Evening Star Newspaper, May 28, 1922, Page 64

' WHEN THE BANK REEGAN of headquarters stoad Just at a corner in mid-New York with his back against a brownstone wall. On the other side of the wall was an all-night res- taurant. TIts one southerly window looked out upon a subway kiosk that sucked in human beings as ceaseless- ly as its neighbor vomited them forth. Creegan waited beside this stream, casually eyeing that many- tracked junction point of tumult. There was something almost Olym- pian in Creegan's calm Indifferenge as he lounged well back against the wall, one hand holding a cadaverous yellow cheroot. He seemed leth- argically indifferent to the world and its ways 2 noonday eagle languidly circling in etheric silences. But behind the tjited hat brim and the sleepy eye lurked a wary and active brain. His vigilance at heart was acquiline. For Creegan's con- sciousness was “screening” every hu- man face that passed the corner where he had posted himself. Every face that approached him was silent- 1y and promptly put on trial. Those that rang a little off were given a second scrutiny: those that rang true were let go on their way without fur- ther thought. But every passer-by. little as he dreamed it, was being tested and examined. * % x T was not until “Wally” Rykelt, alias “Big Ben" Robins, was well down past the second-rate hotel on the east side of the avenue that he saw the plain «dothes man on guard there. The effect of that discovery was instantaneous. He swerved to the left. sidling adroitly in through an open door of the hotel. Then, sauntering through an inner room. he passed quickly out into a corridor. From this corridor he entered a sec- ond room. a dining room full of tables. He passed on and escaped through a side door. Then he scur- ried eastward to Lexington avenue. doubling reabit-like at 25th street. There he #pped into the subway. He came to the surface again at 18th street. Then he doggedly and cau-| tiously approached Madison Square: | guardedly returned to the region| from which he had so recently fled. Yet Rykelt, since his release from “up river.,” had made it a point to earry himself with caution. Any one who knew “Wally” Rykelt wpuld have seen that it was a be- wildering and overmastering purpose. which had so far taken the razor- edge off his caution as to leave him | oblivious of the ferrety little eves of | Lefty Bovle, the stool pigeon, who watched the ex-yegg take the seventh bench from the mid-park fountain. At the same time that Lefty Boyle was quietly delivering his informa- tion to the immobile Creegan. Rykelt was joined by a second man. He in no way like Rykelt. The | latter was of grosser fiber and heav- | ier draught. He was large-boned and thickset. with big and rather fool- ish-looking blue eves. His face held no potentialities of mirth. but cun- ning and tenacity and an unreasoning and animal-like courage were clearly inscribed there. * x x % whs this ill-mated pair that eame together on the seventh bench, ap- parently by accident. and sat there side by side without a sign of recog- nition. But in due time the bigger and heavier man of the two arose from his seat. yawned. atretched him- self, and sauntered languidly toward Brosdway. There he circled south- ward and disappéared around the corner. Thirty second later the smaller man followed him. coughing &s he went. Trom Breadway he shadowed the in- difterently moving Rykelt eastward along 21st street to 2d avenue, and then northward again. Then, for the second time that afternoon, he noise- lessly joined him, this time at a table in the upstalrs ‘backroom of an un- savory 2d avenue hotel. The room was empty. At the thrust of a hand through a “speak-eas: followed by a quiet word or two. an aproned bar- tender nodded his bullet head and closed the door. Rykelt crossed and bolted it on the inside. Then he.wait- ed at ‘the “speak-easy” until two glasses of real beer were thrust through to him. * k%% YTKELT suddenly thumped the wooden table with his closed fist. “Skeeter,” he said, “I've got a haul umn and a half telling how many Burns men are going to be on hand. all armed, seé, and how many head- quarters men they'll have with rifles. Rifles! Can you beat that!" * * x % KEETER did nothing more than prod above his watch pocket with an exploring-finger. The big-boned man turned back to his paper. “And here lay-out of the pofice lines and plans o' how to keep the crowds back. Andhere's the amount of dough they're going to move. Four million six hundred and ninety-seven thousand in gold! Eighteen millions in bonds and collateral! Eleven mil- lion in bank notes in paper bills rang- ing from one dollar up to ten thou- sand!” “Nice big figures!” was all the hol- lowed-eyed little man said. “The trust people say they're going to move a week from Saturday. Sat- urday’'s