CHAPTER XI.

THE CRISIS.

The two men, secure in the big, lamp-lighted room, stared expectantly into one another’s eyes. Hooker was trembling, his face white, despite the tan. He attempted to roll a cigarette before beginning, but his fingers refused to obey. The other man appeared to be more annoyed than otherwise.

“Do you insist that you never before saw that man who was with me to-night?” the foreman asked.

“Never.”

“Then how did he happen to have a letter, signed by you, asking that I give him a position?”

“A letter from me?” The other man—it was Jim Sigsbee himself—allowed a frown to creep between his eyes.

“Yes, from you,” affirmed Hooker. “Of course, I didn’t ask questions. I put him to work. He was a clever man. He’s now in charge of the conduit construction.”

“What is his name?”

“Elliot Nash. At least, that’s what he wanted me to call him.”

“Well, what’s the excitement? You look as if you’d received a ten-year sentence to the pen!”

“Well,” returned Hooker, leaning nearer the politician, his face working strangely in the yellow lamplight, “that’s just what I want to avoid. That’s why I called up Martin a minute ago. I wanted to be on the safe side.”

Sigsbee’s interest increased.

“Well, come out with the whole story,” he said. “I can stand for it. What’s wrong?”

“The inspector—Boyer—was here last night. I was—was ill. Couldn’t see him as usual. Nash happened around and checked over the books with him.”

Sigsbee was breathing faster now.

“Well, well, go on!”

“This Nash is a systematic chap. Kept a memorandum of everything in his department. He’s wise to the pay-roll game.”

“You shouldn’t have allowed him to see——”

“Allowed him?” Hooker interrupted bitterly. “What else was I to do? Didn’t he have a letter from you? How was I to know? I thought of course you knew the man, and that he was wise to things. That’s why I trusted him in a dozen different ways.”

The politician was beginning to share the foreman’s uneasiness.

“Did he come to you after he found out about the pay-roll figures?” he asked.

“Yes. He said he thought at first it was a mistake in the bookkeeping. I imagined he was joking. When I found he was serious, I began to get worried.”

“Has he threatened?”

“Not exactly. But he intends to resign unless his department is run on the square. Handed me a bunch of stuff about being a native of Los Angeles, and how he dreaded to see its citizens get the little end of the deal.”

“Why not let him resign?” Sigsbee said, after a moment’s hesitation. “It’ll save explaining, and clear our minds a bit——”

Hooker broke in angrily: “Look here, Sigsbee, you’re a sensible man. Hasn’t it occurred to you that possibly some one suspects our game and has taken this method of getting the goods on us? We don’t know how Nash got that letter, but in all probability it was just a part of a well-laid scheme. It gave him the opportunity of working on the job and getting the proofs firsthand.”

“I hadn’t looked at it in that light,” Sigsbee said, plainly affected by the foreman’s statement. “But it sounds reasonable enough. I’ve been uneasy myself for the past month or so. There’s something in the air—that ominous calm before a storm possibly. Somehow, every time I step into the city hall I expect a hand to descend upon my shoulder. The evening papers are hinting about the amount of money being spent. I don’t know where it’ll all end.”

“I know,” vehemently declared Hooker. “It’ll be a change of clothes and a State boarding house—all without cost to us.”

“Things are looking serious, Hooker, but——” Sigsbee remained buried in thought for the time. Finally he resumed: “Are you satisfied that Nash is a city spotter?”

“Doesn’t all the evidence point that way?”

Sigsbee had to admit it did. “I’d like to know how he came in possession of my letter,” he went on. “If he found it and needed a job, and took that method of obtaining it—we’re still safe. But if it was all a cleverly worked-out scheme, such as you seem to believe—well, things look doubtful.”

“I don’t think the news has gone beyond this camp,” Hooker ventured to hint. “There’s some consolation in that, eh?”

Sigsbee’s eyes came up swiftly. “You mean we might prevent him from——” He broke off.

“Why not? Desperate cases demand desperate measures. It doesn’t seem right that one man should deprive us of all our reward. Now, if he was only out of the way——”

“We’re in too deep right now,” the politician broke in. “What you suggest would only bring the police and the reporters about us.”

Hooker laughed mirthlessly. “What did I suggest?”

“Why, you said——” the other began.

“Don’t you know, on jobs of this kind, Sigsbee, that a dozen accidents happen every day? Do you know that we’ll average a dozen deaths a month right here in this camp? A steam shovel breaks, or some chain slips, or maybe there’s a rock slide. If you say the word, I’m sure Martin could arrange everything.”

“That would be very well,” Sigsbee said, weighing the matter calmly, “if we were positive of two things: That Nash is not a spotter, and that he alone knows of our affairs.”

Hooker walked slowly up and down the room, his hands clenched at his sides. Sigsbee, huddled in a chair before the table, watched him narrowly.

“We’ve had smooth sailing for three years,” the foreman said, at length. “And at the best we could only have one more year—possibly eighteen months. I’d like to wash my hands of the whole affair.”

“I’m with you there,” responded Sigsbee. “I’d like to drop the game—drop it before we’re shown up.”

“Well, what’s to prevent it?” asked Hooker, pausing beside the other’s chair. “Why can’t we?”

