Evening Star Newspaper, April 10, 1921, Page 61

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, APRIL 10, 1921—PART 4. RUNNING DOWN THIEVES WHO MAKE « Crime Wave Causes Considerable A SPECIALTY OF UNCLE SAM’S MAIL Before passing_on he confessed to the Santa Fe robbery. A town in Indiana was all upset recently when the postmaster, mail carrier, mayor, police and the rest of the popuiation realized that three | robbers had brazenly taken a regis- | tered mail pouch from a truck while TORCHY PLOTS A SMEAR ORCHY.” demands Old Hick- ory here the other mornin’ as he pads into the gen- eral offices about 10:15, “who the withering wollypops are all those people in the anteroom waiting to see?" ¢ it ‘was standing on the station plat- | ‘You. sir” says I following him W f ]’l form In broad daylight awaiting the [into the inmer sanctum with the orry or the arrival of the fast mail. The excite- [morning mail. ment fairly sizzled when it was learn- | wprwm” pot gnores chuckin® the last Government's Post Office Inspectors. Few Robbers Are Successful in Their Raids—Instances Where Wit of Sleuths Has Caused Arrests — Peculiar - Robberies—Clues Always Left Be- hind. ed that the lone pouch contained al- most $200,000 worth of securities. Some of the loot was promptly and noisily squandered, and the rest of it was hidden in seven different places, ranging from a woodshed to an in- ner tube. Prompt action and ju- dicious third-degreeing by inspectors resulted in the recovery of $165.000. Two men with mail sacks over their heads, hands and feet tied and £ags in their mouths, was the sight that greeted a country docgor in Georgia one morning just at break of dawn, as he was slowly driving home from an all-night case. Officers bor- rowed bloodhounds from a nearby convict camp and trailed the bandit to the river. where the scent Was lost. The inspector on the case prov- ed more efficient than the dogs. Six weeks later he rounded up his man in New York city. He had boarded the mail wagon while en route to the depot, explaining that he was a plain clothes officer. He generously offered the driver and his assistant cigar- While they were- lighting them, he pulled a gun and told the driver to head for the country. * k kX A JERSEYMAN received a severe confidence in the possibilities of a jolting as a result of hls over- three inches of a Cassadora into the waste basket and selectin’ a fresh one from his desk humidor. “And who might some of ‘em be?" “Well," says I, “there’s Mr. Blivens from the Broadway National. to as about some sccurities of ours that's been offered them; and the buildin’ agent with the renewed leas: and a clerk from your personal attorneys with “Bah!" says Old Hickory. don’t they see Robert : use he went to Chicago last . yes” says he. . 1can't spend the foremoon go- ing over trivial details. Can’t do it Important matters. Send ‘em all off, and when you've done that, §o_to Mr. Piddic and bring me those Mesaba contracts. Understand?" “Right,” says I. But as I hurries toward the waitin' room 1 almost runs down this poddy old party with the pop eyes and the Cordovan tan complexion. “Oh. excuse me, Mr. Dowd,” says L “Ellins in yet?” says he. ‘Ye-e-es, sir’ says 1. “Just ar- rived. But I'm afraid he's rather tied up this morning, Mr. Dowd “Oh, that's all right,” says the Hon. Matt. “I'll be only a minute. Got something very special to tell him.” “Why | So _he did. | | sailboat. He got the idea in his head | \ng in he goes, without even trou- BY H. 0. BISHOP. that he could stage an elaborate mail |blin to knock. e T lace near the coast | Course. i beanless private sec. who'd rime wave that has been robbery at some plac {he coast | just had ‘strict orders fo bar every- | sweeping the country from and completely foil all of the detec- |} 5. "righe have pulled something end to end and from side to side for some time past has caused Uncle Sam consideraale annovance in ,his various branches of governmental Lousekeeping. This seems to be par- ticularly true of the Post Office De- partment. There has been more mail robbery during the past few years than was the case over any similar period since the establishment of the public mail service. Realizing that liberty bonds, money, jewelry and all sorts of valuables were being shipmed through the mails to an unusual *=tent as a result of war readjustm#nt activities, a small army of croo#s, ne'er-do-wells and get-rich-quickars forsook their other temporary questionable occupations and engaged aa what they assumed would be the safe and hinaly profit- Ple vocation of appropriating unto hemselves as many valuable-filled siriped canvas mail sacks as they } overcoat: of the haughty clerks they get it, too tinued the have inspector, sober crooks Crooks of today do a whole lot more cold, calculating thinking than booz- ilk shirts, non-noisy