The Poisoned Pen (From the Craig Kennedy series)

at the Insurance Club, one of the many new downtown luncheon club

enough to warrant a tentative reference to the obvious fact that he had had a purpose in inviting us to the club

doing a ripping business-putting up the premium rate about every day i

iled somewhat wearily, I thought. "We are," he replied d

remiums or t

it is variously estimated that the forgers of the country are getting away with from ten to fifteen million dollars a year. It is just one case that I was th

ion dollars?" gasped Ke

e found it diffi

at one fell swoop, of course, but gradually, covering a period of some

g no

me to figure in the case, by having insured their bank against forgery. Of course our liability runs up only to $50,000. But the loss to the company as well as to its bank through this affair will re

s, some clues. You must have taken some action i

we have found that Bolton Brown has been leading a rather fast life, quite unknown to his fellow-officials. We know that he has been speculating secretly in the wheat corner that went to pieces, but the most significant thing is that he has been altogether too intimate with an adventuress, Adele De-Mott, who has had some success as a woman of hig

cter of the forgeri

s to five thousand. They have been so well executed that some of them have been certified by the bank, all of them have been accepted when they came back from other banks, and even the officers of the company don't seem to be able to pic

almost any office boy who comes in with it. The common method of forgers lately has been to take such a certified forged check, deposit it in another bank, then gradually withdraw it in a few days before there is

er of the company?"

e else besides Brown in it, it might be Michael Dawson, the nominal assistant but really the active treasurer. There you have another man

Why?" asked Kennedy,

ary of their honeymoon secret, more as a joke on their friends than anything else, they said, for Miss Sanderson was a well-known beauty and the newspapers bot

forgeries consists not so much in the checks, which interest my company, but in fraudulently issued stock certifi

oman, for women seem to rope in the suckers best in these get-rich-quick schemes. And, well, if it was Dawson the honeymoon has given him a splendid chance to make his get-away, though it a

Kennedy and it would not have taken a clairvoyant t

ially as there seems to be a doubt a

stock certificates were kept in the company's vault in the bank to which, of course, Brown had access. But then, as Carroll argues, Dawson had access to them, too, which is very true-more so for Dawson than for Brown, who was in the bank an

made his headquarters when he was in New York. The whole thing was done with such despatch that I could not help feeling that Carroll had been waiting to hear from his friend in the insurance company. The look of relief on Williams's face when Kennedy said he would go immediately

ter opportunity for speculation, and the banks, as many authorities will agree, have not made enough use of the machinery available to put a stop to embezzlement. This case is evidently one of the results. The careless fellows at the top, like this man Carroll whom we are going to see, generally put forward as excuse the statement that the science of banking and of business is

d until they had become a veritable obsession. It was literally true that they were all that he could talk about

, as he fixed his unnaturally bright eyes on us anxiously. "I've simply got to find the man who has so nearly wrecked the By

ntly out of the window as if he were

ier, Bolton Brown, has been

o have disappeared. Now let me tell you about what I think of that, Kennedy. I know it looks bad for B

deposited in other banks by people whom we can't identify but who must have opened accounts for the purpose of finally putting through a few bad checks. Then they came back to our bank in the regular channels and were accepted. By various kinds of juggling they were covered

y the thing will come back to Dawson and even if he is guilty, it will make me the-er-the ultimate goat. The upshot of it all will be that I shall have to stand the blame, if not the guil

t makes you think that you will find your

the company. This clerk told me that a long time ago Dawson said he had always wanted to go to South America and that perhaps on his honeymoon he might get a chance. This is t

one of them with his wife. What mak

rectly from her folks, who profess to know no better than we do where the couple are. That was an additional reason w

have

come in to-day from Atlantic City and New York. They seem to be in payment of bills, as they are for odd amounts. One is