“We’re in deep—infernally deep,” Sigsbee said gravely. “I’m afraid they’d trace it back. You know, I haven’t the best of reputations since that affair in Chinatown. Once let the rumor get out, and have the newspaper fellows nosing around——” He paused and shrugged. “I’ve a family to consider, too. If Nash should meet with an accident, such as you’ve suggested, how do we know but there might be a dozen others—friends, possibly, who’d out with the story? If he’s a spotter, he’s no fool.”

“Why not pass a little of the long green before his eyes?” the foreman spoke up swiftly. “Most of us fall for that.”

But Sigsbee shook his head. For some time he was steeped in thought, staring across at the opposite wall, his fat white fingers toying with his watch chain.

“Do you suppose this man would visit me in the city?” he asked, at length.

“I suppose so,” moodily responded Hooker. “Why?”

“Will you ask him to call to-morrow at my office?”

“If you insist. But I tell you, Sigsbee, it’s playing with fire. One little word from him, and the whole town would be up in arms. We’ve got him safe as it is. Martin won’t let him get out of camp. I don’t see why we want to——”

“I’ll see him at my office to-morrow at two o’clock,” Sigsbee interrupted, heedless of the other’s protests. “And as for you, Hooker, maybe I’ll give you the vacation you wanted.”

TO BE CONTINUED.

SOUND SLEEPERS.

Mr. Boyle says that it is one of the amusements of West Africa to show strangers how a Fantee boy can sleep. A friend of his wishing to rouse some servants and send them to close the shutters and lock the doors, said to him:

“I’ll show you something which you wouldn’t believe on hearsay.”

Thereon he grasped a boy by the heels, dragged him a yard or so, turned him over, and roughly lifted him to a sitting posture; the youth sat up, rubbed his eyes, scratched his head, and went to sleep again. To another he did the same, with a like result.

Having thus got the two alongside, fast asleep, he dragged one on top of the other, and left them a moment; they slumbered placidly in that position. He then ran amuck at them, being in slippers, and upset the pair, and ordered them loudly to close the shutters. They both got up, eyes wide open, and apparently conscious; one walked gravely downstairs, the other retired, with all semblance of reason, to the pantry alongside.

The one who went down came up again in two minutes, still with his eyes wide open, and leisurely lay down to sleep again; the other we found fast snoozing in the pantry on a stool. We took them up, and shook them violently; they rubbed themselves, and went to sleep again.

Dragging them into the dining room, without a word, they silently set about their work, fastening shutters and doors.

“Do you think they are awake?” asked my friend. “Tell them to get you something.”

I did so. No response. I repeated the order. They quietly went back, their work completed, and dropped asleep upon their mats. Fast stupefied with sleep all the time!

THE NEWS OF ALL NATIONS.

Chickens on Spotted Mule.

L.E. Richard, of Game, Mo., has a spotted mule that is gentle on all occasions. During the cold spell Mr. Richard’s dozen chickens have been roosting on Maud’s back. They do this, it is supposed, to keep their feet warm. The mule wanders around the premises and doesn’t seem to be annoyed because the chickens prefer to use him as a roost, and the chickens appear to enjoy their ride very much.

Stood on His Head in a Barrel.

Major Simon Pratt, a battle-scarred veteran of more bloody fields than any G.A.R. man in Waldo County, Me., who lost part of an ear, two toes, and a thumb, came near ending his eventful life in a most unsoldierly way. Although he is seventy-eight years old and weighs more than 200 pounds, he is able to be of some help around the place.

He reached into a barrel to get a hen that had nested in it, and pitched headfirst. His grandson and a chum, who happened to be near, were not strong enough to get the major out, but they located a block and tackle near by and by making a hitch around the veteran’s ankles, succeeded in hoisting him out.

“Me No Clare,” Says Sam.

When a gas stove exploded in the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant in Grand Rapids, Mich., a skillet in which a cook was frying four eggs was hurled a distance of fifteen feet across the room, and the handle penetrated a wall. After the excitement had died down it was found that the yolks of the eggs in the skillet were unbroken and the cook, Sam Gee Lee by name, immediately placed the pan on another blaze and finished the order.

When Sam was asked if he wasn’t scared when the stove suddenly shot toward the ceiling in countless sections, he is said to have replied:

“Me cookee on big whale slip. Blig glun go bloom—cr-r-r-up—bloom! Me no clare. Cookee allee samee. No cookee, no mon. Sabe?”

“Spook” With Claws Disturbs the Town.

The people of Ithan, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pa., have appealed to the Radnor Township police to rid the community of a “queer thing,” dressed like a woman, which prowls about lonely roads late at night and chases men.

Men who have been chased describe the “queer thing” as something very spooky. They say it wears black clothes, a thick, black veil, and has clawlike hands.

Jesse Whitman, who alleges that he was chased one Tuesday night, described his experience as follows:

“It was about twelve-five a. m., and I was passing Chandler’s springhouse on Willis Road when it stepped out from the shadows and stalked along behind me. When I hurried, it hurried, and when I slowed up, it slowed up. But it kept getting nearer all the time, and in a minute I was scared out of a year’s growth.