jew- elry, manicured nails and the air of prosperous business men. stopping at fifth-rate dives on back streets, as in the old days, they now taxicab right up to the front doors biggest hotels, squarely and demand the best they have—and ‘And don’t overlook the fact,” con- “that we now to “ONE ROBBER WAS SURPRISEy TO FIND $75000 IN A SINGLE MAIL BAG, AND THEN HE RECEIVED ANOTHER SURPRISE BY THE APPEARANCE OF A POLICEMAN HE HAD MET BEFOI g bullets up the aisle evidently wore no sharpshooter medals on_his chest. His aim was distressing. While the employes and pasengers were being tortured in this uncomfortable fash- | ion. other bandits looted the mail and express cars. The amount of plunder secured was nothing to brag about. It consisted of four diamond rings, two wedding rings and a _bracelet worth $595. a sixty-five cent hand- kerchief, 125 war savings stamps and |a lingerie clasp worth a dollar. The | kFaul from the express car consisted | of $319 in cash. Hearing the many pistol shots, the wife of a farmer living half mile Instead of look the in the eye deal with. tives by auietly placing his stolen wealth aboard a sailboat and steering straight for one of the small islands of the West Indies. It would have been a great scheme if it had worked. But it didn’t work out as he figured. Before he had gone more than seven- teen miles from the Jersey coast a squall came up and snapped his main- | mast as though it was the earloop of tortoigeshell glasses. And then, irony of ironies, a United States revenue cutter came steaming along and picked him up before it dawned upon him that it would be wise to throw the stolen property overboard. Every single dime of it was returned to the owners. Texas was.recently treated to a re- minder of the well-nigh forgotten days of frontier bandjiry. High- waymen walked into a branch post oftice in one of the largest cities of that state and seriously wounded two rash about then: grabbed the Hon Matthew Dowd by the coat tails. or said a few hasty words. But I don't figure on the pay ro!l so heavy simpl because I've been with the Corrugated Trust so long. know when to hunch my shoulders and let things ride. Which is what I did then. You see, the Hon. Matt is one of Old Hickory's cronies. They’re mixed up in all kinds of deals together; from seven-figure investments to the joint ownership of a two-acre island down in Barnegat Bay, where they used to go duck huntin’ before either of 'em got the. rheumatism habi They're co-directors on half a dozen and lately they've different boards, helped organize a new plute country club with an initiation fee that makes me gasp every time I think of it. * ok k *x O who am T to block the Hon. Matt from the private office when may- be he’s toddlin’ in with a scheme that Part of my job is to| FROM ALL PARTS OF TH COURSE PLAYERS LEFT THEIR AND WHAT IT WAS ALL ABOLUT. MATCHES TO COME OVER E ing. As a rule sober men don't brag iy 3 o e could get their clutches upon. > S > |from the scene of the robbery,|clerks and slightly injured a third|may mean millions to both of ‘em? N Evidently, however, they sverlooked ;‘:’j‘:e}?}?‘;;‘:i‘g";’f‘:’&"fi:‘“;\3ir’-‘c; phoned the sheriff's wife at the|one. They grabbed all of the reg- |Besides, it was plain the old boy was | these mashie maniacs about as batt: or were ignorant of the fact that the county seat. By the time the sheriff istered mail pouches in sight and excited over something or other. I as anything you ever saw outside of < ¢ on a brass rail, an elbow on the ma- i ! S ‘i " e e Fovernment tains ey - > was dressed, his artillery buckled on iy made their getaway with |could tell that by the wild glitter in|a padded cell Why, here Old Hick Highly " trained “sieaihs. wne® Jof|hogany and after getting dizzily |and he had reached the side track the ;";fif,'ds.',"izo’d e s usual, how. | his pop eyes and the puffy way he's|ory would have had me shot at sun- < edged would proceed to spill the|robbers were a hundred miles away | ever, the inspectors soon nabbed them, | breathin rise for lettin' in anybody less'n a known by the title of post office in- spectors. There are 435 of these shrewd detectives. By odd coinci- dence there are just as many inspec- tors as there are members of Con- gress. These persistent 435 men have won & reputation which is equally as enviable as that of the world-famous red-coated mounted constabulary of Canads. Time and distance are noth- ing to these mail robber chasers. When the famous chief, who is @ quiet. mild-mannered, frost,-haired, immaculately groomed gentleman still on‘t:lo JSunny lld‘e of the Aftles. sends out instructions from his office in the Post Office building at the corner of Pennsylvania avenue and 11th street to eapture the person or persons who wobbed the United States mail at some place in Idaho, Texas New