Evening Star Newspaper, November 10, 1929, Page 97

Shiftys made her an offer. An’ that's what's makin’ her worry.” “Well, then, raise her salary,” snapped Slats Warren. “It dont take no brains to think that out.” “Maybe that’s why you got the inspiration,” replied Shoestring sarcastically. “Of course, every other performer wouldn't get sore? Oh, ~ no. They'd all send me love notes an’ vilets! Anyway, I couldn’'t hold Molly; we ain’t never had a contract. The worst of it is,” he added slowly, “I've kind of got a hunch Shifty Willie is sweet on her. Molly's a preity kid.” Slats nodded. “That’s the whole scenario,” said Shoestring quietly. “Let's go out to the track and see how Sadhim Bey's makin’ it. At least, there’s one guy we're sure of. He can quit any time he wants to, but the same clause that lets him do that makes him slip me five thcusand dol- lars release money.” “Did you ever see a bull-tender with five grand?” asked Slats Warren, and laughed for the first time that day. EVERYTHING seemed to be going in splendid shape at the track. Snyd:r. understudy for Sprinto, had developed even better racing proclivities than the originator of the act. When, 20 feet from his trainer, he put on the brakes after a catapulting trip around the hip- podrome track, it was like an express train plowing into a corn field. This, at least, was a weapon with which to fight a vicious ad- versity. Shifty Willle Moran possessed no racing elephant. Another week went by, and with it the World's Famous Circus moved from its Winter quarters to a large, vacant lot at the edge of the town. Rehearsals were held. With the first one, something happened. When, from far away in the big top, Sprinto had heard the call of his master, he did not stop to figure that the signal might not be for him. He had simply given a few terrific yanks at his chain and lunged forward in a bee-line which only a collection of loaded wagons had halted. “Take him out!” yelled Charlie. “Better kee? on goin'—we don't want a wrecked cir- cus!” So the dethroned Sprinto did not halt until he reached the bull cars down in the railroad yards, there to remain each day until his un- derstudy’s act was done. Then he was brought to the lot and lowered to the status of a work elephant. The show opened, and for once Shoestring forgot the worries which had obsessed him, The spotlights played upon little Molly James— the excitement of stardom seemed fo have in- crexsed her artistry a hundred-fold. Snyder, doubling for Sprinto, rolled into the ring and raced around the hippodrome track while the close-packed tent shouted with excitement. Sub- stitute aerialists, acrcbats and equestrians came and went, some of them good, some of them poor: the seemed satisfled. Two un- throng usually good acts had overbalanced any other mediocrity. Out to the road went the World’'s Famous, and toward the Pacific Coast. But at Portland, Shoestring Charlie’s satisfied manner departed. A gray-haired man with a red and black band on his panama hat, the pinkness of barber- . shop massaging on his cheecks, and wax on his dysd mustache, had been very much present all day. “It's a great show, Old Pal!” said Shifty Willie Moran as he whacked Charlie on the back fol- lowing the matinee. “It's a knockout!” “Sure,” answered Shoestring Charlie in the same overtone of affability. “I need it to buck a showman like you. Understand you're goin’ th’ limit for your joint at the Jubilee, Willie. “Tasre won't be none better, unless it's you:s,” answered the adversary. But when they parted Shifty Willie’s cold stra’ght for the dressing tents. “Well, Molly,” he said when at last a smooth- Nmbed little being of silk and tulle had an- swercd bhis summons, “what'd Shifty Willie Moran want when he came back here this aft- er~on’” B S™2 looked up at him, eyes wide with sur- pi.s. Then suddenly she straightened. “>ir Shoestring,” she said, “I've figured lovzemmttymrfletythmc. But *Iiow, nix, Kid,” the show owner put a hand on h:r shoulder. “Don’t flood th’ dressin’ tent. X know about them kids. He's offered you a bunch o’ klink. You wouldn't even consider it, to bc happy. happen. “That guy may clean up with his opery. But he’s got to do it right from the first per- formance. He won't have a thin dime on openin’ day, An’ if he don’t cop plenty o’ klink right from th’ jump, it's Katy-bar-the-door. So sup- pose you tell him that you can’t get away from here until the week after he opens. An’ don’t Then, if don’t, you