e Case Boolt of a
True Narratives cf Interesting Cases by a Former
Operative of the William J: Burns Detective Agency
By DAVID
(Copyright bj Ui ImernaUoiukl fwi Bureau.)
PLUGGING A LEAK
The Story of m Faithful Old Employes
Whe Wa Faithless
A good looking young fellow of per
taps thirty-five, well dressed and pros
perous In appearance, came into the
office of the Burns Agency one day
Just as the office manager and myself
were going to lunch.
"I want some help In a queer situ
ation, and I came here, though, -what I
have got is probably a little out of
your line," he said.
'What is It?" asked the manager.
"Well, It isn't anything that I would
care to talk about ' here where any
body who entered might hear me,"
said the stranger emphatically, "If
you can give me a few minutes of
your time in a private, secluded of
fice, out of sight and hearing of every
body, I may convince you that I've
got a case you can take, and If I don't
I'll pay you gladly for the time spent
In hearing my story."
The manager promptly led the way
to an ante room, and shutting the
dcor, sat down and said: "Well, let's
have It."
The man looked at me question
ably. "One of our men," said the manager.
"Go to your story."
"Well," said the man, "my name Is
Hilary Bronson of Bronsonvllle, Pa.
You've heard of the Bronson Chem
ical engines? Well, we make them ;
the Bronson Chemical Engine com
pany. My father started the busi
ness before I was born. He made a!
great success with it, as you know.
He invented the Bronson engine, and
net only invented it, but made a sue-'
cess at manufacturing and selling it.
Two years ago, when he was seventy
two years old, he retired from busi
ness and turned the company the
Management of it over to me."
Mr. Bronson paused and looked
nervously around the office and at us.
"Gentlemen, are you sure that no
body can hear us? And have I your
word that what I tell you will be a
secret between us?"
He regarded us both suspiciously."
"Well," said the manager, "if you
can't trust us absolutely it wouldn't
be good sense on your part to tell us
your story. But you know the repu
tation that this agency has. It never
could have gained such a reputation,
Mr. Bronson, if it ever even once
had violated a client's confidence."
"No, certainly not," said Bronson,
relieved. "But you understand, what
I've got to unburden Is something
that absolutely puts me In your pow
er. You could ruin me, understand,
If you cared to use my story against
me. So you see how careful I've got
to be."
"Mr. Bronson," said the manager,
"every day in the year we are en
trusted with that same kind of story.
You think you are an exception.
Everybody does. You can trust us as
fully as you can trust yourself."
"Thank you," said Bronson. "You'll
pardon my caution, I'm sure."
"Mere common sense," we said to
gether. "Go on."
Bronson crossed his legs and be
gan. "It's a long story, but I'll make It
as short as I can. I have told you
that two years ago my father retired
from business and turned the man
agement of the Bronson Chemical En
gine works over to me. But the
story goes a long time further back
than that. It goes way back to the
time I was in college. I I was a bad
boy, a mighty bad boy, at school. I
had been a sort of village pet at home
you know: son of the man who
made Bronsonvllle and heir to the
big factory and all that. I came to
school spoiled!, completely spoiled. My
father thought I was a little wild;
but he didn't know what a bad kid it
was he'd been raising.
I "Well, when I came to college some
cf the prestige that I had gained
aiuong bartenders and gamblers In
small towns around Bronsonvllle
came with me. There was a bunch
In school that was of about the same
breed, and they hailed my arrival
with considerable Joy. I don't need
to go into details; I suppose you know
what these stories sound like too well
to need to have them repeated. But,
anyhow, I I came out of school ow
ing $10,000, and owing It to the kind
of people that I couldn't possibly tell
my father about. Couldn't speaK
about them even.
"There were other debts that he
squared when I graduated, plenty of
them. But this $10,000 I couldn't pos
sibly mention to him. He would have
kicked me out on my head, and right
ly so, if he had known of them.
"Now, I'd got pretty sick of the
wild young goat sort of existence by
this time. The knowledge of those
110,000 worth of I. O. U.'s hanging
over my head had sobered mo up
good and plenty. All I wanted to do
was to get back to the big works
there In Bronsonvllle and work like a
lave trying to make good the way a
Bronson should. Oh, I was reformed.
all right. You know how good black
coffee tastes after a night of It. Well,
I had had all the nights of it that I
wanted in my life, and I was certain
ty hungering for the black coffee.