the officially announced day— at noon, sha You can see it there for yourself. The big man leaned forward, half turning the page for Skeeter's in- spection. When he spoke again his voice was much lower. “Skeeter,” he said, with a qulet sol- emnity which made his foolish-look- ing eyes seem grave. “Skeeter, the National Trust's going to move on Wednesday, the 17t “How'd you know that?" snapped back Skeeter, with his first show of interest. Rykelt sat back to luxuriate in that tardy response. For Skeeter, having discreetly buried his bone bt fore serving his term in Joliet, w: not without the sinews of war. And this was a campaign that would call for considerable ready money. “T'll show you how I know it. when the time comes. And I'll tell you something else 1 know.” Rykelt pro- longed the dramatic moment by a pull at his gl “Skeeter, they're not go- ing to have any three hundred har- nessbulls and double-rank firelines of fiycops “What're you driving at?” demanded skeeter. with his eves clamped on the other man's face. “I'm driving at this: Those National Trust people are going to steal a march on the public. They're going |to have a truck and an ordinary every-day touring car and a couple o’ Burns and plain-clothes men, and that's all. They're going to move thirty or forty millions o' money thrcugh the open street, the same as you'd truck thirty or forty bales o’ cotton from one warehouse to an- other. “Thirty or forty million Skeeter, taking a deep breath. looked dreamily about the room. “In a truck and a touring-car, like s0o much baled hay!" exclaimed Ry- kelt. “What time on Wednesday?”" snap- ped Skeeter, coming down to earth. said He “They begin at 5 sharp,” was the answer. “How'd you know that?" * x % * YKELT'S hand went down into his pocket again. ‘ “Here's how | know {t.” he said, again lowering his voice. He unfolded a letter which he had drawn from his pockét, and ran his eve over it. “WeH?”" demanded the little man. “This letter's from the cashier of the National Trust. As you see, it's on the bank's official paper. It's to Rem- sen, the second vice president, cor- recting him about the time to have some touring car or other around to the bank doors. It says for Wednes- day, the seventeenth, at five. Notice the way he puts jt: ‘Kindly make note of the hour and day I mention, as we're obviating natural embar- rassments by antedating the an- nounced migration by three days. 1 regret failing to reach you by 'phone and take the liberty of repeating that this is, of course, official and confi- dentlal.’ " “Where'd you eter sharply. “Lifted it,” was Rykelt's calm re- [ Joinder. ‘How?" T'd been working the subway for leathers. 1 got a pippin,. I thought, in the Grand Central crush. All it held was three ones. with this note folded up in the card-flap.” get that?' asked “But your note isn't signed,” de- murred Skeeter. "I tell you it's all right. That E. P. stands for Esra Parker. I got a li of the bank ofcidis and verified ft. “Which 1 call uncommonly clever of you,” snortéd Skeeter. Then he murmured aloud, for the ond time, “Thirty or forty million head of us thatll make vour head awim!™” Skeeter Graden finished his fit of ecoughing. A four-year term in Joliet had left his tuberculous little body more like the husk of a mummy than a living, breathing being. “Well?" he said, at last, with 2 movement of impatier.ce. He lifted & pale and scholarly hand as Rykelt's paw thrust a sheet from a Sunday newspaper out toward him. / “Look over that!" said the big man. He leaned back and watched the other over the brim of his up-poised beer B! 1t was piain to see- that he held the smalfer man in much respect. “T'd rather you'd téll me” was Skeeter’s languid reply. “Well. here's the whole busirfess in & nutshell.” Rykelt spread the paper fiat on the table. “You see that im- posing-looking building with the sev- en columns along. the front of ft? Well, that's the National Trust's new bullding. Here's a picture of the old | building on Nassau street.” “Quite handsom Skeeter. “This new bulldfng’s on Pine stee t, one block north of Wall” went on the patient Rykelt. “And here are pictures of the new vaults and time locks and bullfon-rooms.” - “And is there any spécial reason Wby you're carrying this dank-run- ner's guide around with you? lan- suldly inquired the other. “Wait & minute, Skeeter; wait a minute,” heavily interposed his men- “That dank's got to move. The ‘whole National Trust has got to g around into those new quarters. The ‘whole caboodle’s got to migrate. And when it migrate's it's got to take its meoney with ft. “Well, why not?’ was ‘the peevish retort of the little man with the cough. ; “They've got to.move,” went on Ry- ignoring the interruption, “And 84y just when they'rs 1t, and just how. See, pleture of the police pla- cole