“The thing came alongside of me and laid one of its hands on my arm. It gave a kind of grunt and my hair stood right up straight. It was then that I started to run, and I kept running for two miles.”

Gypsy Queen’s Body Lies Long in State.

The queen of the gypsies is dead. Lying in a costly mahogany casket, her body bedecked with jewels and ancient gold coins, it was being viewed by scores of members of the nomadic tribe.

Mrs. Callie Mitchell, wife of Emil Mitchell, as the pair are known in the States, died at Lolita, Ark., and her remains were taken to Meridian, Miss., to be held until all the wandering nomads might come to view the body. Hundreds have arrived so far.

Emil Mitchell, the king of the tribe, came to this country with his queen from Brazil seventeen years ago, and his followers, about eighty, were mostly his relatives. All were Brazilian Indians, and have multiplied numerously since. When the queen died, long-distance telephone messages and telegrams were sent broadcast to all members of the tribe, and now many wagons and caravans are hurrying to the place to see the last of their queen.

A general council will decide the burial place, which will probably be Cleveland, Ohio. No expense is being spared by the king to make the funeral rival anything of its kind ever seen before. A solid mahogany casket contains her body, which is covered with gold coins and jewels. It is hoped to get every member of the tribe there in time to view the body before it is sealed up.

Duck Now Acts as Watchman.

David Adington, of Hilliard, Ky., owns a duck that serves as a watchdog. The duck was hatched with four legs and soon became a curiosity. When strangers were in the Adington neighborhood, they would always visit his place to see the duck. The bird became so sensitive that whenever it heard any one coming it would run and hide, but despite its efforts to escape, it was generally caught.

Then it changed its tactics, and when any one would approach, it would begin quacking as loud as it could. Now, when any one enters the back yard at night, the duck can be heard all over the neighborhood. Adington has refused several nice sums of money for the duck.

A Wonderful Bedspread.

Stitches totaling 178,962,687 were made by Mrs. P.C. Gress, wife of an Atchison, Kan., physician, in the making of a crocheted bedspread, on display in a furniture store here. There are 555 squares in the spread, each requiring 581 stitches. Other stitches necessary amount to 2,162. It took Mrs. Gress a year to make the spread.

Kansas Has New Gas Blower.

What is claimed to be the greatest gas well ever developed in Kansas sprang into record in Augusta. The flow is estimated at from seventy-five to one hundred million cubic feet per day. So great is the well that when the cap rock of the gas sand was penetrated, the tools were blown out of the well several hundred feet into the air and the derrick was demolished.

The Augusta gas and oil field is being developed rapidly, and to-day it is second to none in Kansas, and there are over seventy good gas wells, besides the oil wells which solve the fuel proposition here.

Horse Plunges Into Store.

Frightened when the cutter became stuck in the street car tracks, a horse driven by Joseph Cone dashed up the sidewalk on the main street, in Marquette, Mich., stopped in front of Stafford’s drug store, snorted a couple of times, and plunged through the big plate-glass window in front of the store. Arriving in the store, he gazed about, showed his teeth in what looked like a grin, then slowly backed his way out and returned to the street. The broken window was the only damage resulting from the episode.

Victim of the Bad luck Jinx.

Life has proven one trouble after another for Lawson A. Dubel, of Frederick, Md., who believes the bad-luck jinx has followed him more persistently than any other man in this country. He must undergo an operation for a growth on his eye. Recently a growth was removed from the other eye. His other mishaps since childhood have been: Left hand almost cut off, right arm broken, severely scalded, jaw broken, tramped upon by a horse and three ribs broken, one ear torn off, and a hole pierced in his head, left foot nearly cut off, kicked by a horse and leg broken, pinned beneath a 1,500-pound derrick, and every rib broken and both hips injured.

Boy Kills Panther in Fight.

Milton Coats, a seventeen-year-old boy, is at a Marked Tree, Ark., hospital here with a terribly lacerated body, due to a fight he had with a mammoth panther.

Young Coats was hunting when the animal leaped from a tree and attacked him. He fought it, but the wild beast overpowered him. As it sank its teeth into his body, the boy managed to get out a hunting knife and cut its throat.

Little Child Saves the Home.

When Police Sergeant Duley, of Tacoma, Wash., answered the telephone at the Central Station the other night, a baby voice said: “I’s alone. My papa and mamma is gone, and the stove is turned over. I’s afraid, and I want you to come out here.”

The firemen found the smoke pouring from the doors of the home of Andrew H. Stoltz, which was saved by the presence of mind of his four-year-old boy. How the little fellow knew the police-station number is a mystery, said the mother.

Girl Saves Drowning Man With Her Auto.

A young woman of rare presence of mind, an automobile tire, a rope, and an automobile worked together to save the life of a man who was pulled out of a deep pond just as he was becoming exhausted.

Miss Elsie Ditson, of Paterson, N.J., is the heroine of the story, while William Young, of Jackson’s Mills, is the man in the case. Miss Ditson was driving her automobile through Cedar Grove, near Caldwell, N.J., when she passed the pond there and heard the shouts of a man in distress.