Private Detccliv
CORNELL
J
didn't have another desire than to
get to work in the Bronson plant and
make good. And I wanted to do that
well, If I couldn't do it, life wasn't
worth keeping. Oh, I was reformed,
all right, good and plenty.
"Well, I went back to Bronsonvllle
and went to work. And I made good.
The old. man offered to let me start
In the office. 'No,' I said, 'plenty of
time for that after I've gone through
the works.' So I went in the works,
worked in the foundry department,
the machine room, the assembly de
partment, paint shop all through the
place for one solid year. I made
good. I felt 1 had to. The old man
was proud of me.. He didn't know
what it was that was driving me to
make good.
"Then I went into the office and in
a few months I was treasurer, and a
good one, too for a few months. You
see, these people who held my I. O.
U.'s were smart. They held off while
I was working in the works. But the
minute they heard I'd got to be treas
urer of the company, down they came
on me. They began to squeeze. Gad!
gentlemen, you have no idea what 1
went through for the next six months.
There I was, working my head off,
making good, the pride of my father,
an exemplary young man, and there,
over my head, hung those awful I. O.
U.'s that would make me an outcast
the minute they were dropped.
"I couldn't raise $10,000 without
giving some explanation for it. I
couldn't explain why I wanted it. 1
suppose you can guess what is com
ing? I was treasurer of the company.
I had all its funds under my control
without any supervision from any
body. My father trusted me as he did
himself. Nobody to know it and 1
always figured I would be able to
slip It back before its absence was
discovered. Yes, I I took $10,000
worth of the firm's money and paid
up those I. O. U.'s that were driving
me crazy.
"I came near getting away with it.
I would have done it but for old Car
berry. Carberry is the manager of
cur office. He started in as an office
boy for my father when father was
making engines with his own hands.
That was 45 years ago. He's been
there 'ever since, Carberry has. He's
father's confidential man.
"He never -had the brains to get In
to the firm. He had hoped to become
manager some day, but he didn't have
the ability to force himself into the
Job. That soured him, but he didn't
let father see it.
"Well, Carberry got next to my tak
ing the $10,000. There wasn't any
thing in the office that he wasn't next
to. And just as soon as he got next
to it, he had a club over me that he
could brain me with.
"When I was made manager of the
Company two years ago, Carberry
saw his chance. He would have been
made manager himself, probably, If it
hadn't been for me, and it was his
ambition to get that job before he
died. He had me by the horns now,
of course. He could make me whistle
to his tune, and whenever he wanted
to. He went about it in a foxy man
ner; he is making me fall down on
my job as manager."
Bronson stopped and sat back in
his chair, the moisture standing out
upon his forehead. The manager and
I looked at one another in surprise.
"Well," said Bronson, "what do you
think of it?"
"Smooth work," said the manager.
"But how does he do it?"
"Easiest thing in the world. Comes
into my private office my private of
fice as manager of the company and
makes suggestions. Suggests that we
handle such and such a matter so and
. I know perfectly well that the
suggestion is hopelessly rotten, but
what can I do? Every opce in a while
the old ghoul will come in and remind
me of what he knows. Yes, sir; he
throws it right up to my face that he
is in possession of the secret that
could ruin my life and break my
father's heart. So I've got to act on
his suggestions put them through as
my own ideas, you understand and
then things go wrong, and then I've
got to stand the blame for It, of
course. Then Carberry comes into the
scene, puts in his oar and straightens
things out by doing just what I or any
intelligent man would have done in
the first place If I'd been free, and
when things are straightened out its
'This place would be up against it if
we didn't have old Carberry to
straighten out youngi Bronson's bull
headed mistakes.'
"I'm being discredited, absolutely
and hopelessly. I'm made to appear
as a sort of an idiot who sits in the
manager's chair because my father
owns the works; but Carberry Car
berry is the fellow who keeps the
plant from going on the rocks. Can
you beat that for a pleasant little sit
uation? I I'm beginning to under
stand why some men commit murder."
"Getting desperate?" said the man
ager easily.
"Well, wouldn't you?"
"Oh, no. You don't have to worry.
Why don't you engage us take Cor
nell here to go over to Bronsonvllle
and clip this Carberrys claws?"
"Great heavens, man!" cried Bron
son. "Do you mean to say you think
it can be done?"