murmured “Is it worth {t?” demanded Rykeit. “It's worth it—but how?’ was Skeeter's answer. He was already deep in thought. “How?" he repeated, absently. “I tell you, Bk the big-boned man. we can do it," We can *x x % ¢] _ET me 1ok at that Sunday story again” It was Skeeter who spoke, after eral minutes of un- broken silence. Rykelt watched the delicate little face as it bent hungrily over the heavy columns of figu and then turned back even moré hungrily to the descriptive paragraphs accom- panying them. And he saw that or was slowly but surely suc- mbing to that provocative virus. “D'you know what ten millions means? Skeéte 'you even know what one million means?" “dreamily challenged the big-boned man with the foolish blue eyes. Now’ Skeetef Granden had once been & youth of co ble {maki nation. But the underworld and its ways had calcified it. He could think only in the nirrow symbols of his ever-narrowing circle—forsign travel, cafe prodigalities, hiners,” and clothes, and a long-dreamed-of sys- tem to beat the poolrooms; that was about all & miflion meant to him. But then, again, that was all that lite meant t6 him. So he sobéred and Steadied himself and looked wist- fully up &t Rykelt. “Wally, it's only once in & lifetime that much money ever geots from under covef. We'll néver see it again—never. We hear of bank run- ners with a couple hundred thousand sometimes, and mail sacks with a mil- lion in paper now and then. But think of that thirty or forty million, lying round with the Iid off! They often get that much. togéther, T #'pone, but It's alwayé guadrded with enough stone and steel and timeé locks to stand of sn army! But thirty sml. lons—4nd. thrown out iato the atrédtt” 2 : “How're we goin to do 1t ssked “We ‘ought to hve & thira man,” soltloquized the thoughtful Bkeeter. as he wiped his mouth after a fit of coughing. “Cono ‘DI Marco?' auggested the other. “But this is & soup job. DI Marco never knew how to handle nitro.” “All the better—he'd go up with his bomb and ther'd be no squealing!" The light of Rykelt's eyes was not ogether a pleasant one. A divvy t taste. your lay-out?” Skeeter was Inquiring. “First thing, we've got to study that territory. We've got eight solid days for it—to get in touch with the bank people, where they eat, where they live, who their friends are, what they look like, what their habits are, what their jobs will be on Wednesday. Then, of course, we've got to be on ghnd, at five. Then one of us ought fo plapt axtime bomb somewhere about the corner of Wall street. That bombll have to go when the five o'clock rush is on. That'll give us plenty o' cover. Then we've got to get next to that touring car, one of us. There's no use thinking &bout the g0ld. To hell with gold, anyway—it'll weigh a full elght tons. What we want's the paper, the bapk bills. Those’ll go by the car. We'lf have to t & short-fuse bomb under. that car, '.'pou; then when the Wall street timer goes off and the cops;and the crowd cut for the corner, we'll have a fighting chance for our liff and our set-aw 3 * % % KEETER thought it over, pensive- 1y, frowningly. Then he shook his head. “We wouldn't have one chance in ten.” : “It's worth one chance in ten."” Skeeter sat back, industriously Sudying the ceiling of fiy-spotted ‘Pressed tin. z “Why take just one chance out of ten? Why not keep tab on the tour- ing car, and when we know they've got the load we're after, drop a giant cap or two, say, somewhere inside the old bank doors? That'll take their plain-clothes men back on the run and the crowd'll go after them. If one man stays we'd have to blackjack him. That leaves the car driver. The quickest way there'd be an ammonia bulb. If that didn't gag “him<he'd have to get a jack tap. Then one of us can swing the car out of Nassau and round into Cedar and William street before any of 'em wake up. Then we can hang a phony license number on behind. That'll disguise uf enough to get up to Yonkers, say.” “And then what?” Rykelt's look of admiration was not lost on the cough- racked skeleton huddled in the chair opposite him. “Then we'll lay low until we've wed our junk and run the car into £ river, Two hundred dollars'll get ink’ Connors to run us across from Buffalo in that thiry-foot kicker of his. Then we can beat it for Montreal and sail for the other side. The world’s ours, man, once we've made that hsul! We're kings, Wally, they talked and planned and argued and modified, they became men obsessed. .From skulking and hinted street idlers they were suddenly transformed into men possessed of a vision. * % %% Al they crept downstairs and step- ped out into 2d avenue. Lefty Boyle stepped into a telephone booth. The word or two he sent over the wire brought Creegan sauntering eastward, puffing a freshly lighted cheroot as he came, It was quite by accident, apparently, that he ran into Skeeter and Wally.: He brought that discomforted and startled couple up with an ofthand nod that seémed to express nothing but indifferent good humor. i t you two boys takin’ chances?” he inquired. “Our chance-taking days are over, quietly ssseverated Skester, with his slow and pensive smile. 