can stay see what I can do I wouldn't want anything to TSN minutes later, Charlie rounded the big ) , whistling for one of the few times that season. But he jammed tight his lps at the sight of Slats Warren, waving wash- out signals. “Shifty’s goin’ to cop off Sadhim Bey?” the general agent said. Shcestring glared. “If he cops the East Indian, he crabs the race act!” he snapped. “Sadhim’s got me tied up sc I can’t imitate it, if he leaves. How do you know?” . “1 seen 'em talking together. So I butts in. X gives Shifty a merry laugh an’ says here’s one act he can't grab off, because there’s s five-grand penalty if Sadhim breaks his con- tract. An’ he just thanks me for the tip.” “¥eh, I guess he ought've!” growled Charlie. THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, NOVEMBER 10, 1929. “Well, Molly, what’s Shifty Willie Moran want when he came back here this afternoon?” WAIT—WAIT—WAIT! Wait for the Big Show! MORAN'S MARVELOUS MASTODON CIRCUS! Why Be Uncomfortable Under a Circus Tent? SEE THE BIGGEST CIRCUS IN THE WORLD UNDER A REAL ROOF! WAIT—WAIT—WAIT! HFEALH §§§£§ 2 BEIRER 3ECgREY T 8 E. §E -4 ESEEE 5555 4 ;Egga' g Eggggigsg sEafit vy 25‘“3355 gE i ie§ ;i? iy égifi” i Then he slammed the door. “Step on the gas!” he commanded. Ten minutes later the taxi stopped before 8 bejeweled building. Shoestring entered, glimpsing the scene before him; everything color and The - all in place. s :E ; the ting at the entrances, the performers through from the flags at the padroom, in a dress suit, now ap- “Well, sucker!” he said. “Going to give & little squeal?” Then with suddem brusqueness: thing’s private. If m’vtt got any track, Sadhim Bey let out that peculiar screech~ ing call. Then he did a queer thing. He ran! HE L A gg?!iil!e ! i Iy § il HELH T of ’'em gone! Ten thousand dollars,” he moaned, “and that's only the beginhing.” Shoestring sighed with him, “That’s the way it goes sometimes,” he sym- pathized. “I feel like I ought've told you. But you wouldn't have paid no attention—you'd have just called me a sucker again. You see, Willie, that wasn't the elephant we work in our circus at all. Sadhim Bey took our regular racin’ bull down to the cars late this afternoon and left him there for a nice rest, so nobody'd worry you with a lot o' rumors about which elephant he was bringin’ over here.” “Then you were in on it! You crooked me! You ran in a ringer elephant on me!” Shoestring gasped. “Who? Me? 1 never did no such thing. I've got your writing to prove it. Them letters you wrote Sadhim Bey—they're all in my files. You kept yellin’ to him that you wouldn’t stand for no foolin’ and no imitations. If he came over to your show he had to bring the only and original Sprinto with him. That’s just what he done! That there bull which busted up your show is the only Sprinto there is. The one we've been racin’ ain’t nothing but a:. imitation named Snyder.” Shifty Willle Moran gasped. . “And I gave that bum $5,000 to bring over: that elephant!” came slowly. 3 Again Shoestring gasped. “Only five grand?” he asked. “Kid, that was cheap. I paid him ten to do the very same thing!” (Copyright, 1929.) Master Mind in Crime; Continued from Fifth Page lodion, fasten them down with another glass plate and then photograph the text under a spe- cial light he had devised for the purpose. The range of activity of the modern French laboratory, thanks largely to Bayle’s pioneer work, is incredible. One large section is de= voted to fingerprint identification, which has been carried far beyond its original limitations, The one weak point of this system is that crimie nals rarely leave a complete print of even one finger. It is generally only a fragment where & finger has touched lightly or sidewise, or a par$ of the finger has burst through a pair of silk or chamois gloves. Thanks to microphotoge raphy, a fragmentary print is quite sufficient nowadays to convict a man. The laboratory men will enlarge a print many times, chart every one of the 2,000 pores, all of the valleys, crossroads and peculiarities, and make a map that is as different from another print as Asia is different from America. A lot of research work has also been done in the Paris laboratory to distinguish the prints of women from those of men. The chief differ- ence is that the feminine prints are smaller and finer. The next most important department studies falsified wills, checks, contracts and other docu~ 414, fig §'§ e 3 g 1 a- H ;i B IR LR S B FilE