"Why not?"
I was in Bronsonvllle two days
after this conversation had taken
place. Bronsonvllle is a little manu
facturing hamlet In the middle west,
a busy little place, with a hotel, too
good for Its size, which Bronson, Sr.,
had built and maintained with his
own money. The whole town was a
family affair to a certain extent. The
whole Bronson family, and all the of
ficers of the company, lived in the
better portion of town; the employes
made up the rest of the population.
The town didn't have much to do
with the rest of the world, except to
sell it chemical engines. It was an
isolated, self -centered little hamlet.
When I had seen this I knew it
wouldn't be hard to get Carberry. He
had proved that he was a crooked
character, and no man of such ten
dencies lives forty-five years in a
small town without leaving some
loose ropes dangling to hang himself
with.
My first impression of Carberry
strengthened my confidence. Even if
I had never heard Bronson's story of
the man's fiendish cunning I would
have picked him out of a crowd as a
man who would be found on the
wrong side of the law sooner or later.
He was not "right." To an experi
enced man his face was like a book,
and "crook" was written all over it.
Yet he had worked forty-five years
for one man and had managed to keep
a reputation for squareness. He was
a smart crook, but since he was a
crook I knew I would get him in the
end, just as surely as a horse run
ning off the beaten road will sooner or
later wind up in a wire fence.
They had a little club in that town
to which the officers and higher sal
aried employes of the company be
longed, and young Bronson had me
put up there on a visitor's card. 1
was posing as a prospective purchas
er of a large order of engines. Then
I sent for Cluffer and left him to
mingle among the worklngmen. I kept
my ears open for anything and every-
thing that might be said about Car
berry, and Cluffer did the same. We
discovered that he was universally
disliked by about everybody in town
except old Bronson, but beyond that
there wasn't much said about him. He
kept to himself entirely, living in an
old stone house on the side hill with
only an old housekeeper for company.
Ho was a bachelor and had neither
kin nor friends in the town. He went
from his house to the office, from the
office back to the house. This was
about all that anybody but his house
keeper saw of him.
"You'll never get anything on that
old bird," said Cluffer, after a month
of it "He's a crook all right; any
body in the business would pick him
out as being wrong, and there ought
to be something to get on him; but
he's been too foxy to leave any loose
ropes dangling, let me tell you that."
"I'll get him if it takes a year," 1
said. And that is just about what it
did take to get Carberry.
I had to locate myself in Bronson
vllle. It was impossible to keep up
the pretext of purchasing engines
week after week, so I went away for a
while, then came back as an applicant
for a position with the Bronson com
pany. Young Bronson gave me a
place as a salesman on probation, and
while I was around the place pretend
lng to learn the business I bad a good
chance to poke my nose into all sorts
of corners. ' . v
I also tried to get Into Carberry's
house and have a look around, but
failed. He kept the place as closely
guarded as if it had been a citadel.
The town put this up to his eccen
tricity, but it wasn't; it was the in
stinctive fear of a crooked man.
In the meantime Carberry was ruin
ing Bronson's reputation as a man
ager. The young man was being made
to appear more and more in the light
of an Incompetent. Things went
wrong in the sales department, and it
was due to orders which Carberry
forced Bronson to put through. The
manufacturing department began to
go to pieces, due to the same reason.
Every once In, a while Carberry would
step in and do the right thing at the
right moment, and the whole place
would ring with his praises though
nobody liked him and with pity for
poor Bronson. "
As the weeks went by It looked as
If poor Bronson was bound to be
forced out. and Carberry finally put in
his place. , ,
Bronson himself began to feel this
way about it, too. .
"I guess it's all off,", he said.. ,"You
were mistaken; you couldn't deliver
the goods. I don't think it's worth
while trying any longer."
"WTell," I said, "you would be a
darn fool to run up this bill without
seeing it through. I tell you that I'm
going to get that man. I know it.
It's taking long because he's so smart.
But sooner or later the raw spot will
show, and he'll be ours."- x
"Oh, well, keep on then," he said.
"I don't believe it's much use,, but 1
might as well keep on paying you now
that I've handed you so much."
He was dissatisfied with my failure
to accomplish anything, and justly so.
But I would have told him long ago to
discharge me if I hadn't felt as sure
as breathing that I'd land Carberry
sooner or later. I was sure that Car
berry had not confined his crooked
ness to the unique feat of terrorizing
Bronson. And any piece of crooked
work can be found by any good de
tective if he is only given time.
