. I would not acknowledge to the
hotel clerk, nor would you, that an inside room,
price one dollar, is what, in my heart, I would
like to ask for when I say that three-fifty will
be about right. And we tip the waiter, you and
I, although we know that he makes twice the
money we do, and we let the haberdasher's clerk
sell us a shirt for three dollars when we should
pay one, and the barber bulldozes us into taking
a shampoo when there is a perfectly good bar
of soap at home and not working.
231


232 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
For, to ourselves, upon occasion, we like to be
tke dream people, to see ourselves as the great
and dominant of the land, to step out of the
everyday commonplace of our existence. We
pay the price of our temporary emancipation.
We may feel a bit foolish when the bellboy is
gone and we are alone with the pitcher of ice
water, but in our hearts it is worth the money.
Admitting this tendency to dissemble, how
large a front of false pretense could you put
up, how important a personage do you think
you could make of yourself, if you should find
all the gates open and were invited to do your
durndest? And if you should, in a moment of
abandon, summon courage to introduce your-
self as the King of Spain or Anthony Corn-
stock or Lillian Eussell, and if you did this in
a gathering that you knew to be made up of
selected master minds, how well do you think
you would be able to sustain the part?
This is the story of a modest employee of
the Government, drawing $2,500 a year, who
walked into a convention of millionaire manu-
facturers and with no basis in fact for his claim,
virtually spoke to these dominant and success-
ful princes of industry as follows:


THE MASTER BLUFF 233
"Gentlemen, you are mere children playing
at the factory business. I am the master here.
Please be nice to me and tell me all your secrets
or I will cut off your supply of raw material.''
It was such an assignment as this that one
morning came over to New York in the mail
from "Washington and fell to the lot of Special
Agent Billy Gard. The instructions said:
"The Northern Pulp and Paper" Manufac-
turers' Association will hold its convention at
the Waldorf on the 19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd.
It is suspected of being a conspiracy in restraint
of trade. Its deliberations are in secret and the
membership is unknown. Ascertain all action
of the convention and procure a list of the
members of the association."
This action on the part of the Government
was occasioned by complaints from publishers
of newspapers throughout the country which
seemed to indicate that there was an under-
standing among manufacturers as to prices that
should be charged for white paper. If there
was such an agreement that prevented competi-
tion, it was probably reached through some
association of which all were members. There
was the Northern Pulp and Paper Manufae-


THE MASTER BLUFF 235
a member and attend," said President Van
Dorn.
"I am not a manufacturer," smiled the spe-
cial agent. "I am the man back of the manu-
facturer. I come to you to-day, but in the near
future you will all come to me. It is in the
interest of the manufacturers that I want to
attend.''
"I do not understand," said the president.
"You of course know of the Canadian North-
west Timber Company,'' said the special agent.
(As a matter of fact there was no company of
exactly that name.) "I am the representative
of that company. You may also know that we
have been accumulating lands covered with
spruce timber for twenty years. Our holdings
now amount to areas equal to the whole of the
States of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
It is not necessary that I should call your atten-
tion to the exhaustion of the spruce of New
England, nor of other areas in the United
States that have, in the past, been your source
of supply for pulp from which to make your
paper. The timber supply heretofore available
for this purpose is approaching exhaustion.
When it is gone you will all turn to the forests


236 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
that are next most accessible. We have those
forests. I therefore say to you that all of you
will come to me within the next decade. I am
coming to you in advance."
As the young man who claimed to be from
the Canadian Northwest talked, the brusk man-
ner of the president of the paper manufac-
turers gradually relaxed. He stroked his luxu-
riant, close-cropped whiskers in each direction
from the distinct part down his chin and lis-
tened with undivided attention. The Canadian
timber lands were at that time the matter of
greatest interest in the pulp and paper world.
These lands had been something of a mystery,
for their owners were evidently sitting tight
and biding their time.
"I had depended on my subject to interest
you," said Gard. "I came all the way from
Canada to get acquainted with the men who
are going to consume my product. I would
like to attend your convention and address it."
Gard's preparation for this approach and bid
for a seat on the floor of the convention, had
been most thorough. Upon receipt of his
orders he had found himself with a week in
which to make ready. His first step had been


238 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
of more interest. But admission to the conven-
tion is provided for in the constitution and
by-laws. Only members may be admitted.
Our work is strictly confidential."
"However, nothing is impossible," insisted
Gard. "A constitution can be amended."
"The manner in which it can be amended is
also provided for in the by-laws. It cannot be
done in four days."
The special agent saw himself bound to fail
to get himself admitted to the convention.
There was the advantage, however, of having
been denied a courtesy to which he had a strong
claim and this left the way open to the asking
of other important favors.
"Even though you cannot attend the meet-
ings," Van Dorn suggested, "I want to see that
you meet all our leading people and in this way
you may accomplish practically as much. I
would be glad if you would dine with me to-
night."
"I shall be very glad to do so," said the spe-
cial agent. "In the meantime you can prob-
ably provide me with a list of your members.
In that way I can at least communicate with
them all."