3 quarters. Wh for work” was Skeeters prompt re- ply. Creegan smiled wearlly. “How about it, Wally?” The ques- tion was asked in a tone of friendll- ness. But Wally was not quite at hig ease. He knew they had his photo- graph and finger-prints and Bertillon measurements down at headquarters. The deputy commissioner’'s office, he also knew, held a graphle system record board, and one of the little red pins on that board stood for him and moved faithfully back and forth as he moved back and forth about the city. A “Yes, I'm gettin’ a job." he main- tained, with dogged petulance. “And you, Skeeter?’ asked the weary Creegan. He turned to watch the little man shaken by a fit of coughing. ¥ Skeeter wiped his mouth and chuckled audibly. He had none of Rykelt's heavy and antagonizing sul- lenness. “Me? Oh, I'm chasin’ up a deal with a garage firm. First thing you know. Creegan, you'll be hailin’ me in one o' those white tax Sull again Creegan indulged his slow and weary smile. Then he grew more serious, more intimate, more plaintively confidential. “You ean't expect me to wet-nurse you two boys round this precinct all summer. And I don’t want to beef. But you two try any o' your monkey work this side the Hudson and I'll ran you in so quick your collars'll wilt. Understand?" R “What's the use o' hounding us that way?’ demanded Skeeter, in- dignantly “We're on the level— we're doing the straight.” Creegan almost yawned. “I'm wise to you, boys; I'm wise to both o' you. And the first time you let your foot slip, the first move, something's go- ing to smash! See!” And Creegan ‘passed on with his slow and indolent stride, his hat a littla down over one sleepy and ser- pentine eye. Rykelt looked appealingly at Skeeter. Skeeter in turn looked dis- gustedly and contemptuously after Creegan. “What does Creegan count, any way?' he demanded deflantly. “What's that four-flush flyman got to do with this business of oura? Rykelt did not answer. Skeeter enunciated the one contemptuous word, “blurt!" EEEE FHE week that followed was not an idle one for Wally Rykelt and Skeeter Graden. Nor was it an. idle one for the National Trust. .That august and venerable institution not only conducted its vast and intricate business, but Also made ready for its removal to newer and more palatial qusrters. It must be admitted that one or two things happened, but th were of & nature ,too trifiing to be noticed. An underengineers uni- form, for example, disappeared from its locker. During the morning quiet- ness of the following Sunday one of the bank's brass polishers—appar- ently 4 new man—complained to the policeman on the beat that he didn't altogether like the actions of a cer- tan idler loitering about the bank front. This astonished and indl nant idler was promptly moved on, while the incredibly thin young man in the underengineer's uniform ai- rected his attention to the heavy br: server might have mnoticed that he hold his polishing cloth In his left hand for the time baing and showed no especial pleasure at the urn of the policeman to the bank nt. Then, a day or two later, a cafl came to the manager of the National Trust from oneé of the evening paper: asking if they might send a reporter and a staft photographer to gather sufficient plctures and data to insti- tute: an analogy between the new bank offices and the old. The pho- tographer, & large-boned and rather foolish-eyed man, and the reporter, an slert-eyed, narrow-chested and in- credibly emaciated youth, were' duly received and were permitted an ex- tremely superficial survey of the ex. [ teriors of both the new and. the old | w! photograpa vor of &’ door ‘100ks, though & keen ob- | National Trust's new bullding, and or of even & statement as to the bul lion and currency on the day of re- moval, the officlal said it might be possible, provided, of course, that he was on hand at 12 sharp on the following Saturday, when the moving would begin. The pensive-eyed re- porter effusively thanked the official for his eourtesy. Skeeter and Rykelt also paid cer- tain nocturnal visits to the under- ground workshop of Beansy Schmid- lapp, the Suffolk street nitro maker, and carried away a couple of modest packages which they both ted with the tenflerest respect.’ It was Rykelt's suggestion to hire a brass band . and have it parade Nassau street promptly at 5. In this way, he maintained, the attention of the crowd would be attracted to the mu- siclans. He and Skeeter would then THE CROWD GAVE VENT TO CRIES OF “MURDER!” “POLICE!” “HELP!" A BLUE-COATED OFFICER, SEEING THE DETECTIVE'S .SMOKING PISTOL, FELL ON HIM BODILY. be left with as clear a fleld as they could hope for. But Skeeter objected to this. Brass bands were expensive, their funds were getting low. Moreover, it would be possible to get a couple of worthi from the MacGirr gang to start a spirited street fight for the modest remuneration of $5 apiece. A New York business man. Skeeter main- tained, would stop to see a‘fight far sooner than he would tarry to listen to any band. The MacGirr worthi need not be told the purpose of their sanguinary diversion. And Skeeter ruefully counted over the few coins still left to them. Neither of them not their nature. Whether they made their haul, or whether they were “coppered.” the matter of dollars and cents would never again be an issue in their lives. *x x % ATASSAU street, at § o'clock, is an 4N extremely narrow canyon. through which ebbs an extremely hurried tide of humanity. The day had been a busy one for the National Trust. Clerks labored hour by hour In the bullion vaults, handling, counting, checking and cer- tifying gold. A grave committee of directors, attended by gray-coated suards, inspected and verified the securities, ofMcially audited and in- dorsed the cashier's tabulations of stocks, bonds and collateral, and at- tended with scrupulous nicety to the packing and disposal of the institu- tion's odd millions of “paper. A new home was ready for a great city’s moneys, for the dollars of its traders and buyers and sellers. The great Nassau Street Bank was about to move. It was fifteen minutes to § in the afternoon thit & quite ordinary-look- ing truck with a quite ordinary-look- ing driver backed up to the curb in front of the old National Trust build- ing. Two minutes after its wh locked against the pavemeat, a quiet and orderly line of employes began carrying out to this truck certain heavy loads of pine boxes and divers articles of office furniturs. These la ter were placed conspicuously on top of the close-packed rows of boxes. When the truck was filled, a stout man in an inconspicuous suit of ox- ford gray swung aboard at the back of the loaded vehicle as it started down Nassau street.. Then it jolted about into Pine street, backed up against the sidewalk in front of the worried. It w ‘was casuslly delivered of its load. If-any especial guardianship was being exercised over that load thete was little or nothing to show for it. Brokers and clerks, businesa men and stenographers, passed it without com- ment and without & second glance. The man in the ‘suit of oxford gray 1dled for a time about the bank steps. Then, when the truck was emptied he sauntered indifferently back to Nassau street. % This truck had made its third brisk trip to_the portals on Pine street and had badked methodically up for its fourth load, when a touring car ma- neuvered in to the curd mext to it. w«ufl-‘, _ear \was somewhat ‘dustet and went quletly in through the doors of the National Truat. A seconigpan, in & chauffevr's leather peaked cap, remained on the fromt seat in charge of the car. This. man was smoking a cigar and seemed very much at his ease. As he sat there a group of bank employes deployed from the building behind him, each carrying s ‘bundle neatly wrapped and corded and sealed. These bundles were piled methodically evenly in the tonneau of the car, and the carriers. having emptied their arms of their first burden, returned through the wide bank doors for = second load. * % A they. made their second trip. an incredibly thin and pensive-faced young man passed through their midst southward bound. He carried & small black leather handbag, and from the way he peered up at the office doors, as though looking for & sign or & number which was not to Ye found, he might readily have been taken for a stranger in New York. In fact, he even stopped to ask his way of a larger and darker man, This man pointed northward along Nassau street and watched him as he passed the National Trust's doors for the second time. Just what happened after that no one apparently knew. Two men be- “Bighty-twe Riverside,” back Skeeter. snapped * % % I‘l’ ‘was a wild guess; but he time for careful thought. V ED—Recalling the Wall Street Explosion—By Arthur Stringer Skeeter stepped down and out of the car without a moment's hesita- tion. Then he crossed the sidewalk, had no | stepped to the door and rang the bell. And| Creegan was doing no worrying. Riverside Drive, he knew, would still | But he let nothing escape his notice. get him pretty well north. The lower | He watched Skeeter ring. He waited end of that drive would be com- paratively quiet. He had always hated gunwork. But that seemed the only way out of it. looked at Creegan. “You're going to queer me on this 3ob,” he lamented, for he