York, Indiana, Georgia, or any other state, 7 be a moment’ escapade. ness.” * (QNE of the most daring mail rob- beries in recent years occurred in Kansas. A gang of five bandits took advantage of the fact that it was the nightly custom of a certain passen- | ger train to take the side track at a spot remote from any settlement in {order to permit a train going in the | opposite direction to pass. unusually dark - 51 that old needle beans by bragging about their latest Nowadays it is worse than and haystack busi- * x *x night, #TWO MEN WITH MAIL SACKS OVER THEIR HEADS AND HANDS AND FEET TIEQQ WAS A SIGHT GREETED BY A COUNTRY DOCTOR IN GEORGIA.” let-up until the gulilty | hand crawled over the tender and or? parties are arrested, convicted, and dered the engineman and fireman to just as the train had gotten into the siding, two the chase is on. and there will never | masked men with six shooters in each and the train at the next division point. He found the auto track in the soft earth and camped close to it the remainder of the night, so that it wouldn’t get “mussed.” For three months Uncle Sam's ablest post office inspectors trailed these highwaymen from town to town through seven different states, finally bringing them to bay in Cal- ifornia. At the showdown two of them were shot to death and one so seriously wounded that he died in_jail while awaiting trial. The | other two were sentenced to twenty- ! five years in the penitentiary and i fined $2,000 each. * % * % IT onv required forty-eight hours to run down two young men who held up a mail wagon running be- On an — tween the post office and the Union depot at San Diego, Calif. Their The leader has already been sentenced to twenty-five long, weary years at the kind of labor that brings forth much sweat. “Friend, will you kindly tell us how to get to the depot? seems like an ordinary and purposely harmless ques- tion, but it was the starting pointofa $189,000 mail robbery in an Iilinois town. The driver of a mail wagon was thus accosted by two neat-appearing strangers. Being of a polite and ac- commodating turn of mind. the driver whoa'd to his horse, and taking the lines in his left hand, started to point out the station direction with his right. That good right hand was paralyzed in midair when its owner ®azed into what seemed a covey of pistol barrels. A hasty detour to the village outskirts made it possible for Honest, 1 hardly knew whether or not to break in on 'em when I'd got the contracts from Piddie, but I de- cides to take a chance on trickljn’ in quiet. And say! What do you guess they’re debatin’ so hectic? “Same old thing—golf! Uh-huh. There's the Hon. Matt, with his feet planted wide and firm on the Turkish rug and an umbrella gripped in both hands, dem- onstratin' a swing. “I tell you, you old fossil” he's an- nouncin’, “that I've got it at last. Got it for keeps. I can drive 200 yards. “Bah!” says Old Hickory. “You in your never got a 200-yard drive life, Matt; and what's more, you never What gives you such crazy ideas?” what I've been keeping a secret all “Hah!" says the Hon. Matt. “That's| complete rifiing of the sacks contain- ing the $189.000. It just happened that an old-*ime inspector was in that particular town. and within an hour was as busy as a young hound in autumn time. Three days later two arrests were made and all but $67 of the money was recovered . Nine men participated in a big mall robbery in Towa. Two of them gained entrance to a mail car at a station down the line. and by holding guns against the hearts of the clerks forced them to point out the sacks containing valuables. Ten of these sacks were thrown off at a country crossing where it was necessary for the train to make a brief stop. even confederates were in waiting with a machine and whisked the booty into an adjoining state. This crew of crooks were veritable genluses in thinking up original schemes for hiding the more than $100,000 they secured. Something like 1$10,000 was suspended by wire on ithe inside of an unused chimney. A tice home-cured bham was cut in half, hollowed out and $20,000 placed there. in. The hair stuffing was taken from an old horse collar and greenbacks tnserted. A step from the kitchen stairway was ralsed and a bale of bills stipped in; in order to avold sus. picton the nail holes were puttied and the entire stalrway repainted. The remainder of the mony was buried in seven different places covering an area of ten miles. One member of the gang was captured months later in Oklahoma. Information secured through him made it possible to get the others. Thirteen years was the least sentence. * ¥ %X ¥ UR bandits with handkerchiefs over the lower part of their faces entered a mail ear on a train that was pulling ont of the Union station at St. Louis. Covering the two clerks with guns, the other highwaymen carefully