THE MASTER BLUFF 239
"That list is quite confidential," said the
president. "I have no copy of it myself."
"But your permanent headquarters in
Fourth Avenue will have it," suggested Gard.
"Can you give me a note to the secretary?"
To this the president assented somewhat
hesitatingly. The note he wrote was also a
bit indefinite. It was not instructions to give
a copy of the list. It might be so interpreted
if the secretary were inclined to be friendly.
So Gard went for his list with some inward
trepidation, although the man who pretended
to hold the fate of the paper manufacturers
of a nation in his hand could afford to show no
outward manifestation of it.
The secretary of the Northern Pulp and
Paper Manufacturers' Association was a most
courteous young Virginian bearing the name of
Randolph. The special agent knew the secre-
tary was a Southerner as soon as he met him.
The former had originated in Baltimore.
After the manner of Southerners the two dis-
cussed names and families. The special agent
knew a great deal about the Eandolph family.
In fact, he said, his family had married into
the Eandolphs in one of its branches. The


240 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
lines were followed until it seemed that the
men might well believe that they were cousins
several times removed. Incidentally they had
started to be friends in the way most accredited
among Southerners.
Gard delivered his note from President Van
Dorn and took great pains to explain the posi-
tion of the Canadian Northwest Timber Com-
pany. He made it clear that his people were
on the eve of playing a large part in the paper
pulp world. He wanted to ask Eandolph's
advice about certain matters and he wanted to
get in touch with some enterprising young man
who knew the manufacturers. To such, a
young man he might offer an enviable business
opportunity. In the meantime he would like
a copy of the membership list of the associa-
tion.
It developed that there was but one such list
in existence. It had to be dug up from the
association's safe and copied. But the secre-
tary was friendly to this one-time Southerner,
now of the north woods; he was a young man
who knew the manufacturers, and who would
take a look at a business opportunity; he had
the note of instruction, somewhat indefinite to


THE MASTER BLUFF 245
profoundly and grinning somewhat sheepishly
and boyishly. "You, gentlemen, have been, as
we say in sleuth circles,'roped.' You have told
your secrets to the investigator unknowingly.
"I most humbly apologize for the imposition.
I was working under instructions. Unless it
can be shown that your association is in
restraint of trade nothing will come of the
investigation. If you are a conspiracy you will
deserve what you get.
"If I may be pardoned for talking shop I
will tell you just your position with relation
to the Government. What the Department of
Justice wants to do with such people as you is
to go to you frankly and ask you to lay your
cards on the table—to open your books to the
examination of our experts. Before this is
done it is sometimes wise to get a look behind
the screens before the stage is set for the play.
I have been taking that peep.
"Four days ago, for instance, I secured a
list of the membership of this association.
That night, in the name of a certain newspaper
publisher, letters were written to every mem-
ber asking for quotations of prices. The price
lists are in the mail by this time and coming


246 UNCLE SAM: DETECTIVE
back to us. Now, if there is a great similarity
in those prices, suspicion will be aroused. It
is better that this and other tests be put upon
manufacturers before they are aware that an
investigation is on.
"But now we are in the open. To-morrow I
will call upon the association to produce its
books. It need not respond to that call, but if
it is honest there is no reason why it should
not. It may be that I will ask individual mem-
bers to show their accounts and correspond-
ence. In the end we will be very well
acquainted. I trust that we may then be as
friendly as we have been during your conven-
tion and my deception. I will now bid you
good-night."
Gard's work "under cover" was completed.
It was but an incident in the relations between
a great industry and the Government. The
next week the books of the association were
thrown open to the Government. President
Van Dorn, whose factory was the largest of
them all, volunteered access to his records and
others followed suit. So was an era of fair
dealing inaugurated.
This all happened years ago. The fidelity


THE MASTER BLUFF 247
with which the special agent laid the basis of
his deception is proved by the fact that many of
these manufacturers are now getting their pulp
from the Canadian Northwest. The name of
Gard does not, however, appear among the list
of officers of any of the companies supplying
pulp. The young man is probably now off on
the trail of some other real or suspected vio-
lator of the Federal statutes, meeting new
emergencies, gaining new experiences, playing
a modest but not unimportant part in the big
and vital affairs of the nation.
THE END