She unstrapped an extra tire that she carried along, fastened to it a rope, and then threw the tire to the struggling man in the pond. He seized it and she tried to pull him out, but was unable to do so. Then she tied the rope to the automobile and started it slowly away from the pond. The man, clinging to the rope, was hauled out of the water. Then Miss Ditson took him in her automobile to the home of her uncle, near by. He said that he had been skating when the ice broke and threw him into the water. His efforts to escape were vain, and he was becoming numb from the cold when his rescuer appeared.

His Life Saved by Rubbers.

Because the sloppy condition of the city’s streets caused him to put on a heavy pair of rubbers, David Taxin, of Monroe, Mich., is still living. When he drove over some telephone wires lying on the street and which were crossed by high-tension wires of the municipal electric plant, his team of horses dropped dead. Taxin, thinking they had slipped, got out of the rig and worked over them. Passers-by warned him he was standing on wires carrying 2,300 volts.

Finds Silver Dollar of 1796.

Elmer Steele, of Lewes, Del., found a United States silver dollar bearing the date 1796, while digging in sand near the Cape Henlopen lighthouse. The coin is in excellent condition.

Bird Flies Over the Ocean.

A carrier pigeon dropped from the roof of a building in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and Fred Jacobs, who found it, discovered a message tied about the bird’s neck, which evidently was the message of a German soldier in the Belgium trenches to his wife. The message read as follows:

“DEAR WIFE: I am alive and well in the trenches in Belgium, but your brother has been killed.”

That was all there was, not even a signature to denote the identity of the man who wrote this little tragedy of war. The pigeon showed evidence of long flight, and the injury to the wing seemed to have been received shortly before the bird was picked up.

The message was written in English and wrapped in the heading of a German newspaper, and the date mark of the paper was Saxony, Dec. ——, the day of the month missing.

Interesting New Inventions.

A new iron-pipe fence post anchors itself as it is driven into the ground, as the lower end is divided into four sections that separate.

In a costly watch that has been made for exhibition purposes there is a wheel that makes a complete revolution only once in four years, operating a dial that shows the years, months, and days.

Three different tones can be produced in a new automobile horn by moving the bulb that supplies it with air to as many angles.

A valve is fitted to the bottom of a new cooking kettle so that water may be drained from vegetables without endangering its user.

A Texas inventor’s hair-drying brush that is heated by electricity is provided with a screen to prevent it burning the scalp.

The frame of a new bicycle is made long enough for a package carrier to be mounted behind the handle bars.

The latest in the line of collapsible baby carriages folds into a box resembling a suit case, for carrying.

A combination of mirror, comb, and identification card to be carried in a person’s hat has been patented.

Scooping ’Em Up by Bushels.

Edward Ell and John Eifert, of Sayville, L.I., gather clams for a living. In former days they followed the prosaic method of standing barefoot in the mud and digging with a spade. But the manner in which they supply Manhattan restaurants with these popular shellfish at present is little short of poetry.

They back their small power boats close to the banks in which the clams dwell. Then they start the propellers and let them do the dirty work. Every once in a while they have to reach over and dump a bushel or so of clams into their boat—but that is unavoidable labor.

Meantime, they lie on cushions and smoke and read. For perfection only one thing is lacking—a phonograph to play “This Is the Life,” and business is getting so good that they threaten to buy one.

The two fishermen swore before three justices of the peace and seventeen witnesses that the above story is true.

Oldest Person in the World.

Mrs. Mary Brock, aged 135 years, lives in Shades Valley, and her grandson, Sam Foley, of Pratt City, Ala., intends to give her a party in May. That Mrs. Brock is the oldest person in the United States is generally believed, and possibly the oldest in the world.

Mrs. Brock, according to a statement of Mr. Foley, was born August 2, 1780, and has lived in Shades Valley a great many years. Mr. Foley plans to have a birthday celebration at his home in May, and intends to have Mrs. Brock present. Mrs. Brock retains her faculties fairly well. Mr. Foley says:

“Although I have not seen my grandmother in a good many years, at the same time I hear from her occasionally. She is in good health and apparently enjoys life in every way. She has spent the major portion of her life in Shades Valley.”

United States Navy Gunner Sets World’s Record.

William Ruf, a gun pointer on the United States battleship Texas, who is visiting his home in Beacon, N.Y., on a furlough, has been notified that he set a new world’s record in marksmanship with the big guns during the recent practice off the Virginia capes. Ruf made eight straight hits with a fourteen-inch gun, shooting at a moving target twelve miles away.

Gathers Gold Nuggets in Streets of Town.

Mrs. Guy Talbott, of Grass Valley, Cal., made fifteen dollars in one day following a heavy storm by mining in the streets of Grass Valley. While her husband was working in a quartz mill for two dollars a day, Mrs. Talbot was picking up nuggets in the street in front of her home. Other women, many men, and almost all the children of Grass Valley are now searching the streets for gold.

The streets of Grass Valley were repaired recently, and “tailings” or refuse ore from a quartz mine were used in lieu of cobbles. After an unusually heavy rain, Mrs. Talbott chanced to see a bit of gold lying exposed in the street. She abandoned housework for the day and picked up fifteen dollars’ worth.

Mrs. Talbott tried to keep the secret, but as she could not mine the streets after dark, it was not long until half the town was out looking for gold, and finding some, too.