selected the sacks that con- gained a fair-sied fortune. Upbn approaching the first suburban station the bell cord was pulled and the mail dumped off. The go-ahead signal was given, and as the train started the bell cora was cut and the daredevils hop- ped off. With the bell cord cut it was impossible for the clerks to given an elarm unt!l tha next station was reached, half an hour later. By stretching a stout wire across a street. tying each end to a tree, a trio of Colorado crooks wers en- abled to hold up a mail wagon en route between the post office and the depot at a late hour in the nigh The poor old horse was thrown he: ily to the street and the driver winter. But I dor’t mind telling you now. Tve been using the Jock Mac- Intosh indoor instructor apparatus. “Humph!" smeers Old Hickory. “Yes, they tried to sell me ode last faM. Driving balls into canvas pockets. That doesn’t get you anywhere.” h, it doesn’t, eh?” says Dowd. “A fat lot you know about Jock's method, you old hardshell! But let me tell_you, Ellins, 've gone into it doep. Cieaned out my billlard room in the top story of my house and in- stalled the whole apparatus. And a canvas screen isn't all. No, sir! You must have the mirrors, the flight in- dicators. the speed registers and the book. pecially the book, illustrated with more than 100 cuts made from actual moving pictures of Jock's swing. And say, how I have studied that volume. Two hours a day for the last three months. But I can do i now. got the MacIntosh swing. “You!" snorts Old Hickory. “Why you old duffer, you couldn't swing the way Jock Maclntosh does to save your life. He's a long-legged Scotch- man, built like a jointed fishing rod, while you and 1, Matt, are more like human pork barrels. He can spraddle out, of course, and use that low, flat swing. But you! Ha! Ha. Say, do that again, Matt. It's too funny for worda.” “Is {t?” says Dowd, glarin’ at him. “I'll show you how humorous it is when I get you out on our new course. Tl play you for $10 a hole, even up.” “Let’s make it twenty-five, Matt™ says Old Hickory. “If you must know, T've been brushing up a little myself. “Oh, I _know all about it” says Dowd. ,"You've been taking lessons in a department store. Huh! “Precisely,” admits Old Hickory. “Just plain, every-day sporting de- partment golf lessons at $198 for every half hour. But given by one of the best instructors in this or any other country. Yes, sir. That's what I claim this little Ross is. He knows better than to try to make a man with a forty-two-inch waist measure swing like a schoolboy. No jumping jack notions. No straddling.” Just a plain, easy swing, with the body behind the stroke. That's Neil's mefhod. “Tommyrot!” says Dowd. “That's all wrong. Keep the body out of it, that's the idea. Says so in Jock's book. Do it with your arms and get the snap in with the wrists at the moment of impact. You'll flub every shot, Ellins, if you try to get your body into it.” “Oh, will 17" says Old Hickory. “Say, the new course is to open next Saturday’s isn’t it? Well, T'll just take you on, Dowd, at $50 a hole.” “Eh?" says Dowd, blinkin'. 1 don’t know how many millions the Hon. Matt could cash in if he should unload all his holdings, but for all that he's a_regular hard-boiled egg. I've heard him and Old Hickory talk about their golf matches before, but I hap- pen to know that the huge stakes they've always played for has been limited by Dowd to a dollar Nassau. Also I've listened in when he'd been struck all three ways, and he sure did cabinet officer or a case-lot boot- legger, and yet when his old golf partner shows up he ditches every- thing and rushes off to take another lesson You'd think, too, to hear him and the Hon. Matt slang each other that when they got out on the course they’d be apt to finish the argument with niblicks and be carried home on stretchers. But as a matter of fact they can get through a game without maimin’ each other, and then they'll sit around the clubhouse for an hour or so rehearsin’ all their fluke shots and hammerin’ one another on the back friendly. JUT I could see where this match was to be for blood as well as dol- lars. They'd been workin® up to it for weveral seasons, each kiddin' himself that at last he'd got a little edge on the other. They're both stiff-jawed old boys, too. If they hadn’t been they'd never cleaned up so big in business. And while they took up this golf stuff a few years ago on the advice of their specialists and just fooled with it for a while, the next thing they knew they were going at it as serious as they ever tackled a big stock deal. Talk about buckin' each other over high finance! Say. T've seen Old Hickory sit for an hour studying a score card and figurin’ up how many holes he had the Hon. Matt down, who flubbed the most drives, and who missed the most putts. So, 