wanted to sain time, to fence for his opening. He turned and |swered with his right hand still gripping something concealed in his coat pock - et, to see if that ring would be an It startled him a little 1o see the door swung open by a servant in livery. He watched a word or two pass between Skeeter and the ser- ant. And then. strangely enough. Creegan only smiled his slow andhe saw the little yegg pass into the cynical smile. “The first honest job I've hit against in six years!” And Skeeter's voice was actually shaking with emo- tion. “What's makin’ you so peevish these days”’ demanded the mild- voiced Creegan.: “You are!” retorted Skeeter. “What's the good o' hounding me? ‘Whatll my people think, seeing a bull joy-riding with me? “What @' you want me to do?" “Give me & chance to make good at this—a chance to be decent,” almost wept the indignant Skeeter. Creegan laughed again. It was not a mirthless lsugh; but it wasa helrl-, THE sight . less one. “l can't leave you, Skeeter. I'm house. But still Creegan did no worrying He was sure of his ground. He looked over the car, smoked his second pale- colored cheroot, and patiently waited Minute after minute dragged away Then he shifted in his seat, a little restlessly. As he did so, his eye quite accidentally caught the glitter of something on the car floor beside the foot-brake. He saw, as he bent clos: over it, that it was a bright and bur- nished gold coin. Beside it, closer under the seat, lay two other coine * x * % of those three diske of gold strangely and suddenly sta- tled the man from the central office san fighting in the middle of the 0ad. |, ;144 here till you put me next to|It brought him to his feet with « There was & pause in the traffic. A ery went up from the crowd. Those two combatants seemed to attract the human units of that busy thor- oughta the two poles of & horse- shoe magnet attract steel filings. ‘Whether the youth with the black bag stumbled and fell, or whether he deliberately threw his bag in under the partly loaded truck no eyewitness could say. But the next moment a detonation shook the street. A sudden geyser of gold, high-flung and bright and yellow, flamed and flowered and fell tinklingly about the stone pave- ment. A slim youth who had crouch+ ed low against the rear wheel of the touring car sprang to the seat of that car while the smoke still hung heavy along the pavement. How or where he struck the driver no one knew. But before the smoke lifted the car was circling out into the street’s cen- ter, turning north. As it gathered speed a stunned plain-clothes man, |’ raising himself on his hip, drew out his automatic and aimed at the slender figure on the car's driving seat. The repeated bark of the firearm filled the narrow canyon of Nassau street with a second tumult of sound. The crowd, utterly ignorant of the situation, gave vent to cries of “Mur- der!” “Police!” “Help!” A blue-coat- ed officer, seeing the detective's smok- ing pistol, fell on him ‘bodily. A sec- ond policeman rapped for assistanc and, losing his head, began to night- stick the headquarters men who were madly bucking the line to cleave 3 passage northward after the fleeing car. Then came the alarm gongs from the bank itself, while the rabble fought like mad dogs over the scat- tered gold coins, until the bank of- ficers and a patrol load of special policemen drew a cordon about the district. But in the meantime the departing car had dodged from Nas- sau into John and then up William street. It was not until he reached the comparative safety of Park Row and its motiey traffic that Skeeter Graden adroltly shifted his license number and flung & laprobe over the bundles in the tonneau behind him. Then he lighted a cigarette. threw in his cluteh, turned northward into the Bowery, then westward along Canal to Broadway, and then, proceeding languidly and deliberately up that crowded artery of traffic. headed for Yonkers. * % x % Stlmll'l imagination was indu- rated. He did not dramatize con- tingencies in his own brain. All Bkeeter wanted was his getaway. His chief worry was to operate his touring car without mishap. He did not want to be interfered with or held up for any foolish violation of the traffic rules and routes. The mere watching of the road and the machin- ery under him took most of his time. He was approaching 424 street, and he saw that all north and south trafic was held up, momen- tarily, while the crosstown vehicles shuttied east and west. He was vaguely aware that his position, held there in the heart of the Tenéerloin, that man Leach. You've got to make g0od with this dope o’ yours, or driv down to Center street and talk it over!” For the second time Skeeter's heart went down in his boots. The very most he could hope for now was a setaway. He sickened a little as he remembered the