Grass Valley is not the only city in California paved with gold. From the records of the city of Marysville it is shown that on August 12, 1851, Mayor S.M. Miles issued a proclamation against “the practice of doing mining on the main street of Marysville.”

Harder Than the Diamond.

Although the diamond is generally regarded as the hardest of all substances, tantalum, a rare metal, although not one of the rarest, is harder. A thin sheet of it was once placed under a diamond drill worked day and night for three days. The only effect was a slight indentation in the tantalum and the wearing out of the diamond.

Bread-line “Regular” Never Ate Real Meal.

He has been a “regular” in the bread line at the Immanuel Baptist Church, of Chicago, Ill., all winter; his clothes were tattered and threadbare, and his face showed the pinch of hunger. The big Sunday-school room of this Chicago church was crowded to its limits with others in similar condition awaiting their turn at the tables, where bread, butter, and coffee are served every morning from six to eight-thirty o’clock.

Doctor Johnston Myers, pastor of the church, and under whose direction the “line” gets its daily breakfast, called the man to the front of the room after he had swallowed his half a loaf and his two cups of coffee.

“I’m an orphan and I’ve never eaten a meal with a family,” he said, in response to questions by Doctor Myers. “I don’t know who my parents were, but I was put in a New York orphanage when a baby. There I stayed until I was twelve years old, when I was sent to a farmer in Canada, to be held until I was of age. That farmer thought of nothing but how much work he could get out of me. When my time was up I started to tramp, and I’ve been at it ever since.

“I’ve eaten at back doors, free-lunch counters, and even occasionally at a lunch counter in a restaurant, but I’ve never sat to a table with a family.”

Want Belgian Linen Makers.

The movement to bring expert linen makers from Belgium to western Canada, which raises an exceedingly good grade of flax, is gaining big momentum, and a Belgian priest is now on his way to Europe after conferring with the Canadian Northern Railway. The making of linen had been a large and important industry in Belgium before the war, but now every factory is closed.

A great many women, as well as men, were employed in the industry, and the Belgian priest intends to get in touch with the large manufacturers to induce them to move their plants and bring as many of their old workmen as they can to western Canada.

Two points on the Canadian Northern have been under consideration, both in Saskatchewan and both located in the heart of the finest flax country in the Dominion. There now is a mill at Rosetown, Sask., which is in the heart of the Gravelburg district, well known for the quality and yield of flax.

Drives Prison Bus Forty Years.

Old Jim Cassidy, of New York, who drove the Black Maria laden with prisoners from the Tombs to police headquarters for years, had his first collapse a day or two ago. The driver of a patrol wagon did not move away quickly enough to suit Deputy Sheriff Levy, who shouted to him. This drew retorts, and old Jim was drawn into the argument. Soon afterward he keeled over.

Doctor Cox, from St. Vincent’s Hospital, treated the old man for syncope, and when he revived, he wanted to get back on the Black Maria, and drive his prisoners, but his friends forced him into a cab and took him to his home.

Except for two years of Sheriff Tamsen’s term, Cassidy has driven the prison van for nearly forty years. Long before that he was famous the country over as “Jim Cass,” a wonderful handler of game chickens and game dogs.

Was Not a Very Busy Justice.

F.P. Reiter has just rounded out twenty-five years as a justice of the peace of West Rockhill Township, Bucks County, Pa.

Preparing the chronology of his career as chief dispenser of justice in the township, the squire learned that he had issued four warrants and had never sent a case, either civil or criminal, to court in the quarter century.

Death of an Aged Virginian.

George Little Collier, a well-known and highly respected citizen of Wise County, Va., has passed away and been laid to rest in the old burying ground at the head of Powell’s Valley, by the side of his two wives.

Mr. Collier was eighty-seven years old. He reared twenty-two children, and at his death had forty-eight grandchildren and twenty-two great-grandchildren.

“Uncle Lite,” as he was familiarly known, moved to Wise County sixty-three years ago, and previous to that he lived in Lee County. Thus he spent his entire life in the State of Virginia. When he settled in his log cabin, at the foot of Powell’s Mountain, bear and deer were plentiful. Norton at that time was a solid growth of laurel and ivy, and he could have purchased “Prince’s Flats,” now Norton, for one dollar per acre.

Old citizens and travelers will recall the log house at the foot of Stone Mountain, and the first in sight after a long journey from Wise Courthouse through the dense thicket over Prince’s flats and across the little, dark, winding, rough, and rocky road through Little Stone Gap.

International Marriages Breed War, She Says.

The ranks of the newly formed Women’s Peace Party were thrown into confusion recently when Lady Briggs, widow of Sir John Henry Briggs, proposed an international law prohibiting international marriages.

“Such a law,” said Lady Briggs, “would prevent international complications, and thereby prevent war.”

Lady Briggs also suggested that the Women’s Peace Party undertake to bar naturalization of aliens; to revise American histories which she declared contain untrue accounts of the wars with England, and finally to expurge “sanguinary” lines in the National anthem, declaring the English were therein referred to as a band of hirelings and slaves, whose “blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.”

Mrs. Amos Pinchot, president of the New York branch, soothed Lady Briggs with the statement that few persons really knew to whom the lines referred, and those who did took them with a grain of salt.