25th. If he's clever he won't board that ship except in a disguise, for he will know that by that time some one must be watching. Now I want you to help me penetrate that disguise. Of course we can't arrest the who

th excitement as he unfolded his sch

I suppose Dawson was a

No speculating or fast

ow

ret drug fiend. I found that out after he left. In his desk at the By-Products office we discovered hypodermic needle

case unrolled it was assuming one ne

indicate that he had

antic City," re

g under his own name nor, I believe as far as I can find out, even under his own face. I think the fell

o do it, too. You will pardon me if I excuse myself now? There are certain aspects of

e. Of course that sort of game couldn't last forever. Some one was going to demand dividends on his stock, or transfer it, or ask to have it recorded on the books, or something that would give the whole scheme away. From each person to whom he sold stock I believe he demanded some kind of promise not to sell it within a certain period, and in that way we figure that he gave himself plenty of time to realise several hundre

. "And the girl?" he broke in. "She must be in the game or her letters to so

my opinion. Oh, you can be sure that if a proposition like this were put up to her she'd take a chance to get away with it. She runs no risks. She didn't do it an

of the forged certi

ry has been told in print they have

ly engraved certificat

utinised th

to study at my l

rroll, "and if you want

o for

nk you," said Craig. "I shall keep in touch with y

r I could see that Kennedy was thinking out a course of action. The quick pace at which

a bunch of special envelopes which he seemed to be saving for some purpose. He sealed it with som

with him more or less in the past about handwriting I did not have to be told that he was using a microsco

ce they look as good as the real article. Even if they are tracings they are remarkably fine work. It certainly is a fact, h

value in studying abrasions and alterations since it gives depth, in this case tells me that there has been nothing of that sort practised. My colour comparison microscope, which permits the comparison of the ink on two different documents or two places on one document at the same time, tells me something. This instrument with new and accurately coloured glasses enables

a and the microscopic enlarger, as well as this specially constructed document camera with lenses certified by the government. If it com

always some slight room for doubt in these special cases where a man sits down and is in the habit of writing his signature over and over again on one stock or bond after another. He may get so used to it that he does it automatically and his signatures may come pretty close to superimposing. If I had time, though, I think I could demonstrate that there are altog

recommended. The description of the woman with him who seemed to be his wife might have fitted either Mrs. Dawson or Adele DeMott. The only person who had called had been a man who said he represented the By-Products Company and was the treasurer. He had questioned the hotel people rather closely about the whereabouts o

ised and returned by an

em that I represented the By-Products Company in New York and was authorised to investigate the bad check which they had received. They couldn't describe Dawson very well-at least their description would have fitted almost

beards are common enough." Then I re

of making his identification sure, and a peculiar coincidence it is, too. It seems that one night this man and a lady who may have been the former Miss Sanderson, though the description of her like most amateur descr

r not wishing to appear in print in Atlantic City, as many have. The man seemed to notice that the photographer was a little suspicious and he hastened to make some kind of excuse about 'wanting the home folks to see how swell he and his wife were dining in evening dress.' It was a rat

ess on the package which the photographer did not see, and as there was a box for mailing packages right at the door on the boardwalk there was no excuse for not mailing it directly. Now if I could get hold of that plate or a print from it I

y's idea being that if Dawson was a habitual morphine fiend he must have replenished his supply of the dr

What did interest us was that again we crossed the trail of a man with a Van Dyke beard. He had been accompanied by a woman whom the druggist described as rather flashily dressed

ogists have said enough about it, but you don't realise it until you are up against it. Why, that might have been the DeMott woman just as well as the former Miss Sanderson, and

letter which he had addressed to Michael Dawson. On

over slowly and looked a

ack to the postman after he had opened it and found that it was just a note of no importance which I

now he opened

ickly with gum. On the envelope itself was some iron sulphate under more gum. I carefully sealed the letter, using very little moisture. The gum then separated the two p

d he was booked to sail under an assumed name and with an assumed face was to sail the following noon. And still we had no word from Chicago as to the destination of the pho

e he had been released on bail, but that he would be produced when wanted. Adele DeMott had not been seen for several days in Chicago and the police there were of the opinion that s

day had left and the photograph, even though it were found, could not possibly reach us in time to be of use before the

cer of the Telegraph and Telephone Company to whom Williams had given him a card of introduction. The upshot had been that he had called up Chicago and talked for a long time with Professor Clark, a former classmate of