I had been on the road for a couple
of months when I called upon a pros
pective customer in Albany. He had
written to the firm that he had been
using another engine, that it had bro
ken down, and that he wanted to look
at some of our stock.
"Glad to see you," he said, when I
introduced myself. "Come and see
why I'm scrapping the other engine."
He took me Into the engine room
and showed me a dismantled engine
a Dorler, it was called and showed
me how it was broken. I pretended
to be Interested, but I wasn't. At first
glance I had noticed two injectors on
that engine which had been made in
the Bronson plant at Bronsonvllle. 1
knew our goods well by this time,
and I knew that the Bronsons were
the only people making those in
jectors. I examined other parts. Prac
tically all of them were Bronson parti,
though they bore the name Dorler
stamped on them.
"Where did you buy this engine?" I
asked.
"From the Dorler company, FUMla
delphia," was the answer.
I hurried right down to Philadel
phia and looked up the Dorler com,
5
pany. It was a small concern, run
ning in an inconspicuous frame fac
tory on the outskirts of town with no
sign or lettering of the firm's name
on the building. I went in and asked
to be etiown their engines. I examined
half a dozen of them." Every one of
them had the same number of Bron
son parts as the one I had seen up
In Albany. .
I went away and utarted back to
Bronsonvllle. . .
"Have you been missing parts out
of the factory lately?" I asked Bron
son. . : '
"Oh, we've been doing that for the
last two years, ever since I became
manager," he said wearily, "Of
course they aren't missing; Carberry
merely dopes up the books and says
they're missing, and everybody thinks
I've balled up things; and then Car
terry looks through the books and
rretends to find the missing parts,
and proves that I was responsible for
the error. That's an old story."
"All right," I said. "Put me to,
work in the shipping room."
He did. I staved there two months,
Nothing went wrong in the daytime,
Then I began to hide myself there at
night. The shipping clerk was an old,
taciturn fellow. One Eight at about
ten he came back, filled two large
cases with valuable parts and sten
cllled them to go to somebody in
Geneseo Junction.
I followed those two cases. At
Geneseo Junction they were received
by a man who scraped the stencilling
and re-shipped them - to the Dorler
company, Philadelphia.
I went up to the man and took him
by the scruff of the neck and 'made
him look me in the eye. "Who told
you to do this?" I said. "Don't get
rash; I'm a detective and the game is
up."
"I ain't dene anything wrong," he
whimpered, after trying in vain to
break loose. "See the shipping clerk;
he's the fellow who's doing this."
"Good," I said, and I had the local
police put him in jail.
I went back to Bronsonvllle and
caught the shipping clerk when he
was alone.
"Who put you up to shipping parts
at night to the Dorler company?" I
asked.
He stared.
"Oh don't put on side," I said. "1
One nlgbf atoziT ten
he came tack.
was hidden in this room when you
filled those two cases that went to
Geneseo Junction, and I. caught your
man up there re-stencilling them. He's
in the coop now and he's squealed.
You're done for; that's all. Cone on
Into Mr. Bronson's office and have a
talk." -He
hung back.
"Come on," I said, shoving a revol
ver against his sldev "This is a seri
ous business."
"Walt," he said. "Have you seen
Mr. Carberry?"
"Good," I said. "We'll see Carberry,
too, but you come along."
I dragged him Into Bronson's office
and threw him into a chair. Then I
went out and called Carberry.
"Mr. Bronson wants to see you," I
said.
When the pair of them the ship
ping clerk and Carberry came face
to face they looked like a couple of
whipped dogs.
"Tell your story," I said to the ship
ping clerk. "Mr. Carberry will be in
terested in hearing it, too."
"Yes," said the man, sneering, "he
ought to; he made me do it."
"Prove it!" screamed Carberry.
"Aw, cut that out!" said the clerk.
"You own the Dorler company from
what you stole out of here."
' "Been stealing for some time, hasn't
be?" I said.
"Has he?" ci lad the man Search
his house. He's got the cellar packea
full' of parts that I've carted up there
nights."
