Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 5, 1921 — page 58: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

344 burglar to put up his hands or be a good boy, or making any of the demands which are usual in the circumstances. “T can explain the whole modus oper- andi to you, Campbell, if you will be pa- tient,” said Bob the next evening. ‘“ The two men were, of course, only minor members of the gang. But the thing was planned by the Big Four. You can see Big Four sticking out all over it. First of all, they had to get the bank manager, and they got him in Mr. Timmes. Parry was, of course, merely a decoy duck, and he probably circularized many bank managers all over England, promising un- limited credit, before he found one fool who would fall. “Once they had him worked up to a frenzy, so that they could slip in at the Jast moment to make good his deficit, they had him in their hands body and soul. Timmes was the man who gave ‘them infor- mation as to the bank’s methods. “The next job was to find a possible client of the bank, and they were probably working for six months before they got Mrs. Betherton in ‘their toils. I inter- viewed Mrs. Betherton before I came away, and she was a greatly scared lady. She owed Parry four thousand pounds. Parry had come down to see her in the afternoon, and had proved a most amiable young gentleman who was willing to oblige her. He had brought down sixty thousand pounds in bank-notes—genuine money, you understand. Would she very kindly put this to her account, as he did The eighth and last atventure of the Policy Sleuth, “THE LUCKY DIP,” will % appear next week. w Neo: ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. not want to carfy it about the country, for fear of being robbed. He probably told some plausible story as to why he had that amount. “Mrs. Betherton goes down to the bank and deposits the money just before the bank closes. The young manager has no place to keep it, except the very inadequate vaults which were provided for that little town. The two artists who are told off for the job arranged to dope the branch manager’s food on its way over from the inn to his quarters—as a matter of faot, we found every bit of food that was sent over that night absolutely saturated with noxious drugs. The money was to be ex- tracted and a few ‘days later Mr. Parry was to arrange to draw out the cash he de- posited—through Mrs. Betherton. ‘T guessed that something like this was framed, but my difficulty was to get into touch with the police. 1 di my best to get pinched earlier in the day, so that ] could have a heart-to-heart talk with the constabulary in their native lair; and when eventually I was carried off to the jug I was scared sick that they’d pull off the job before I got back. I must say this for the Devonshire police: that they listened to reason, jumped to my story, and we sneaked back to’ the bank by a back way, having previously called up the manager by phone to tell him we were coming.” “Did you get the man in the car?” asked Campbell; whereat a look of weari- ness spread over Rob's face. ‘‘ Campbell, Campbell.” he said irrita- bly, “you want a lot for your money.” U U FORGIVENESS YOR love may forgive your offense, You may think dt is over and done. But she’ll never forget she forgave- Your punishment’s only begun! E.G. Johracrinicloooks.cO