1 ain't surprised when he phones in later on that he won't be Dack for the rest of the day and that if there's any cable messages or any- thing of the kind come in I'm to call him up at Bardsley Moors. “Yes, sir," says I "Going to try a little practice round, eh?” “Well, 1 might,” says he. Sometimes it's just as well to let on you're blind in both eyes, and then again it's better to have the boss know you ain’t buffaloed so easy. In this case I decides that it's best to put him wise that 1 had -something on him. Makes it’ easier when you want an afternoon- off, or when the directors get fresh and talk of cut- tin' salarfes. Also a private sec de luxe, such as I admit I am, should know all these little things. As a rule I don't spill the confl- dential chat to Old Hickory, but when he blows in next mornin’ looking kind of worried and sad I thinks may- be it'll cheer him up if T can get his mind off the fact that he's let his work pile up on him. “How did the swing go yesterday, sir?” says I He slumps into his desk chair so heavy that the springs creak. “Rot- ten, it you must know, son.” says he. “That’s too bad, Mr. Ellins.” says I as_sympathetic as I knew how. Which seems to turn on the 1roe hydrant. “It's fiendish, that's what it is, young man,” says he. “And see hére, Torchy, I'm going to ask you something personal. You are rather a keen observer and you See a lot of me, as much as almost any other hu- * k% * man being. Have you noticed any- thing about me recently that would indicate a sudden failing of—er—my mental faculties' 1 has to grin and shake my head. “Hardly,” says 1. “What you did to that Chicago syndicate last week struck me as grade A stuff. Took id fire dome work to pull ners gives a flicker at that. “Thanks, son, for reminding me of that,” says he. “Fifty per cent of it was luck, perhaps, but the rest—well, I sup pose I did out-guess 'em, eh? But if I can do a thing like that will you kindly explain, Torchy, why in the noying,” goes on Old Hickory, “if 1 80 out next Monday and allow Matt Dowd, with his absurd contraption of mirrors and canvas pockets and his fool book knowledge. to beat me. I'm afraid he's going to do it, though. Torchy. And if he does I shall never hear the last of it. You know? He'll be in here three times a week, to go over the details and rub it in. He'll offer to give me strokes. He'll gloat over me, tell me about his con- founded method of attic instruction. and make an infernal nuisance of himself. “Yes, sir” says I “I shouldn't wonder but he would. That is, if he can play the game and you can't. But maybe you can remember?” “No," says Old Hickory. “Not with- ill Ross at my eibow. “Wha't the matter, then, 1 sug- gests, “with hirin’ him to go around and coach you? “Can’t be done,” says he. *Not in a match.” “Well,” says I, scratchin’ my ear, “seems as though there ought to be some way. “Eh?" says he, starin’ at me. “Yes, there should. And by fthe great hinged huckleberry, I know of no one more capable of discovering that method than you.” “Me?" says L. “Say. Mr. Ellins, all 1 know about golf: You don’t need to know a thing about the game.” says he. “Simply suggest a way for me to make Neill Ross invisible while I'm playing this’ match.” Oh. isn that all"” says L Tl think it up between now lunch time. You got to kid "em along. you know. That's always my line when Old Hickory starts listin’ me as a miracle worker. Course, T didn’t see how 1 was goin’ to be any help to him this time. Too bad I couldn’t. If he lost this match the Hon. Matt was going to be a pest. and with this notion that he couldn’t play unless he had his Scotch pro. to talk him into it Old Hickory was licked before he started. ] BEGUN. wonderin' if this Rovs per- son was small enough to be con- cealed in an over-sized golf bag. Or if Mr. Ellins couldn’t be equipped with a wireless ‘phone outfit and get his .coachin’ that way. You know how vou'll get to chewin’' over a proposition and dig up foolish thoughts like that. And then. while T'm watchin’ one of the lady stenos: hammer out a record from a dict phone cylinder, 1 stumbles on this brilliant idea. Why, sure!” savs I. and right into the private office. “Clear out!" snorts Old Hickory. lookin' up from a lot of papers and wavin' me away. “I haven't time to see a soul.” 3 | “But I've got it, Mr. Ellins." says I “Eh?" says he. “Got what”" And then I proceeds to sketch out scheme. ‘Shrieking eureka!” savs he. banz-‘ “Well. and *x xx streaks in’ his fist enthusiastic on the desk. believe you have found a way. And it u have, you agile-brained voung raseal. you shall have every dollar 1 ean pry out of Matt Dowd. T-know of nothing in the U. S. G. A. rules to pre- vent my. adopting vour scheme. Get Neil Ross on_ the phone and ask him to come right down here.” Well, the Scotchman had never heard of such & plan. of