, Bronson called his.car. We dragged
Carberry with us. The clerk came
willingly. We forced our way in past
the old housekeeper. The clerK
showed us a k trapdoor and we found
the cellar literally full of ' valuable
parts from the factory.
v"Oh, well," said Bronson, straighten
lng his shoulders as if a load had been
"taken off them. "I guees there won-t
be much trouble. You feel like retir
ing from business, don't you, Car
berry? Suppose1 you resign on a pen
sion and and leave me to run the
business. I'm willing to forget this,
forget all about It, if you forget some
thing about me."
Carberry is still living In t his old
stone house. He never leaves it now.
He never sees anybody. He is in con
stant terror.
j Bronson Is making good down at the
works. He and I are good friends:
but he says: "Well, it was 'luck. You
were lucky or you'd never have seen
that engine up. In Albany."
"No," I said, "it wasn't luck.- It was
simply a matter of time."
MISSED HER DAYS OF LOVE
With Professional Success, Spinster
Still Considers That Her Life Has
Been an Empty One.
In Harpers Bazar a very intelligent
spinster tells readers why her life Is
empty, notwithstanding her profession
al success. Her words should give
pause to some of the ambitious girls
pining for careers. Read these, for ex
ample: "Even Intellectually I became some
what of a mental outsider. While
other women chatted of opera, dress
and current happenings, I sat in a
corner minus any conversational
equipment. For I had nothing in my
head except my business, and how
could I manufacture interesting chat
out of the auditing of the month's
books or the delinquencies of my
stenographer? If I had only realized
how richly a few magazine subscrip
tions and a few theater tickets would
have repaid me I would have Invested
therein. But I was blind to everything-
except my goal of business success.
"Another thing rather hard to own
but since I have begun confessing I
might as well go on. Although I did
not look for love Love has passed me
by. And I sometimes wonder, as I '
glance at the left hand resting ring
less on my desk, if the: reason has
been that I allowed myself to be alto
gether too much of a "good fellow"
among the men I met. . Oh yes, it was
necessary to be jolly and good-tempered
and able to see a joke, but I
think sometimes I allowed myself to
be well, a little bold. And it Is my
belief that many a bright, earnest, af
fectionate woman eats her heart out
longing for love and home without a
bit realizing that her own frank, chum
my, "don't-let's-stand on-cereroony" atti-:
tude has kept men from ever thinking'
of her except as a "good sort." Ohj
yes, I know it's the fashion to pretend1
that every woman could marry if she
wanted to and that all lonely spinsters.
are independent "bachelor girls" by;
choice, but that isn't life as I have
found it."
NOT ABLE TO ACCEPT OFFER
Young Lady Wittily Replies to Adver-
tlsement That Had Been
Misdirected.
Because a large woolen company
mailed a circular advertising a line of
woolens for trouserings in place of
woolens for ladies skirts to a lady of
Washington, the concern received an
unexpected letter In its correspond
ence. In her reply she deplores the
fact that she is not able to accept the
serings. She says: f
"Relative to the generous offer, I
beg to advise that there seems, unfor
tunately, to be a slight misapprehen
sion as to gender on your part. The
offer itself seems most attractive, and
I regret that nature seconded by our
rather stringent police regulations
has debarred me from the privilege of
alleviating your anxiety to make m
the recipient of your special bargain
prices in trousers. W'ould that it wer
otherwise! Color would be no object,
texture a mere bagatelle, could I con
scientiously take advantage of your
proffered augmentation of my present
somewhat limited wardrobe at your
most cut prices. I'd glory in one of
the 'superb pair' you wish specially to
make according to my plans and speci
fications, as It were, and really the
outlay would not be so great for you.
either, as I am not very long, and I
like things without trimmings any
way. "My heart yearns nay pants to
take advantage of your princely offer,
but, alas! I am not a true gentleman
not even a woman militant." Phila
delphia Record.
All In Fear of Man.
The universal antipathy of animated
nature for man can scarcely be ' ex
plained as the teaching of experience.
Man has played his role of universal
meddler for too short a time to have
impressed himself on the memory of
each individual line. There mst be
something in his attitude of mind that
communicates itself to them and in
duces its proper automatic reflex. The
mouse that runs over the lion's foot
and gnaws at his bone, goes to earth
like a flash when a man comes near;
the bee hangs in the air and then goes :
off because man stands by her favorit'
foxglove; even the witless snake stirs j
in its sun-smitten sleep and is moved
by a feeling in the air to seek its de.
tendon Nation. j