I remarked as we walked slowly over

ent-mindedly, more from pol

n Dyke beard who goes on th

he said simply, "especially as the victim would feel pretty hot if we ca

res under the electric lights of the campus from the str

other contrivances which did not suggest to my mind anything he had ever used before in our adventures. I killed time as best I could watching him adjust the thing with the most minu

apparatus. "In case I do not see you then, get in touch with Williams and Carroll and have them come here about ten o'clock with an automobile. If I am not

before I could see him again. I made a hurried trip downtown to catch Carroll and Williams and then return

tion, though frequent talks over long-distance with Chicago seemed to reassure him. Thanks to the influence

sold the forged certificates of stock. Somewhere in that great city was a photograph of the promoter and of the woman who was aiding him to escape, taken in Atlantic City and sent by mail to Chicago. Who had received it? Would it be found in time to be of use? What would it reveal? It was

et?" appealed an anxious

for our man. It was Carroll who spoke. The strain of the suspense was telling on him and I could readily imagine that he, like

sy about his apparatus on the table.

ur detectives still insist that Bolton Brown is the man to watch, and th

"What's all this stuff on the table?" he asked

reply, for the telephone be

I'll try to repeat as much of the conversation as I can so that you can follow it. Hello-yes-this is Kennedy. Is that you, Clark? It's all arranged at t

an slowly to revolve and the stylus or needle pressed down on the sensitised paper with which the drum was cov

Clark and I have been intending to try it out for a long time. It at last makes possible the electric transmission

band yet, but gradually it was widening, though we could not guess what it wa

ities at various times for some years. Korn's apparatus depends on the ability of the element selenium to vary the strength of an electric current passing through it in proportion to the

been treated with a single-line screen. You know a halftone consists of a photograph through a screen composed of lines running perpendicular to each other-a coarse screen for newspaper work, and a fine screen for better work, such as in magazines. Well, in this case the screen

laimed, thoroughl

t right angles, like the other lines of a regular halftone. Whenever the point of the stylus passes over one of the lighter spots on the photographic print it sends on a longer electrical vibration, over the darker spots a shorter vib

sion which each stroke of the receiving stylus makes on the paper is black or light, according to the length of the very quickly changing vibrations of the electric current. White spots on the photographic print come out as black spots here on the

thing was doing. It was reproducing faithfully in New Y

still half incredulous in spit

ch I think may aid us i

s responsible for the

help us to penetrate

South America or wher

oking at his watch. "She sails in an hour and a half and

get in it and he bribed the photographer to give him the plate and take another picture for the booklet which would leave him out. The plate was sent to a little office in Chicago, discovered by the post-office inspec

klyn waited. "Morphine fiends," said Kennedy as he fanned the print to dry it, "are the most unreliable sort of people. They cover their tracks with almost diabolical cunning. In fact they seem to enjoy it. For instance, t

of the drug have less power to resist physical and mental impressions and they easily succumb to temptations and suggestions from others. Morphine stands unequalled as a perverter of the moral sense. It creates a person whom the father of lies must recognise as kindre

want to go down the bay on a tug you've got to catch Dawson now or never. The morphine business explains,

peculiar case. You have forged the name of the president of your company, but you have also traced your own name very cleverly to look like a forg

as hesitating, nonplussed, until Kennedy reached over unexpectedly and grasped Carroll by the arm. As he shoved u

safely in the custody of his counsel, ready to appear and clear himself as soon as the public opinion which has been falsely inflamed against him subsides. Your plan to give us the slip at the last moment at the wharf and board the steamer for South America has miscarried. It is now too late to catch it,

eard, it was the face of John Carroll, forger and morphine fiend. Next him in the picture in the brilliant and fashionable