course. but after scratchin’ his head he decided that it couldn’t be barred. - “Mind -you, Mr. Ellins” he adds. “hoever does it must carry the bag. too, for you're allowed to take advice during a game only from your cad- die. 5 By Sewell Ford Heads. eh? Well, you lose. My first shot. Get that rolling golf ambulance of yours off the tee.” With which the old boy proceeds to make a pretty fair drive. Anyway, he whacked it over the bunker thing and quite a distance down the middle There's something for you to shoot at, Ellins,” he grunts. Pretty fair for you” says Old { Hickor: e, ladylike little tap. S Anything to Now, Torchy. All ready joffer>" ure says L. This was my cue to wheel the bi- cvcle close up behind the tee, take the waterproof cover off the talkin’ machine that's fastened to the handle bars, and turn on the record. And then, as Old Hickory takes his stance. the canned voice of Neil Ross, burry accent and all, starts reelin’ off this little piec: “Now slow on the backswing, mon. | Right knee stff. Up on ver left toe. Way up. There you are! Now br-r-reak yer wr-r-rists at the top. Left heel down as ye come through. Throw the club head out from ye. Whip it into the ball. Hit it And say, hanged if Old Hickory don’t spank the pill. There's & sharp, clean crack and the ball goes sailin down the course way beyond Dowd's drive. But you should have heard the howl put up by the Hon. Matt. “What infernal tomfoolery is this>" he demands. “I say, now. you know vou cun’t spring a thing like that on me. 1 recognized that voice. It's Neil Ross's. And you can’t take professional advice while you're playing a match.” “Torchy,” says Old Hickory stern, *“did you put on that record?’ “Yes, sir,” says L id you wind up the machine he asks. 1 admits that 1 did. “Well. there you are, 0ld Hickory. for this matc “But—but see here,” protests-Dowd, “how often do you mean to work that?” “As often as I need advice from my caddie” says Old Hickory, “whichmwill probably be on every shot.” “But confound it says Dowd, =do you think I can play my game against a combination of that kind? Might as well have a full brass band fol- lowing you around.” “Bah!" says Old Hickory. *¥ou may send back for your precious book, if vou like. Besides, if you have sense enough you can get just as much benefit from Torchy’s machine as I can.” ‘But that isn't the way to swing at all” says Dowd. “I make my shots altogether different.™ “More fool you," says Old Hickory. “Come alonz. Get out your brassie and see if you can reach the green. I mean to put mine on with a mashie. *x e \\VELL. that's the way it-went. over near four miles of plush cut &airways—the Hon. Matt growling and arguing, and Old Hickory havin’ me turn on that record every time he had a shot to mhke, except the short ones on the puttin’ greens. Course, he missed some. in spite of the canned advice. And after the Hon. Matt got used to the novelty of the thing he didn’t do so bad himself. He had his fightin' blood up, for one thing, and he was playin’ the game of his life. But Old Hickory was shootin’ ‘em better than he knew ‘how. As you can imagine, me and the bicycle and the talkin’ machine at- tracfed more or less attention. From all parts of the course players left their matches to come over and see wkat it was all_about. A bunch of stray caddies collected, too, and be- Matt™ says “He's my official caddie FENR s emasacessunt “~That's a]l right” sars Old Hickory. “1'1] have a bicycle fitted to carry the clubs as well. Now get busy. Neill and don't forget to put it all in— every word." “Vurra weel. sor-r-r.” says Ross. And by Friday afternoon he had everything ready and we went up to the sporting goods department for a try-out. It seemed to work like a charm. and Old Hickory actually chuckles. ‘Let aMtt Dowd have his books. says he. “L prefer to buy brains_ when 1 must, in the original package.” And he nods at me. But say. you should have seen the safely chaperoned behind the huke | get off. While this was going on other ;“"" doors leading into grayish-bued | handits were gunnily :ersu‘udmg the uildings commonly known as fed-|colored porter to uncouple the train eral penitentiarics. back of the mail and express cars. On * % % x account of the trembling of his hands 'AS & general rule culprits of this|4nd knees this was no easy task The kind are run down in a few weeks. next day he swore there were twenty- The prolific advent of the automobile and good roads, however, has made | three bandits and all were shooting their capture considerably more diffi- loot consisted of $60.000 worth of registered letters. With the aid of a fast auto they hid the booty in a small cave in a mountain canyon. Their feet became cold when two fearless inspectors pressed their forty-fives against their stomachs and demanded to know where the money was hidden. All