old days at Joliet He was even tempted, for & moment, to try to buy Creegan over, to dazsle him with & hundred thousand or two in cold cash. But & second thought told him that Creegan was not the sort of man to be swept away by such things. He hadn’t intelligence enough for tha Skeeter knew it would only be cut- ting his own chances short. He had to see his bluff through, as far as it would go, and then in some way get his yegg-gun round against the body whose warmth he could feel against his own. He hated to do it but It was the only way out. * % % % SKEETER wae watching for his chance at every move. His thoughts were on one thing only he turned westward into 72d street. He knew the danger he was running. with gunplay in open daylight and in that part of thé city, but it was too late for hesitation. Yet there was one small drawback. * Creegan was not only wary and watchful. but something had suddenly prompted him to insert & careless right hand in his right coat pocket. Skeeter no- ticed that he kept it there. , And they were already undulating up River- side drive. “Nice scenery!” murmured Creegan, crossing his legs, for he was feeling especially satisfied with himself. Bkeeter, however, did not enjoy the landscape. He was thinking of other thinge. “The whole combination seem- ed against him. He would have to fall back on the Leach bluff to the limit, after all. There was nothing for it but to swing briskly and me- thodically into the graystone house- templating | jerk, like.a slap on the face. In five seconds he had crossed the sidewalk and was at the house door. A mo- ment later he had rung the bell. It seemed an age before the servant in Iivery answered his ring. ¢“Where's that man who went here five minutes ago?’ Creegan dec- maaded. The servant in livery surveyed nim from head to foot. There was some- thigg both reproachfully admonishink and unspeakably exasperating in that calm and leisurely scrutiny. It was plain to see that the stout man in livery not used to being so brusquely addressed. Tt was equally plain to see that Creegan and his questioning were not accustomed to such criticism. “Wake up, you cow!” cride the auto- crat of the law, for he was losing precious time. “Where's that man?” The calm and dignified personage in livery started as though he had been stung. He would surely have slammed the door in his insulter's face had an outthrust foot not intervened and had his eye not failen on the glitter of the badge Creegan flashed at him. “Do you mean the thin young gen- tleman as was sent to inspect the wire service, s “Wire service? What wire service?” “He said. sir, as he was sent to in- spect the house wires. He's out back. sir, to follow up what he called some wire trouble leading through to West End avenue. At least, 80 he expressed himself, sir.” > Creegan' didn’t even start after the man who was tracing up wire trou- ble. He didn’t even enter the house. Who lives here?’ he asked, as he disgustedly turned away. “Mr. Colbron, sir.” Creegan waited no longer. had got away. He walked thoughtfully back to the touring car; there was nc longer any necessity for hurry For a moment or two he stood con- the empty-seated auto- in His man front marked “Eighty-two.” Creegan mobile in front of him. Then, pull- was watching Skeeter every moment | ing aside the lap-robe that covered and every move. “Now you go and do your talking!" challenged that outraged individual, wih an indignant hear jerk toward the iron-grilled house door of plate Ejass. “I guess I'll stay with the car, Bkeeter,” answered Creegan. He sat back, Indulging his mild and enig- matical smile. AVE you ever stood at the na- H tion's front doors and contem- ' plated what they mean? At- tention has been brought to them by an address by David Ed- strom, who, standing by these great bronge doors, standing by these great ! never closed, described what an artist and sculptor sees in them. pointed out their sculptural beauty and the hi toric significance of the figures. This talk was one of a series. CAPITAL SIDELIGHTS was not without its dangers. But it| Rundolph Rogers was creator of would be the last point of imminent | ipege doors, which were made in 1838, peril, he reassured himself. Once|in Rome, d cast in Munich, Ger- past the Times Bquare traffic, he could | many, in 1860. They were not used as slip north of Columbus Circle and he | tne front doors of the Capitol at first, would be comparatively saf but were placed on the south side of He heard the traffic officer’s whistie. | gtatuary hall, where each state sets saw the street open before him; and | up heroic statues of its two greatest started jubllantly, yet cautiously, for- | men, leading toward the House of ward, across 424 street. Representatives. They weigh ten tons Then Bkeeter's heart went down In | and cost $28,500. his boots. The doors have not been officially For there on the curb within ten|closed since they became the fronmt feet of him, stood Creegan—the |doors of the nation, until closed after placid and sleepy-orbed Creegan, with | the body of the unknown soldier who his hat brim pulled down over one|laid in state in the Capitol. They are sandy eyebrow, waiting for him.