Woman Devours Twenty-two Lobsters in Contest.

A contest in lobster eating, held recently in the Mecca Café, at No. 3550 Broadway, New York City, was won by Mrs. Eleanor Reynolds, of No. 540 West One Hundred and Sixty-Second Street.

Mrs. Reynolds ate twenty-two lobsters and three loaves of bread. Morton Ohrback, her rival, ate seventeen lobsters.

War Spares United States’ Mails.

Not one bag of United States mail has been lost through the activities of the war fleets of the European belligerents. In fact, post-office-department officials said to-day no American mail had gone down with a merchantmen destroyed by a warship within the last hundred years.

Postmaster General Burleson expects no interference with the mail service to result from Germany’s sea warzone proclamation. It was pointed out that the mail steamers are fast vessels, carrying passengers and but little cargo of the kind belligerents would seek to destroy.

Goes 25,000 Miles to Satisfy Law.

To inspect a little post office on the far-away island of Guam, which pays its postmaster $125 a year, is the object of a 25,000-mile journey which Postal Inspector E.P. Smith is making to satisfy the demands of the law. The inspection of the office will be the first since 1908.

Vincent Astor Orders 2,100 Apple Trees.

Vincent Astor will soon be the most extensive apple grower in the State of New York. It became known yesterday that he has placed an order for 2,100 trees, which will be planted on his large estate, Ferncliffe, at Rhinebeck.

The order was placed with the Harrison Nursery, of Berlin, Md.

Makes Smokeless Coal.

Alfred Muller, a chemist, of St. Louis, Mo., has announced he has discovered a process which makes coal absolutely smokeless, gives more heat, and is consequently cheaper. He has been making the fuel by hand, and is using it in his home.

Picks Indian’s Daughter for Bride.

Charles Meyer, aged sixty-five, of Valley Stream, N.Y., who advertised for a wife recently, has picked Mrs. Annie Wilson, daughter of Big Cloud, chief of the Seneca Indians.

A Boy Scout Honored.

The highest honor a boy scout can win has been conferred on Wayne Carney, fifteen years old, of Indianapolis. He has been given a scout honor medal for saving the life of a playmate, Harry Warbington, thirteen years old.

The Warbington lad fell into a creek and was sinking when his chum went to his rescue. Wayne is a manly little chap. Asked if he was a pretty good swimmer, he said he wasn’t. “But you went after this boy when he was drowning?” he was reminded. “Sure,” said Wayne. “Anybody would have done that.”

Discipline Saves British from Loss.

If discipline were not now being maintained in the British army, it would lose, according to P.M. Neilson, now at the front in France with the First Lowland Company of Engineers. In a letter received recently by his sister, Miss Bessie R. Neilson, of Wilkinsburg, Pa., he tells of several striking instances to show this.

“The Germans made an attack in the night,” he says, “on the —— Regiment, which took panic, and nearly all, except two, of their officers fled. Our twenty, however, under Mr. Clark—one of the officers—who had retreated a little, came back to a charge. The other two officers were killed, but our good old Lowland regained the trenches after very hot work.

“One of the men left to tell the tale of Ypres says he and a few others saw the Prussians going around the British wounded, bayoneting them. They could not stand that, so they charged the Germans, who had three times as many men. The Germans, as usual, fell back into their trenches, but the Scotch and English boys pursued them, and then, of all the cheek in the world! the Germans threw down their arms and pleaded for mercy. Our fellows simply shot them all down. Their blood was up.

“Night before last a bullet passed through a box on which I was leaning, but I have had few exciting times myself. Two men of a regiment who tried to desert were killed on the twelfth, after a court-martial, and if discipline were not now maintained, we would lose.

“It’s a terrible thing, but I’m afraid it will last a long time. You have no idea what it is like. Our company, which gets home each night, is luckier than the infantry. They are in the trenches for days, even weeks, and some of them don’t know what they are doing. Being there so long makes them mad. There is no doubt about that. If you want to speak to them, they just stare at you. They don’t understand.

“If, at many points, a man is wounded and falls down, he has to lie there and die in the mud. Should the medical transport come in time, he will be attended to, but they can only remove the wounded at night, on account of the enemy. So that if a man gets wounded at daylight he has to stay where he is until night.

“Some of our dear old Scotch regiments have been wiped out. The Black Watch and Camerons have about ninety-four and one hundred and fifty-eight, respectively, of above one thousand each. They have been out since the beginning of the war, and it was at Ypres they suffered so terribly.”

Although, because of the censor, Mr. Neilson is unable to tell just where he is, he says the villages have not a single inhabitant. He describes the beautiful houses, filled with furniture, now occupied by troops. The people, he adds, will never return.

“People will tell you the Germans can’t shoot,” he says. “Well, they have not seen them. They also say one Briton equals three Germans. There is no difference, and because of their being taught from infancy regarding militarism, the German is the better of the two. And by Britons I mean all the Allies.

“The guns here are booming all day, and an occasional ‘Jack Johnson’ drops around our billet, which is a mile or so from the actual firing line.”

Mr. Neilson continues that the British are bringing to the front only their best men, and says the troops are now supplied with fur jackets and warmers, but remarks that because of the heavy boots many leave them near the trenches, as they can hardly carry themselves, not to speak of ammunition. Even rifles, too, are thrown down.