but $17 of it was recovered. They had paid that amount for food.” It will be many a day before they take another auto beef some about parting with those three bucks. “Fifty or nothing,” says Old Hick- ory. “And if you've got a 200-yard drive up your sleeve, why should you worry? Put up or shut up, now. Is it a_go for Saturday?” “Yes, it 1is, you hardened gambler,” says Dowd. “I'd_hate to take that much money away from you ordinarily in a friendly game, but since you're so cocky about it—well, I'll be_there. One-thirty sharp. “You're on” says Old Hickory. “And if I don’t trim you, you con- ceited old duffer, I'll eat my niblick. landed on his head alongside the kicking animal. This made it a very simple matter for the robbers to step from behind the trees and help them- selves to the treasure in the wagon. A week later. while the thieves were sitting on the stools of a station restaurant, ordering a sumptuous breakfast, two good-natured in- spectors quietly seated themselves on each side of them and also or- dered breakfast. But for some strapge reason the Coloradoites seamed to lose their appetites. A whispered bribe of $10.000 merely brought forth a jab in the ribs and artistic cussing from the inspector fore we'd gone more'n three holes we had as big a gallery followin® us as if this was a match for the club championship. Dowd found some of the rules committee in the crowd and put in a vigorous protest to them, but they decided against him. “There, you old tin-horn!” says Mr Ellins. ~ “Didn’t I tell you? Come along. Youre six down and nine to go. As for me, T was findin’_this the most interestin’ game I'd ever watched. Why not, at fifty a throw? I got to spillin’ advice that wasn't on the record. “See, he's had hurtling Hebrides I loose all my wits the moment I take a golf stick in my hand?" “Oh, T expect it ain’t so bad as all that” says I, soothin' “You don't, eh?" says he. “Well, T'll give you a concrete example. From 11 o'clock until 12 yesterday I stood up before that little Scot, Neil Ross, and drove balls exactly as he told me to. Firm grip on the back swing, shifting the weight with the move- ment of the arms, breaking the wrist at the tops of the swing. and coming through in_perfect rhythm. Drive after drive I made. Perfect shots. And case at the same time. Hearing much profanity out on the | track, one of the mail clerks, assum- cult than was the in former | ing that the crew had found some ho- i % years. By using high-powered cars, | DO€S stealing a ride, pushed the door ve mail clerks in a car on a Y e g outeine | open, ‘and in order to satisfy his curl- | Santa Fe train rushing through Mis- switching license tags and cutting |,gity jeaned out as far as he could. |souri were almost knocked off their weross the country over sparsely trav- | A fusillade of bullets smashed the glass | legs when they observed a bewhis- €ied highways, robbers are often en-|of the small window overhead 4 to throw the inspectors off their for many weeks at a tim: Not quently thes slippery birds are or four states distant before - trail is again picked up. According to an old inspector who 4 many years of exciting ex- s with the denizens of 14, the closing up of the - s and the banishment of the rediicht districts from practically all of the towns and cities of the country =0 made it more difficult to capture mail robbers and all r serions offcnders of the law =t in the old days when prevalent it was a good, ealoons were ming the door the clerk jumped out of the opposite to find himself staring into | the business end of a rifie held by another bandit. The other mail clerk | door onl yand the express mesenger were simi- larly treated. Fin: the | behind the ed. likewi It so happene with light Iy, d that the engineer, fireman, porter, mail clerks and mess. jengers were bundled into the passen- ger coaches and told to quickly jump seats, as a man with a rifle as going to keep shooting down the atsle until the robbing job was complet- The passengers on the train were advised. some of the people on the train were uncommonly { kered stranger flourishing a gun at the far end of the car. In a very pleasant voice he requested four of them to lie flat on the floor of the car. The fifth one was told to tie their hands and feet and to make a first-class job of it. He did. Then the bandit did as much for the fifth one. Taking a jackknife from his pocket, he leisurely opened it and stropped it a few times on his boot to get the edge just right. The regis. tered sacks were deftly slit open from top to bottom and all valuables taken. Before leaving the train at the next station he rolled the clerks over on their backs so that they could see him, and, pulling a silver ning _speed, on the starboard stool Post cards addressed to Leavenworth would doubtless reach the early break- fasters. Almost