|so heavy and had become 8o rusty on Bkeeter knew better than to speed up. | their hinges that it took fifteen men, But he moved forward without stop-{ working six hours with jacks and ping, without looking up, holding his } crowbars, to open them. breath as he went. ‘When Edstrom visited the Congres- “Could you given me a lift there, sional Library to read up on Rogers, Skeeter?™ ssked n casual voice from |the creator of these doors, he found the running board of his car. And|three different suthorities giving his the next moment Creegan had swung | birth at three different tes. He up on the driving seat beside him. |marvels at “the wonderful concentra- Bkester merely emitted a careless|tion before he was able to conoeive “Sure!” in answer to Creegan's chal- | thé relief and then work out the con- lenging question. But the lightness|ceptions, and to do that relatively of that monosyllabic utterance was|unknown." not easily achieved. The doors are made in the Italian “What's the game?” suddenly asked | renaissance stylé and are somewhat the headquarters man. suggestive of the famous bronse door “Game?” echesd Skeeter, vacant|of Lorenso Ghibertl, made for the faced. g baptistry in Florence before Colum- “Yes, what's the graft, anyway?'|bus discoversd Americs. Ghibertl's inquiréd Créégan. And Skeeter knew | noble doors represent the sacrifice of at once that the man beside him had | Isaac, where Abraham stands ready to heard nothing from Nassau street. |slay his son in obsdience to Divine Hope revived in Skeeter's narrow |command. | chést. £ The bronse doors of the Capitol are “I'm trying to cifich this job, Cree- | wonderful in detail work as well §an,” he complained. 3 in general concention of the discovery “What job?" the other inquired. of this new la as well a8 showing “Driving for Lasch of Wall street,” | a surprisingly accurate historical in- Skeeter heard himself saying. “Run-|sight put into art which represents ning ofice errands in this car of his|many véars of tirelebs, unremitting on probation.”" ' labor and patiencé. “And which way you bound for?" Creegan parsisted. edge of the time, it required to create “lmthh.” Skeeter gaye a care-| such s character of Columbus,” Edatrom less 'ward tip of the hsad. “this! points ont. “He has created ofice stationery and stufft up to}here ¢éf such significance that any “Where his Rouset” y “What a fund of Jéarning, of knowl- | r! the well-filled tonneau, he broke open one of the carefully wrapped and corded and sealed packages that lay there. This act he repeated several times. Then he caught at a door 1o steady himself. “Money he gasped. nothing but money® twenty million there!” (Copyright, 1822, Al ri in awe. “It's There must be reserved.) derful conception of of Columbus." the character * % % = VWHEN the President comes to the Capitol to address Congress visitors are continually asking. “Why does he speak in the House instead of in the Senate?” The answer is very simple—because there are bet- ter accommodations for a crowd in the House. The Senate chamber is 118 feet 3 inches in length by 80 feet 3 inches in width and 36 feet in height. The galleries will accommo- date only 1,000 persons. The rep- resentative: hall is 139 feet in length by 93 feet in width and 36 feet in height. The House formerir occupied what is now Statuary Hall, and the Senate used to do business in what is now the Supreme Court chamber. * % % % EPRESENTATIVE JAMES R Mann of Tilinols, former republican leader, gave a little lecture to his col- leagues against the growing disposition to succomb to a paternalistic spirit, especially in the matter of federal ap- propriations. He said: “What has be- come of the spirit of the people of the ocountry? Coyotes have rables, hence they send to the government to kill the coyotes. This country was covered all over with wolves at one time and our people at that time did not depend upon England to kill the wolves in Nev England, Have our people today no enterprise at all to organize a band and 8o out and kill the coyotes that have rabies that threaten to kill the sheep ““This sppropriation originally went in a8 being expreasly intended to kill those animals on the public domain, not upon DUmNG debate on the agricultural appropriation bill emphasis was l1ald on the fact that in the district esented by Representative Rob- ert Luce of Massachusetts two pests were first discovered devastating agricultural resources—the gYpsy 5 4