Under date of Sunday, the twenty-fourth, he adds a brief postscript:

“The French people here won’t allow any one to sing. They say it is a time of weeping. All France is the same, and everybody, or very nearly so, is dressed in black. So you see I have not heard any singing since coming to France. Imagine my surprise when just now—this is what made me write this extra bit—there burst forth the 100th Psalm. On looking out, I see it is the Black Watch. Fancy hearing it here! It tones you up a bit. They are at church parade, and really that is the best music I have ever heard in all my life, and they are not good singers.”

Why Common Powder Smokes.

Ordinary powder produces smoke when fired because of the quantity of fine particles formed from the breaking up of the saltpeter and from some of the charcoal which is not completely burned.

To get rid of smoke, so long a handicap in the use of guns, it was necessary to produce a substance that would explode without leaving any solid residue. This was accomplished by the use of guncotton or nitrocellulose, from which the most satisfactory smokeless powder is made.

The substance is a chemical compound, not a mixture like gunpowder, and is made by treating cotton with a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acids. When exploded, it is all converted into gases. Burning is not necessary to cause an explosion, a mere shock or jar being sufficient.

It is too violent an explosive to use in small arms or in cannon, but guncotton can be made into less forceful forms, suitable for use in guns, and most brands of smokeless powder are made in this way.

Bloody Arm His Signal Flag.

Vernon Wilson, a farm hand, was injured while in the country, near Glenwood, Iowa, in a peculiar way, and, to get a surgeon, flagged a fast passenger train with his bloody arm and hand and came to Glenwood.

Wilson was hurt when he dropped some cartridges from his hand, one falling on a piece of ice and being discharged. The ball passed through his arm, inflicting a bad wound.

Two Killed in Rail Crash.

James Maxwell, a locomotive engineer of Des Moines, Iowa, and his fireman, H.L. Hickok, of the same place, were killed, and Mail Clerk F.M. Perry, of Waterloo, Iowa, seriously injured in a wreck on the Chicago Great Western Railroad, three miles north of here. Spreading rails are believed to have been the cause. All passengers escaped injury.

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The Nick Carter Stories

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When it comes to detective stories worth while, the =Nick Carter Stories= contain the only ones that should be considered. They are not overdrawn tales of bloodshed. They rather show the working of one of the finest minds ever conceived by a writer. The name of Nick Carter is familiar all over the world, for the stories of his adventures may be read in twenty languages. No other stories have withstood the severe test of time so well as those contained in the =Nick Carter Stories=. It proves conclusively that they are the best. We give herewith a list of some of the back numbers in print. You can have your news dealer order them, or they will be sent direct by the publishers to any address upon receipt of the price in money or postage stamps.

704—Written in Red. 707—Rogues of the Air. 709—The Bolt from the Blue. 710—The Stockbridge Affair. 711—A Secret from the Past. 712—Playing the Last Hand. 713—A Slick Article. 714—The Taxicab Riddle. 715—The Knife Thrower. 717—The Master Rogue’s Alibi. 719—The Dead Letter. 720—The Allerton Millions. 728—The Mummy’s Head. 729—The Statue Clue. 730—The Torn Card. 731—Under Desperation’s Spur. 732—The Connecting Link. 733—The Abduction Syndicate. 736—The Toils of a Siren. 737—The Mark of a Circle. 738—A Plot Within a Plot. 739—The Dead Accomplice. 741—The Green Scarab. 743—A Shot in the Dark. 746—The Secret Entrance. 747—The Cavern Mystery. 748—The Disappearing Fortune. 749—A Voice from the Past. 752—The Spider’s Web. 753—The Man With a Crutch. 754—The Rajah’s Regalia. 755—Saved from Death. 756—The Man Inside. 757—Out for Vengeance. 758—The Poisons of Exili. 759—The Antique Vial. 760—The House of Slumber. 761—A Double Identity. 762—“The Mocker’s” Stratagem. 763—The Man that Came Back. 764—The Tracks in the Snow. 765—The Babbington Case. 766—The Masters of Millions. 767—The Blue Stain. 768—The Lost Clew. 770—The Turn of a Card. 771—A Message in the Dust. 772—A Royal Flush. 774—The Great Buddha Beryl. 775—The Vanishing Heiress. 776—The Unfinished Letter. 777—A Difficult Trail. 778—A Six-word Puzzle. 782—A Woman’s Stratagem. 783—The Cliff Castle Affair. 784—A Prisoner of the Tomb. 785—A Resourceful Foe. 786—The Heir of Dr. Quartz. 787—Dr. Quartz, the Second. 789—The Great Hotel Tragedies. 790—Zanoni, the Witch. 791—A Vengeful Sorceress. 794—Doctor Quartz’s Last Play. 795—Zanoni, the Transfigured. 796—The Lure of Gold. 797—The Man With a Chest. 798—A Shadowed Life. 799—The Secret Agent. 800—A Plot for a Crown. 801—The Red Button. 802—Up Against It. 803—The Gold Certificate. 804—Jack Wise’s Hurry Call. 805—Nick Carter’s Ocean Chase. 806—Nick Carter and the Broken Dagger. 807—Nick Carter’s Advertisement. 808—The Kregoff Necklace. 809—The Footprints on the Rug. 810—The Copper Cylinder. 811—Nick Carter and the Nihilists. 812—Nick Carter and the Convict Gang. 813—Nick Carter and the Guilty Governor. 814—The Triangled Coin. 815—Ninety-nine—and One. 816—Coin Number 77. 817—In the Canadian Wilds. 818—The Niagara Smugglers. 819—The Man Hunt.