within the shadow of the Grand Central station in New York two husky thieves climbed aboard a mail wagon, telling the driver in low tones they would “blow his head off if he made any fuss” and directed him to turn down a side street, where the registered sacks wers quietly transterred to an awalting automo- bile. These fellows would be might- {ly surprised if they Knew just how close the Inspectors were on their trail. A few weeks ago a mail track in 1 must say, too, that the old boy talks it up brash enough at the time. But after the Hon. Matt had gone off grumblin’ Old Hickory sits there star- in’ at the wall for a couple of minutes, like he was puzzlin' over something. “If—if 1 could only remember,” he mumbles, goin’ through some motions with his bands. “If I could—Eh? ‘What the belted breezes have you there, young man?" ““The Mesaba contracts you wanted, m,,-v says 1, shovin' ‘em in front of m. ‘Oh—e—Oh, yes!" says he. ‘“That 50, 1 did send for them. But the fact is, Torchy, I've just thought of an important conference 1 ought to at- then at 2.30, out in the open with nothing to distract my thoughts, I proceed to forget every last thing he has told me. I bend my arms as though 1 was chopping wood, I stand with my feet wrong, I lunge at the ball, and .I get the same old hook slice that I've always had. Thers Is that a mystery, or is it an indica- tion that I'm an old fool whose al- leged brain has ceased to function?" “It's by me, Mr. Ellins” says L “I've heard, though, that golf wasn’ s0_much a game as a_disease. I'm beginning to think so my- self,” s he, sighin’, But the humiliating part if it is that I can't remember for two hours and a half look on the face of the Hon. Matt when we shows up at the first tee the next afternoon. First he star at me, and then at the overloaded bi- cycle. “Wha—what's all this, Ellins?" he demands. “Caddie and equipment,”-says Old | Hickory, fishin’® out his driver and takin® a few practice swings. “Huh!” says Dowd, eyein' the out- it suspicious. “Looks like a mounted machine gun. Or are you going to take moving pictures of yourself being beaten to a frazzle?”" Don’t worry about that.” says Old Hickory. “T suppose you'll admit that T'm quite within my rights if I choose two whacks over there in the tall grass."” I'd tell Old Hickory. “so why risk gettin’ in bad yourself with that brassie. Can’t you boost the ball onto the green with a couple of short irons?" And he would. Yet along toward the last Dowd made a great rally, so he finished eight down. But at that he seemed to think he'd been disgraced for life and he put up an awful wail before he could be in- duced to write out that check. The Hon. Matt never does loosen up on real money very easy, but this came like pulling a back tooth. “I'll get square with you for this, you old pirate,” say he, “if T have Fafe tuenty thoone et ttas m muchly |fat, while others were somewhat |flask from his inside pocket, smiling, | Toledo, v as quietly sarrounded | tend. I shall be gone about an hour, |a few simple things which I've paid |to have Torchy act as my caddie” | to hire two private secretaries to help Ea(s twanty-tog [t A muehl lengthy of limb. Thesc odd-shaped | gave this toast: L. O ken” hamdits “at 2 wieiocy |and if I'm needed for anything urgent. (& seemingly inferior specimen of tC.Qh. 1 suppose 86." says he. me out.” It's different now rooks, - |ones found it to be a physical im-| (o water is the best of drinks; fit for prince | in the morning. They were a greedy|You might call me up at—Here, I'll humanity to teach me. No, sir! The| =And under the rules” goes on Old “All right. Matt,” says Old Hick- £t g AL L0 possibility to stow all of their bulk or king, bunch. In addition to taking stx reg. | ive you the number.” moment I get away from that littie | Hickory, “he is permitfed to offer me | ory. “But let me tell you this: One SEnE o e (ol enetier p &5 in the limited space at the [ But who am | that T should have the best of | intered pouches, they also purloined | “Yes, sir.” says 1. “Sporting goods|Scotchman I'm a bungling. thick-|such advice as T meed at any time.|with red hair is worth a dozen of the e N o A ¢k of the seats. Some parts of everyihing five bags of ordinary mail containing | department i headed duffer, slicing and topping and | That's understood, is it? ordinary kind. Eh, Torchy?" anged thei them stuck out into the aisle, which A month later the bandit became | rothing more exciting than love letters, | “Why—er—yes,” says he, glancin’|committing all the sins of the game.”| “Oh. of course says Dowd peevish. And bel: ®o t, I only g extent They now wear, in some | yas most unfortunate. Th e pandit M- | too rough with a Chicago policeman, " mabin | he et bl bills, wedding ipwitstions and news: away gufity. “Funny, ain't it? says L ”l‘fi‘bta-alh. game man. =