NEW SERIES

NICK CARTER STORIES

1—The Man from Nowhere. 2—The Face at the Window. 3—A Fight for a Million. 4—Nick Carter’s Land Office. 5—Nick Carter and the Professor. 6—Nick Carter as a Mill Hand. 7—A Single Clew. 8—The Emerald Snake. 9—The Currie Outfit. 10—Nick Carter and the Kidnapped Heiress. 11—Nick Carter Strikes Oil. 12—Nick Carter’s Hunt for a Treasure. 13—A Mystery of the Highway. 14—The Silent Passenger. 15—Jack Dreen’s Secret. 16—Nick Carter’s Pipe Line Case. 17—Nick Carter and the Gold Thieves. 18—Nick Carter’s Auto Chase. 19—The Corrigan Inheritance. 20—The Keen Eye of Denton. 21—The Spider’s Parlor. 22—Nick Carter’s Quick Guess. 23—Nick Carter and the Murderess. 24—Nick Carter and the Pay Car. 25—The Stolen Antique. 26—The Crook League. 27—An English Cracksman. 28—Nick Carter’s Still Hunt. 29—Nick Carter’s Electric Shock. 30—Nick Carter and the Stolen Duchess. 31—The Purple Spot. 32—The Stolen Groom. 33—The Inverted Cross. 34—Nick Carter and Keno McCall. 35—Nick Carter’s Death Trap. 36—Nick Carter’s Siamese Puzzle. 37—The Man Outside. 38—The Death Chamber. 39—The Wind and the Wire. 40—Nick Carter’s Three Cornered Chase. 41—Dazaar, the Arch-Fiend. 42—The Queen of the Seven. 43—Crossed Wires. 44—A Crimson Clew. 45—The Third Man. 46—The Sign of the Dagger. 47—The Devil Worshipers. 48—The Cross of Daggers. 49—At Risk of Life. 50—The Deeper Game. 51—The Code Message. 52—The Last of the Seven. 53—Ten-Ichi, the Wonderful. 54—The Secret Order of Associated Crooks. 55—The Golden Hair Clew. 56—Back From the Dead. 57—Through Dark Ways. 58—When Aces Were Trumps. 59—The Gambler’s Last Hand. 60—The Murder at Linden Fells. 61—A Game for Millions. 62—Under Cover. 63—The Last Call. 64—Mercedes Danton’s Double. 65—The Millionaire’s Nemesis. 66—A Princess of the Underworld. 67—The Crook’s Blind. 68—The Fatal Hour. 69—Blood Money. 70—A Queen of Her Kind. 71—Isabel Benton’s Trump Card. 72—A Princess of Hades. 73—A Prince of Plotters. 74—The Crook’s Double. 75—For Life and Honor. 76—A Compact With Dazaar. 77—In the Shadow of Dazaar. 78—The Crime of a Money King. 79—Birds of Prey. 80—The Unknown Dead. 81—The Severed Hand. 82—The Terrible Game of Millions. 83—A Dead Man’s Power. 84—The Secrets of an Old House. 85—The Wolf Within. 86—The Yellow Coupon. 87—In the Toils. 88—The Stolen Radium. 89—A Crime in Paradise. 90—Behind Prison Bars. 91—The Blind Man’s Daughter. 92—On the Brink of Ruin. 93—Letter of Fire. 94—The $100,000 Kiss. 95—Outlaws of the Militia. 96—The Opium-Runners. 97—In Record Time. 98—The Wag-Nuk Clew. 99—The Middle Link. 100—The Crystal Maze. 101—A New Serpent in Eden. 102—The Auburn Sensation. 103—A Dying Chance. 104—The Gargoni Girdle. 105—Twice in Jeopardy. 106—The Ghost Launch. 107—Up in the Air. 108—The Girl Prisoner. 109—The Red Plague. 110—The Arson Trust. 111—The King of the Firebugs. 112—“Lifter’s” of the Lofts. 113—French Jimmie and His Forty Thieves. 114—The Death Plot. 115—The Evil Formula. 116—The Blue Button. 117—The Deadly Parallel. 118—The Vivisectionists. 119—The Stolen Brain. 120—An Uncanny Revenge. 121—The Call of Death. 122—The Suicide. 123—Half a Million Ransom. 124—The Girl Kidnapper. 125—The Pirate Yacht. 126—The Crime of the White Hand. 127—Found in the Jungle. 128—Six Men in a Loop. Dated February 27th, 1915. 129—The Jewels of Wat Chang. Dated March 6th, 1915. 130—The Crime in the Tower. Dated March 13th, 1915. 131—The Fatal Message. Dated March 20th, 1915. 132—Broken Bars.

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